:
Johnny Depp,
Johnny Depp,
Gary Farmer,
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Jim Jarmusch,
Jim Jarmusch
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: 
: Miramax
: Independent, Quest, Road Movies, Westerns
: 121 min.
: English
: French
see additional details...
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A dark, bitter commentary on modern American life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, a newly-orphaned accountant who leaves his home in Cleveland to accept a job in the frontier town of Machine. Upon his arrival, Blake is told by the factory owner Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) that the job has already been filled. Dejectedly, he enters a nearby tavern, ultimately spending the night with a former prostitute. A violent altercation with the woman's lover (Gabriel Byrne), also Dickinson's son, leaves Blake a murderer as well as mortally wounded, a bullet lodged dangerously close to his heart. He flees into the wilderness, where a Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer) mistakes Blake for the English poet William Blake and determines that he will be Blake's guide in his protracted passage into the spirit world. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
You might also enjoy:
Stranger Than Paradise
a.k.a., "Dead Pan"; Jarmusch's first indie feature
High Plains Drifter
Eastwood's man with no name returns in this bleak Western
Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Robert Altman's own cynical deconstruction of Western mythology and American history
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| Brilliance wraped up in silence.
by speakreflection
October 4, 2006 - 2:27 PM PDT
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4 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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I couldn't write a complete review in just 1000 words. I would also be repeating a lot of the words from the previous reviews.
This movie with a plot that can only be tasted not seen is what every filmmaker should make. Not a whole series of them, but at least one film that follows a meaning not just given to the masses.
Johnny Depp is brilliant in his naive nature and later on his awakening. With Gary Farmer leading him to a restful place, this black and white film bleeds color all over the soul.
The soundtrack with Neil Young playing ever so eloquently breathes more life into a already brimming film.
Thank you Mr Jarmusch. |
| Wise, somber, beautifully done
by MGrau
January 3, 2005 - 11:42 PM PST
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10 out of 10 members found this review helpful
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| A movie where you know from the beginnning that the protagonist will die is not perhaps the most entertaining or enticing. But the story is told in such beautiful, deadpan, style, mixing the tragedy of human existence and cruelty with forms of love and care for the dying that are amazing. The odd bonds between the Depp character and the Native American who picks him up and takes care of him are both funny and movingly spiritual. I highly recommend it. This is powwow highway set in black and white and a 150 yrs. back. |
| Metaphysical western
by MConlon
August 19, 2003 - 10:58 AM PDT
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5 out of 9 members found this review helpful
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| I found this on one of GreenCine's lists, saying of the movie, "Only Jim Jarmusch would attempt to make a black and white metaphysical western...." Technically the "black and white" part makes this true, but Alejandro Jodorowski did one first, in color, in the 70s. "El Topo," oddly missing from GC's selection (er... due, I'm told, to the fact that legal versions are not available in DVD yet, no fault of GC, who would have it if they could...), is a metaphysical western on a much grander and stranger scale. Track down this true cult classic for a rare treat. Dead Man is good, El Topo is better. |
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