{"id":5896,"date":"2024-10-14T23:35:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=5896"},"modified":"2024-10-14T23:35:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T03:35:58","slug":"dead-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/14\/dead-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dead Man <\/strong>(1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miramax\/Western-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 121 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (moments of strong violence, a graphic sex scene, brief nudity, some language, peyote use, general weirdness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Jarmusch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Neil Young \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Robby Muller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 10, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Robert Mitchum, John Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Crispin Glover, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Jared Harris, Eugene Byrd, Mili Avital, Alfred Molina, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Mark Bringleson, John North.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong>\u00a0*** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I got the distinct impression I was the only one at the pre-release screening who liked Jim Jarmusch\u2019s postmodern western Dead Man<\/strong>. Perhaps it\u2019s because I was the only one applauding when it was over. I got some funny stares that night. I can see where mainstream audiences wouldn\u2019t like it. It\u2019s weird. Filmed in monochromatic black and white, it\u2019s a western only in the academic sense. It takes place in the Old West and contains all the usual western motifs and character archetypes. At that point, Jarmusch completely deconstructs the genre to create a truly visionary film. It\u2019s NOT the stuff of a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood oater as you can plainly see.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Johnny Depp (Ed Wood) plays a man called William Blake (yes, just like the 19th century English poet!) who we first meet on a slow train to the small industrial frontier town of Machine where an accounting job supposedly awaits him. Decked out in a ridiculous checkered suit, wire-rimmed glasses and a pork pie hat, it\u2019s a long ride undertaken mostly in silence. He passes the time looking out the window at the bleak landscape, checking out his fellow passengers and staring into space. Finally, somebody talks to him. It\u2019s the train\u2019s soot-covered fireman (Glover, River\u2019s Edge) who informs Blake Machine is the \u201cend of the line\u201d and he\u2019s \u201cjust as likely to find [his] own grave\u201d there. Sounds portentous to me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When Blake finally arrives in Machine, he finds an ugly, dirty place populated by unfriendly people who openly display their hostility towards the stranger. He goes to the metal works factory that hired him only to find out the position was filled by somebody else. When he attempts to speak to the owner John Dickinson (Mitchum in his final role) about it, he tells him to get lost while aiming a shotgun at him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With no job and no money to go back to Cleveland, Blake wanders aimlessly before meeting Thel (Avital, Stargate), a former prostitute turned flower seller who takes him back to her room and into her bed. Unfortunately, her ex-boyfriend Charlie (Byrne, The Usual Suspects) shows up and shoots her dead in a fit of jealousy. The bullet passes through her into Blake, mortally wounding him. He kills Charlie before stealing his horse and riding off into the untamed frontier.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It turns out Charlie is Dickinson’s son and he is one pissed-off old man! He hires a trio of bounty hunters- cannibalistic Cole (Henriksen, Aliens), talkative Conway (Wincott, The Crow) and \u201cThe Kid\u201d (Byrd, Sleepers)- to track down Blake and bring him back dead or alive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, Blake wakens to find a large Native American (Farmer, Powwow Highway) trying to remove the bullet lodged near his heart, too near to be removed successfully. He calls himself Nobody and believes that his new traveling companion is the reincarnation of the poet Blake. Never mind that this Blake has never heard of his namesake. ANYWAY, Blake\u2019s death is imminent. With Nobody acting as his guide, he sets off to his new spiritual destination to accept his fate with hired killers and lawmen in pursuit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What does Dead Man<\/strong> mean? That\u2019s a good question. It could be interpreted in more than one way. It\u2019s obviously an allegory, but for what? I believe Depp\u2019s character is meant to represent a dying way of life with the old frontier giving way to industrialization. Furthermore, the wilderness through which Blake travels with his spiritual guide could be some kind of Purgatory. Their journey is surreal to say the least. It\u2019s also quite violent as they are occasionally compelled to kill people looking to collect the hefty reward promised in exchange for Blake on the wanted posters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One thing I know for certain is that factory owner Dickinson is Satan incarnate. I can support this assertion. Contrary to widespread belief, the phrase \u201cwhat the dickens\u201d has nothing to do with Charles Dickens. It predates the Great Expectations author by at least 200 years. In those days, the word \u201cdickens\u201d was interchangeable with \u201cdevil\u201d. It comes from the term \u201cdevilkin\u201d. Therefore, \u201cwhat the devil\u201d and \u201cwhat the dickens\u201d are basically the same thing. And there you go!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, so Dead Man<\/strong> doesn\u2019t fit neatly into any one interpretation, but that\u2019s precisely the point. Jarmusch wants to keep the viewing audience off-balance. It\u2019ll have you thinking during and long after it. A person could go mad trying to figure it all out it\u2019s so elusive in its meaning (or meanings). Whatever its meaning, there\u2019s no denying Dead Man<\/strong> is a true work of art. The stark images of the natural world bring out both its surface beauty and inherent cruelty. The cinematography by Robby Muller emphasizes the existential loneliness of the two main characters as does the haunting minimalist score by Neil Young. Most of the time, it\u2019s the strumming of a single guitar. If it sounds improvised, that\u2019s because it is. The rocker composed it while watching the movie. The editing by Jay Rabinowitz is quite remarkable too. Instead of cutting to the next scene, he employs blackouts as if they were stanzas of a poem with each one marked by an ominous-sounding guitar riff from Young.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As per usual, Jarmusch assembled an eclectic cast for Dead Man<\/strong>. Depp, playing an Everyman trapped in a bizarre place between life and death, does a wonderful job in the lead. However, it\u2019s Farmer that steals the show as Nobody who talks in New Age-y terms as he guides the \u201cstupid f***ing white man\u201d to his final resting place. Like Blake, he too is an outcast among his own people. He explains that his mother and father were from different tribes which made him a reject. He further explains his capture by white men, stint as a circus attraction and education in England where he developed his love for the poet\/painter Blake. He\u2019s the one that provides most of Jarmusch\u2019s trademark droll humor. The cool supporting cast also includes John Hurt (The Elephant Man) as the office manager at the factory and Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade), punk rocker Iggy Pop (Tank Girl) and Jared Harris (I Shot Andy Warhol) as a trio of trappers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Dead Man<\/strong> is a movie that will only appeal to a limited audience. It’s simply too strange for some tastes. It\u2019s true it moves at a slow pace, but that\u2019s intentional. Jarmusch wants us to meditate on what we see and hear. It\u2019s not so much a movie as it is an experience of the mind. It\u2019s a change of pace for the director typically known for deadpan comedies like Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train and Night on Earth. He takes a classic American genre and sets it in a Kafkaesque universe where the bizarre is considered normal. It\u2019s a unique vision marked by references to the poet Blake\u2019s work and aspects of 20th<\/sup> century culture- e.g. the two marshals chasing Blake are named \u201cLee\u201d and \u201cMarvin\u201d. I\u2019d even say Dead Man<\/strong> is poetic. I\u2019ve always enjoyed bizarre movies; this one occupies its own level of weirdness. I haven\u2019t figured it all out yet and maybe I never will, but that\u2019s what makes it great!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dead Man (1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miramax\/Western-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 121 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (moments of strong violence, a graphic sex scene, brief nudity, some language, peyote use, general weirdness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Jarmusch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Neil Young \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Robby Muller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 10, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Robert Mitchum, John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weird-ones","category-westerns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Dead-Man-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5896"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6118,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896\/revisions\/6118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}