Dead Man

This is not dead man movie

Excuse me but 17,956 IMDb votes, 5,556 of them being 10's, for a film that was a box office and DVD failure strikes me as studio-fed corruption of this website. I have no clue how IMDb can prevent such input and still allow regular moviegoers to rate their films. JOHNNY DEPP can be interesting to watch even in a bad movie, and that's why I chose this for my Blockbuster free rental. In this so-called story, DEPP arrives in an Arizona frontier town expecting a job as an accountant. When he finds out from Robert Mitchum (herein a certified raving lunatic) there is no job, he soon rescues a pretty girl who's been tossed into a mud puddle. Love sparks; but then the girl is shot by her ex-fiancé, as Depp returns fire. He'll be pursued by 3 bounty hunters, therein the plot setup. DEPP soon meets an Indian named Nobody, who teaches DEPP many things; but none of them is that when escaping bounty hunters it's better to gallop than just stroll along at a slow-ride. One thing leads to another and we'll get a transvestite scene, a homosexual scene, a few murders, a cannibal scene (roast arm and hand), a bare-butt fat guy scene, and a canoe paddling scene --- all of this moving along at a snail's crawl and is in no way Daring! Mysterious! Exciting! On the contrary, Jim Jarmusch has created a film of willful and unparalleled stupidity --- not giving away the plot --- but moving from one stupid scene to another without a trace of intelligent film-making. As the characters mosey along for 7 or 8 days at maybe 5 mph, they eventually end up in western Canada (British Columbia) -- the land of many lakes and totem poles --- which, as we all know, is in the north end of Arizona. The film supposedly has a Sizzling Soundtrack by Neil Young. In fact, it's the kind of humdrum random guitar strumming used in most born-to-be-awful westerns. The good part is that according to the box the film is 121 minutes, but in fact it ends after 1 hour 51 minutes.

The emperor has no clothes. What is everyone talking about in these great reviews? I can certainly enjoy a film out of the ordinary (pacing, b/w, editing, etc.) -- but this? It's clumsy. Stilted. And certainly not believable in any sense. I strongly suspected something was amiss in the first five minutes when the train ride west was belabored and cut awkwardly to the point of eliciting laughter. Being different doesn't automatically equal being good. I wouldn't normally write to disparage someone's work -- but this film needs some balance in the reviews.

William Blake is an accountant who travels deep into the west of America to the frontier town of Machine to take up a job with a metal company. He travels on the train for many days but when he arrives he is told that his job has been given to another man. Not sure what to do with himself he gets involved with a girl when her boyfriend, Charles, returns home to find her. He kills her and Blake is forced to kill him in return. He flees the town but collapses only to wake with the Indian Nobody nursing him and telling him he is dead. With a bounty on his head, Nobody leads Blake to the water where he will cross to the next world. I first saw this film when it came out in a (now sadly closed) art cinema in Birmingham. I have only seen it twice since then but it has always stayed with me and made such an impact on me. The plot is little more than a journey, a journey that is never really explained or put into any context. However it is the sheer imagination and atmosphere of the film that prevents this being a problem. The precredit sequence of the film will tell you everything you need to know - if you are intrigued by the scene, taken by the atmosphere and gripped by the intense train driver, then you will love the rest of the film. The scenes continue with the dark foreboding atmosphere and the strange but gripping cast of characters. It is here where the film happens and it is all the better for it. The support cast of cameos are all great and their characters include a silent hitman, a chatty hitman, a travelling group of homosexual rapists, a prophetic train driver and a gun crazy businessman. If this gives the impression of a `wacky' film, then trust me it is not - it is not funny, it is spellbinding. The characters come and go but they are so imaginatively drawn that they all remain memorable. Jarmusch's direction helps this as he gives everything an unique visual touch. The photography is beautiful and framed really well in black and white - visually the film stayed with me since I first saw it, it was so distinctive. Of course it may not have managed that without the haunting and menacing score from Neil Young. It works so very well and is part of the reason the film stays with me. Now that he is `Oscar Nominee Johnny Depp' and not just `Johnny Depp' it is interesting to look back on this film and pleasing to see that his ability to find out worthy pieces has not diminished with the odd bigger film here and there. He is the wide eyed innocence here and is very much just the vessel we use to sail through other characters. As an actor, he impresses with his willingness to play a low key role while the support cast shine in colourful characters. Farmer is good in his Nobody role while the best roles go to the main bounty hunters - violent and sullen Henriksen and the funny chatty Wincott. Glover shows what a real intense performance is and is creepier here than all his efforts in the Charlie's Angels `films'. The support cast features memorable turns from Hurt, Mitchum, Molina, Iggy Pop and Billy Bob Thornton. They, along with the visuals and music, are what makes this film so very memorable. Overall, this is not for everyone and I'm sure it will frustrate many with it's seeming lack of plot and lack of traditional narrative. However it is hard not to be taken in by the gorgeous black and white images presented here with the haunting score and a journey that takes in one colourful character after another. It may not have much substance if you're after plot but it will stick in your mind.

Jim Jarmusch is one of my favorite directors, and Dead Man is probably the greatest work he has ever done. Very rarely does a film come alive with a sense of poetry. The only other film I can compare it to would be Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire. The film moves like a dream, floating and spinning around you. Neil Young's electric score churns like a ghost train and pushes the film farther. There isn't one performance that is wrong, nor is there ever a false moment. From start to finish this film pulls you into it's dream land, and carries you along on clouds until the finish.

First of all, you have to be a Jarmusch fan. If you walk comfortably through that door, you'll find he does a bang-up job with this existential Western. So does Johnny Depp, who plays the lead--a lost unemployed accountant in the old west who happens to be named William Blake. Gary Farmer, the Indian from Ghost Dog and The Score, calls himself Nobody because he doesn't like his given name that means "one who talks much and says nothing." Nobody serves as William Blake's savior, doctor, guide and boatman "across the river." Neil Young wrote and performed the score. Blake's nemesis is played by Lance Henriksen as a terse cannibalistic bounty hunter. Delightful cameos include Robert Mitchum, Crispin Glover, Gabriel Byrne, John Heard and others. Symbolism abounds--there are shooting stars, down-shots of a hellish factory where Blake wanders looking for a way out, mines and factories of "white-man's metal," plenty of dead animals, including a small doe that Depp lies down with after decorating his face with its blood. But the movie doesn't fall into the trap of making white men the fall guys for everything wrong with the world in which Blake and Nobody try to make a living. Nobody mistreats Blake's bullet wound and is arguably responsible for his ultimate predicament. Nobody isn't worldly, despite having seen Europe in his youth. He believes the same white people were in every town he visited. The northwest tribe visited at the end were petty people who obviously thought Blake and Nobody were not worth their attention, evidenced by Nobody's imprecations to "walk proud" to the mortally-wounded Blake, and his nervousness at what might happen if he didn't. And of course, there is Nobody's innocent belief that the hapless accountant is the historical poet and artist. Held together with Young's musical score--mixed a tad loud for my taste--and the deterioration of the finances and health of William Blake, Dead Man is more than a picaresque, but the overall theme is elusive. Motifs are another story, and are liberally sprinkled throughout. Perhaps that's the point, ultimately--in the face of death, nothing else matters, and all the symbols and themes add up to nothing, driving the story from existential to nihilistic. Personal friendship, religion, wealth, work, technology, tribe, humanity, God, love--all mean nothing or are actively detrimental. For a movie named "Dead Man," that's not an unreasonable interpretation. Depp is an ideal actor to portray the reluctant gunslinger, and his personality does more to hold the film together than any other single factor. The camera loves him, and his ability to portray a variety of responses to his predicaments, from confusion, surprise and anger to amusement, disappointment and ultimately resignation is the heart of this thoroughly enjoyable film.

This film is so poorly done it confuses people that it is good. People who fall for the "emperor's new clothes" syndrome will love this film. Hey guys, noboby is going to think you are ignorant if you admit the truth and state the obvious..."this film stinks". Interior stories sometimes make great novels but they make terrible movies, period, end of sentence!

Quite simply one of the worst films I have ever seen, and I've seen A LOT. I cannot believe some critics actually liked this dreck (Greil Marcus what the hell is wrong with you?). I enjoyed Stranger Than Paradise and after seeing Coffee and Cigarettes in the theaters recently I figured I'd check out another Jarmusch film and I'd been meaning to see Dead Man for a while. This is one of the most pretentious, boring and ridiculous films ever made. There's maybe a minute and a half of actual quality in a LONG two hours. I never saw Ghost Dog because the trailer simply make it LOOK like one of the worst movies ever made; Dead Man, unfortunately, is one of the worst. Honestly, I rent from Netflix, multiple films a week, I watch movies on cable, I go to the theaters, and I haven't been subjected to anything this pathetically bad in years. I honestly cannot recall the last time I saw a film this bad. Sometimes I see a film and say, OK, it's overrated, I don't know why people think this is such a great film, but with Dead Man, I felt like shutting it off 15 minutes in and I have a lot of patience and am almost never tempted to actually stop watching a film. Hell, I never even post stuff on IMDb, but this was so bad that it motivated me to. Sean Hooks

This film is half the reason I stopped being an investment banker and became a film-maker. I have seen it at least ten times, and each time I discover more depth and beauty. I have show this film to many people, and most unfortunately do not see in it what I see. I feel sorry for them that I cannot give them my eyes, because I know that what I see in this film is really there. For me this is one of the best films I have ever seen. Subtle in its beauty and magnificence. If you see it and don't love it, I say see it again.

Good movie!