Dead Man is a 1995 American movie written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It is a Western-Drama-Fantasy with Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer, shot entirely in black and white. Johnny took his hat from Benny and Joon and carried magisterially on.
I always wanted to feature Jim Jarmusch in Movie Personalities, because I’m a huge fan. I’m going to treat this more seriously. Like all his other movies (I think I have seen them all), Dead Man is a cult movie.
It is a fantastic story pictured as a Western, with a soundtrack composed and performed by Neil Young, so some said about it that it’s a Psychedelic Western. The most notable character beside the one played by Depp is an “injun”, a picturesque Native American, played very naturally by Gary Farmer, who quite is a Native American in reality.
Dead Man – Johnny Depp, Mili Avital
[source: imdb]
Johnny Depp (“William Blake” like the poet) plays an accountant from Cleveland, who rides by train to the town of Machine to assume a promised job as an accountant. During the trip, a Fireman played by Crispin Glover warns Depp against the enterprise. Arriving in town, he went to the offices and John Hurt, who plays some manager there, scoffingly tells him that his position has been filled. Depp tries to talk with the owner (“John Dickinson”), and is driven from the workplace at gunpoint by Robert Mitchum, who actually plays the ferocious owner of the company. Without money or prospects, Depp meets Mili Avital (“Thel Russell”), a former prostitute who sells paper flowers. She takes him home. Thel’s former or actual boyfriend (doesn’t matter, it’s not explicit) played by Gabriel Byrne (named “Charlie”), enter the room in the morning and surprises them in bed. He shoots at Depp/Blake, and killing Thel when she tries to shield Blake with her body. Blake is also wounded and he shoots and kills Charlie with Thel’s gun. After that, he climbs out the window and flees Machine on Byrne’s horse.
Company-owner Dickinson (Mitchum in his last role) is Charlie’s father, and he hires three legendary killers, Lance Henriksen (as “Cole Wilson”), an infamous bounty hunter, Michael Wincott (as “Conway Twill”), a talkative bounty hunter, and Eugene Byrd (as Johnny “The Kid” Pickett), a young bounty hunter, to bring Blake dead or alive, and the stolen horse as well.
Dead Man – DVD Cover
Blake after he lost a ton of blood and also his conscience, awakens to find a large American Indian attempting to dislodge the bullet from his chest. The Indian, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake’s heart to remove, and Blake is effectively a walking dead. When he learns Blake’s full name, Nobody decides Blake is the poet William Blake, whom he idolizes. Nobody decides to escort Blake to the Pacific Ocean to return him to his proper place in the spirit-world.
Here the adventure starts, and the legend is born. Before the end, in the movie appear Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Molina. I haven’t recognized Thornton, but maybe that was the point. I have a feeling than nobody recognized his three seconds act.
Movie was presented at Cannes in 1995, is rated 7.9 on imdb and runs for 120 minutes. Very entertaining and highly recommended. Good, very good soundtrack.
You will enjoy it a lot.
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