DEAD MAN (1995)

DEAD MAN (1995)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Adventure / Western

Director: Jim Jarmusch

Cast: Johnny Depp / Gary Farmer / Lance Henrikson

Plot

When an accountant journeys to the Western town of Machine in search of work, he finds himself accused of murder, shot, and on the run.  Assisted by a quirky Native American named Nobody, he travels through the wilderness as three bounty hunters pursue.

What I Like
*spoiler alert!*

“Dead Man” is clearly meant to be a film about a spiritual journey.  There are all kinds of metaphors one could read into this film which seems to make simplicity its guiding principle.  The most obvious could see the big factory that dominates Machine as Hell and tall, lanky, decrepit Robert Mitchum (the factory and town boss) as Satan; the three bounty hunters sent after the hero as demons; the Native American guide Nobody as an angel.  Which of course makes the hero’s travel out of Machine, through a seemingly endless wilderness, and finally to the sea as a metaphor for spiritual salvation.

That’s just one of many interpretations for a story that never really fleshes out beyond the skeleton of a plot.  As main character William Blake (not to be confused with the eighteenth and nineteenth century poet and artist who is referenced several times throughout the film) seems to be leaving a sort of Hell on a wandering journey through nature, where he encounters a variety of strange and sometimes dangerous characters, there is also a similarity between “Dead Man” and ancient epics like ‘The Odyssey.”

The filmmakers did an excellent job of accentuating the loneliness of the journey with the lifeless interior and exterior landscapes, black and white photography, and the grizzled characters.  Johnny Depp is excellent as Blake, whose personality slowly but steadily changes from befuddled, frightened business clerk to a world weary man of nature.  And Lance Henrikson is suitably menacing as the nastiest of the three bounty hunters (The man is a damn cannibal!).

What I Didn’t Like

Very little if any of “Dead Man” seems authentic and believable, though I’m not sure any of it was meant to be.  As mentioned above, the movie feels like it is one big metaphor and concerns about reality and historic accuracy clearly took a back seat on the priority list when it came to expressing that metaphor.  The guide Nobody seems completely contrived, particularly his background story.  The cameos from people like Gabriel Byrne, Billy Bob Thornton, and Iggy Pop don’t help either, as the scenes in which they appear feel like what they are: scenes written for a low budget, independent film with some well-known indie actors thrown in to give the movie a ‘cool’ factor.  Much of the dialogue and acting (Depp and Henrikson aside) feel like they’re not part of the Old West in any way but are just parts of a 1990s independent film that happened to have the Old West as a backdrop. The same could be said of Neil Young’s playing the electric guitar soundtrack, which, while sparse, is sometimes overly dramatic for the scene it accompanies. 

Worst of all, the film progresses very slowly and action is minimal.  I could not wait for the movie to draw to its eventual end, which was admittedly interesting to watch but also very anti-climactic.  When it finished, I was still wondering why this film deserved placement among the 1000 others in the book.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5