Dead Man
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Crispin Glover, Gary Farmer, Johnny Depp, Lance Henriksen, Michael WincottBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
Published: 2000-12-01
DVD Release Date: 2000-12-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of Dead Man
Movie Review: Dead Man - "a tale of adventure in the wild, wild West"?
Summary: 5 Stars
Jim Jarmusch is unique among American filmmakers in that he is one of the rare few who owns the negatives for all his films and has final cut on the work he releases. When accepting an award on behalf of Robby Müller, Dead Man's cinematographer, Jarmusch was openly critical of the way in which Miramax, the film's distributor, had mishandled the film at the time of its release. His contention was that when he refused to allow them to recut the film to make it more commercial they dumped it on the market without the kind of support a slow-paced black and white art film would need to find its audience (see Jonathan Rosenbaum's fascinating book, "Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Conspire to Limit What Films We Can See" for more on this subject). The mishandling seems to have continued. For example, the film's description on the DVD case is as follows: "Johnny Depp delivers a remarkable performance in this highly acclaimed tale of adventure in the wild, wild West! A young man in search of a fresh start, William Blake, embarks on an exciting journey to a new town...never realizing the danger that lies ahead. But when a heated love triangle ends in double murder, Blake finds himself a wanted man running scared..." This summary is remarkable because although it sort of presents the basic plot elements of the film, it distorts them to make the film seem something radically different from what it really is. In presumably attempting to sell the movie by misrepresenting it as an action-packed western it undermines its more subtle, but deeper, virtues and sets up a disappointment for the action-film audience while simultaneously failing to reach the audience that would seek an art film.
Jarmusch's sixth feature film (if you don't count the previously shown early segments of "Coffee and Cigarettes" or the initial short film version of "Stranger Than Paradise"), is a significant leap forward from his previous work both thematically and stylistically. The film follows two lost souls, one an accountant, who happens to be named William Blake, and the other a Native American outcast named Nobody (brilliantly played by Gary Farmer) who mistakes Blake for the great 19th century poet of the same name. The story starts with Blake taking a train out west to accept a job. He arrives at the town at the end of the line to find the job has been given to someone else and without money is unable to make his way back home. Adrift, he meets a young woman, who sells paper flowers in the taverns, and that evening ends up in her bed only to be confronted by her estranged husband. A clumsy exchange of gunfire ensues, the woman and her husband are killed and Blake is mortally wounded. He manages to get on a horse and gallops out of town only to later awaken with a large Native man probing his chest with a knife in an attempt to extract the bullet next to his heart. The two form an unlikely friendship, drawn to each other by their being cast out from the worlds they've inhabited, Blake because he's being chased by bounty hunters for the murders he allegedly committed, Nobody because he's the product of the joining of two tribes that have long been at war with each other.
Their journey might be a spiritual one but it's never clear how much the Blake character understands about what is happening to him and how much is meaning imposed on him by Nobody. Along the way, Jarmusch critiques violence in America and the attempted genocide of Native Americans while exploring his characteristic theme of disorientation from the surrounding culture. Unique in the entire Western genre, "Dead Man" also paints a portrait of Native Americans that is richly detailed and not merely politically correct. The film is hypnotically paced and filled with images that are hallucinatory in their beauty. "Dead Man" was arguably not only the best film of 1995 but also one of the best American films of its decade. Even after repeated viewings it somehow manages to retain its mystery.
Summary of Dead Man
On the run after murdering a man accountant william blake encounters a strange indian named nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/07/2004 Starring: Johnny Depp Crispin Glover Run time: 121 minutes Rating: RSimilar DVD Movies
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