Dead Man
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Movie Reviews of Dead Man
Movie Review: UNEXPECTED.....
Summary: 5 Stars
I stumbled upon Dead Man only because I recently purchased an HDTV and now recieve HD channels, notably a channel called filmfst(more on the HD thing later).
I was surfing through my new HD channels when I came across Dead Man. My responses, in a nutshell:
After about 2 minutes-'What the hell is this? I don't remember this movie'.
After 5 minutes-'Man, this movie is REALLY WIERD!'
After 15 minutes, I found myself backing up to watch scenes a 2nd and sometimes 3rd time. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.
After about an hour, I'd decided this was one of the better movies I'd EVER SEEN. Dead Man has got to be one of the most underrated movies ever made. It is a visually stunning movie. It is at times hilarious-the campfire scene with Iggy Pop and Billy Bob Thornton is classic-and at the same time brutal. Gary Farmer as the Indian Nobody is excellent. And Mili Avital, who is very pretty to begin with, is absolutly beautiful(for about 10 too-short minutes) in black and white as the girl who causes Blake's problems to begin. The fact that the movie was shot in black and white greatly adds to the dismal mood of the story. Getting back to the HD part, this movie is absolutly stunning in high definition. If you can watch it in HD, do so. Great movie!
Movie Review: A profoundly spiritual film
Summary: 5 Stars
Bleak, violent, surreal, and beautiful -- this film has been summarized by many other customer reviewers, so I won't repeat the plotline here. All I can say is that every time I watch this movie I am more deeply moved than I was the previous time, and more unsettled. My personal take is that this is a bardo, an account of a soul's journey through the land of the dead, with William Blake pursued relentlessly by hungry ghosts and demons. The movie works on many more levels than just this, but it leaps out at me again and again -- the fact that nearly everyone he meets asks him for tobacco, the vision of Blake as a skeleton, the opening train sequence which symbolizes his journey through life as a passive observer who is never really forced to take control of his destiny until he is already dead. It is a story, too, of spiritual transformation -- of learning to release attachment to the earthly realm when it is time to do so. Not only William Blake is transformed, but so are all those he meets along the way, including the film's viewer.Definitely not for the typical American filmgoer or maybe even for the typical person, but a must-see for anyone with a serious interest in spirituality, or anyone who can appreciate different levels of symbolism.
Movie Review: Stupid F***ing White Man
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a personal favorite of mine. It mixes tragedy, pathos, mystery, and bizarre comedy in a way that is so disjointed it makes perfect sense.
Depp was marvelous in this. He made some great career choices; the main one being that he rejected "pretty boy" roles. Yet his William Blake character is an almost surealist parody of the very typecast he avoided.
Robert Mitchum was hilarious as the homocidal industrialist Mr. Dickenson
Gary Farmer stole every scene he was in. This was another role that thumbed its nose at typecasting. Yet Farmer's character Nobody, having endured all manner of humiliations his whole life, emerged as an arguably genuine holy man in his tradition. A little off beat, but the real deal.
The one liners alone are worth watching the movie.
"The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn from the crow."
"Don't let the sun burn a hole in your ass."
"That weapon will replace your tongue. You will learn to speak through it. And your poetry will now be written with blood."
And of course the inimmitable "Well Sally, I don't give a pig's ass what anybody says, I still say you make a hell of a pot of beans."
Movie Review: An action masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not fond of the "main character goes around killing everyone featuring steroetypical bad guys" type action movie, but sometimes they are just done so well or originally that they are oddly entertaining. Dead Man is definitely one of those. Johnny Deep plays William Blake, an accountant who is stuck at "the end of the line" with no job and no money. To make matters worse he then gets caught in a love triangle that ends with 2 of the members dead. The other male in the triangle just happens to be the son of a wealthy man who wants revenge. And so William Blake becomes a 'Dead Man'. The story moves along and the body count begins to grow, all pushed along by brilliant music and quirky directorial stuff. Johnny Depp keeps collecting 'white mans metal' and travelling around with no real goal as bad guys continuosly try to kill him.
With that plot the movie seems kind of weak, but it is done in an artsy and original enough way to make it entertaining all the way through. The movie is funny without trying too hard to be, and the tension grows whenever the director wants it to. Overall it is worth the watch, and should go up there with Tarrantino films for how action movies can be done in a way that is quite entertaining.
Movie Review: One Of My Favorites
Summary: 5 Stars
I also think that Amazon should be ashamed of allowing their reviewer to give such a negative review. I can see if the guy had given an abundance of details to support the reasons why he hated the film so much, but to rattle off a couple of generalities about "Dead Man" is atrocious of him.
I loved "Dead Man." I just saw "Pirates of the Carribean 2," and I'm glad that great actors like Johnny Depp are allowed to flex their creative muscle in real roles instead of cookie-cutter Hollywood roles. I do admit to anyone interested in viewing "Dead Man" that so far, the majority of people I attempted to introudce the film to did not like it. This movie is made for a very particular audience, and I'm not sure if even the director can pin-point exactly who this audience is.
I loved everything about this movie, even the black & white, and I normally hate black & white movies. But "Dead Man" in color would have killed so much of the effect. I loved the characters, like Nobody, and the ruthless bounty hunters. Johnny Depp plays one of the most tragic individuals introduced to audiences in a long time.
This movie could not have been better. I consider it to be a masterpiece of art.