Dead Man
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Movie Reviews of Dead Man
Movie Review: Some are born to endless night
Summary: 5 Stars
If taken at surface value this movie will feel slow, discomforting, you will kiss it off as "pretentious" and most likey will hate it. Further, Neil Young's beating, emphatic soundtrack, you will conclude, is nothing but an assault on your ears, unwelcome noise which insinuates itself into the movie and distracts from its dramatic content. But these are facile, unexamined conclusions blowing in the wind. If you let yourself flow with Jarmusch's quirky vision of a cosmos informed by the mystic poet William Blake...well this movie will intoxicate you. You will recognize it for the small masterpiece that it is. Johnny Depp as the poet's namesake gives a brilliant, nuanced performance (his eyes say it all). As a traveler in unfamilar territory with only a nascent consciousness of the world, he soon becomes a victim of the reflexive, mechanical violence practiced by one human being upon another. There are also elements of the black, screw ball comedy propelled by the divine intervention of karmic forces. Dean Man is a trip in many ways. See it more than once; it gives you something more with each viewing.Movie Review: Not a single extraneous shot
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished watching this movie again and was really surprised to see the negative review given by Tom Keogh of Amazon (whoever he is). If Tom can only describe the superficial events of the story without recognizing the broader themes, then he is really missing out. I am always amazed at how much storytelling punch Jim Jarmusch manages to pack into so few scenes- minimalism at its best. He encapsulates the human experience in just a few short strokes- the innocence of the young as they make their way out into the world, taking the first long journey alone, seeing new & strange lands/people, encountering the decadence of the city, treachery in big business, enduring ridicule, sharing fragile dreams with another and seeing those dreams slip away. In the end, William Blake is transformed from innocence to maturity and understands the necessity and tragedy of it. Chances are pretty good that Tom Keogh did not understand that the dead baby deer was a symbol of William Blake's lost innocence; much less some of the other metaphors presented here. A great, great movie.Movie Review: Dead Man: An Eccentric Surprise
Summary: 5 Stars
For those of us from the communities that attend first nations ceremony, this film is a treat and a surprise. Native artist friends often complain that they must insert an "indian guy" somewhere within their work so as to be ensured of entry into various "indian art" shows. One friend paints exquisite planetary visions, Jupiter or Saturn looming fantastically in smoothly-bent and synthetic Earthlines.... but he must always carefully put a guy on a horse somewhere... or it's not Native art to the juries. And so this film takes iconic images and bends them around, from the soundtrack, the contrasty production values and segues, to the fantastically internally-referenced performance of Gary Farmer.
Every last personage is freed to deliver surprises: Neil Young wrote that soundtrack? Yup. Gary Farmer did WHAT with his hat? Yum. The final scenes must be watched carefully again and again to be mined for subtle resonances.
It's a beaut. I rarely watch a film more than a couple of times over long stretches. Dead Man is worth visits again and again.
Movie Review: Masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
I teach photography and I show this film to my intermediate students as an example of B&W cinema. I have seen this film over twenty times and I am riveted every single time. The photography, the dialogue, the acting are superb. The subtle poetry is wonderful. This is a truly American classic, about America that we can be as proud of as Citizen Kane.
Like Citizen Kane, this film is quite dark, but only as it does not deny any reality of the characters or story. This film detaches itself completely from stereotypes and metanarratives. This was one of the only films created by a white that has received acceptance and praise from Native American film critics (no...Indians hate 'Dances w/ Wolves, in case you thought otherwise, which this film is certainly nothing like). This film is culturally sensitive as it is culturally very accurate to the variety of Native American cultures and Languages.
Buy it, or at least rent it. You won't be disappointed. There is also a book written about it by Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
Movie Review: GREAT MOVIE so-so DVD release
Summary: 5 Stars
I agree with all the other gushings about this movie listed here. I saw it several times in the theater when it was first released, and was simply mesmerized. Like few other movies, I was involved in the story, felt as if I was floating above it like some waiting spirit. Jim Jarmusch has some fairly good movies to his credit - this is my favorite. When will they release "Down By Law" on DVD? Anyway, "Dead Man" has the standard fair of extras - a couple of deleted scenes, a music video, but no trailer? On chapter eight of this DVD, the movie seems to get staggered, apparently a bad transfer into the digital format. It looks as if frames were removed, making the scene (one of the best in the movie) seem like a silent movie. I returned it several times, and all copies had this problem. I haven't seen anything out there about this, but I wish they would correct it. Oh well, I imagine this movie will go out of print in a year or two anyway. The paying audience should be satisfied it was released on DVD at all...