Dead Man (1996)

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Good start, but then it gets ruined

disgusting, overrated, pointless

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

In Dead Man we have Jarmusch's trademark sense of humour and he's on top form here. I must confess that I initially watched this film to see Mr Depp in action. These days I'm a little tired of watching him, so if you find the energy to turn back to the best days of Johnny when he acted in great films then this is an ideal example.The tobacco line is as legendary as anything written by the Coen Brothers. Then there's the STupid White Man lines from the fake Red Indian and their references to William Blake the poet. It's all very funny in a light way. What makes Dead Man better than Jim's other movies is the stunning, rocky soundtrack and the brilliant black-and-white visuals. It's not a movie to learn the meaning of life, but it's a real memorable experience, almost psychedelic at times. You'd expect that when he enters Red Indian territory. And this time, you couldn't cast anyway as perfect as Johnny Depp for the role.

In choosing between two words - "perplexing" or "pretentious" - to describe this flick, I'm unsure which is more appropriate. I was drawn to it by the presence of Johnny Depp and of Robert Mitchum, despite the flurry of negative reviews. Now I understand those reviews. I almost stopped watching after the first ten minutes, which are wordless, and do nothing but show - in successive takes of no more than a minute or so each - the changing ridership of a train car in which Depp's character, William Blake, is traveling. This sets the tone for most of the movie, which will be presented, annoyingly, in brief clips, some no longer than twenty seconds. The first words spoken, addressed to Blake, are cryptic and opaque, again setting the tone for the movie. If you wonder about the reference to William Blake, the British poet and painter, you would be on point, although the nature of the relationship of Depp's character to the real Blake is still unclear at the end. The film looks like some sort of metaphor for the passage from life (gee, might that river being crossed be the Styx?), but as soon as it seems to fix on this idea a scene of knee-slapping humor will intrude (these humorous bits are actually the most appealing parts of the movie). The actor chosen to play the Indian spiritual guide looks as much like an Indian as I do an alpaca, but that might be part of the humorous angle. The second most annoying aspect of the movie after the short takes is the musical score, for distorted acoustic guitar, which is obviously a reference to Western oaters of yore and is very soon grating. Having said all that the movie is like a train wreck - you can't take your eyes off it, even though you want to.The movie succeeds in making you want to see how it all turns out, and I watched to the end, which is, alas, as cryptic as most of what preceded it.

Exactly what kind of journey is "Dead Man?" Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's longtime fascination with finding and living the American Dream amidst a landscape of lawlessness and randomness takes a most exotic turn in his 1995 film starring Johnny Depp. Whether the main character is already dead and traveling to eternal rest or on an inevitable trajectory to death is just one of the film's big questions."Dead Man" gravitates between a spiritual plane and a firmly rooted, quite visceral Western landscape. Depp's William Blake anxiously awaits his arrival in Machine, at the farthest end of the Western frontier (sometime in the late 1800s), when he's confronted by the train's fireman (Crispin Glover), the line of questioning serves both an expository and foreshadowing poetic purpose, a clear first signal of the film's intention to straddle the line between reality and ethereality. With a foot firmly in each plane, "Dead Man" becomes quite an experience to grapple with as a viewer. We see clearly what's happening to Blake as he's denied the job he was promised, ends up killing a man and flees into the wilderness, where a Native American outcast named Nobody (Gary Farmer) becomes his guide. Yet his transformation is something else entirely. The poetry-quoting dialogue and score from Neil Young (yes, that Neil Young), featuring a pervasive distorted electric guitar motif, keep us on edge as a reminder never to quite settle into – or be fooled by – the Western genre trappings. Rarely does a film come across as both esoteric and gut-smackingly funny. Levity is an unexpected partner on Blake's journey, and at times in a blue collar sort of way. Just when Jarmusch suckers you into thinking seriously about the film, a line of dialogue or a particular character will pop out of nowhere, perfectly timed and with the perfectly complementary tone. Farmer, Michael Wincott as one of the bounty hunters after Blake, and the trio of Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thorton and Jared Harris are among the comedy standouts. Jarmusch will simply not allow us to take anything too seriously, even though we do have to engage with his film intellectually at times to make the most of it. This contradiction ultimately serves Jarmusch's likely intent that his film can't be viewed in just any one, clearly interpreted way.Also countering the humorous tones are starkly violent ones. Some of the violent moments hit comedic notes whether intentionally or not, but many of them come across as brusque and disturbing. Fairness, or anything reminiscent of a moral arc, is far from Jarmusch's interest as a storyteller. Death in this film is an obvious byproduct of Blake's road to certain death or his soul's road through hell to peace, depending how you interpret things. In fact, each progressive death that Blake is involved in serves to transform him from stuffy accountant to outlaw. Discarded by the world, Blake's choice to keep stepping into the role falling into place before him is at the heart of the movie.Of all his early work, "Dead Man" is certainly Jarmusch's richest film. The Western genre was also a perfect match with the filmmaker's world view and themes of interest. His preference for vignettes and scenes of a shorter length bookended by fades to black makes a little less sense here because the trajectory of Blake's story is so sure-footed, but it serves as a nice way to organize and think about the film as it's happening. "Dead Man" might be a film that never fully makes sense, no matter how many times you watch it, but the right person in the right frame of mind can find moments that resonate and reach an interpretation that justifies its unusual dual nature.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

I am with the reviewer Sean Hooks, who wrote, "I honestly cannot recall the last time I saw a film this bad," and the reviewer Bradley, who wrote, "The editing was so poorly executed that I thought my Wifi went down." -- the funny thing is, i too had exactly the same thought, for real!I love train films. Aside from some poorly filmed Walschaert valve gears, this movie offers nothing in the way of train footage. You can find better Walschaert valve gears footage on a home video of a G-Scale Bachmann ten wheeler model running in someone's backyard. But, i hear you object, it stars Johnny Depp! No, actually it misuses Johnny Depp. It is, like, if Johnny Depp was a slightly overfed puppy, say a pudgy shiba inu puppy, and someone put cute little Willie Wonka clothes on him and made him die slowly, slowly, slowly, while ghastly pseudo folk guitar tones droned on and on and this missgeburt appeared in your Facebook feed and when you tried to report it for violating community standards, you got a message from Facebook saying that, no, actually it was fine, because Johnny Depp will be a dead shiba inu puppy now for all eternity.