Movie_Muse_Reviews 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

krocheav Dead Man leans toward not being worth reviewing on several levels, a couple are: It's no great shakes and there's already too many overly pretentious reviews. There are also moments when this ridiculously expensive exercise looks and feels as clumsy as a home movie. First and foremost it's a Cinematographer and Production Designers film - take away the stylish sets and images and it falls over itself. No wonder Cinemas were running on empty during its theatrical release. Still, all said and done - there will always be those who will read deep and meaningful into lighter than air.Yes, amid the over-the-top crude violence and odd sexual set up - this could have said something about the human condition - it's just that it goes about it very poorly. I'm also not quite convinced the old west would have used certain four letter words to the degree our lazy writer throws at us here. The handful of grunge like chords that form the resemblance of a score by Neil Young (usually a favorite of mine) must rank as some of the easiest money he's made. Much of the casting expense could have been avoided by not using big names for near unrecognizable small parts. There's now a string of movie makers who are using great lines penned by earlier 'classic' writers - writer/director Jim Jarmush attempts to spin a golden web and sell 'Dead Man's' parts as worthy of more than their sum - just one problem...they ain't.What was that about the Emperor's new clothes?. For deluded cultists only.

ppel-31667 Is the movie reflecting the actual living status of men at that time? Everyone except Thel in the town of machine looked hopeless, indifferent, abnormal, cold. I would doubt it's really this way in real life of that time.Secondly, this movie exposed a lot of shootings. Why did the men don't treat life seriously? Why did they shoot for trivial matters? For example, Charlie was so stupid to shoot Blake. And the reaction of shooting each other did not look realistic. There was no panic in shooting. And when one was shooting another, the other just stood there. Supposedly, the proper and instinctive reaction of the other being shot should be dodging, staying low, or moving aside to avoid being shot. But look at the scene where the shooting between Nobody and Cole, neither Nobody nor Cole dodged or stayed low during the shooting, which did not look real.

Nobody When I first heard the strum of a distorted guitar ten minutes into the movie, I thought "wow, that was annoying, I hope that never happens again'... If only I knew that the entire score was the same f***ing sound repeated for every literal beat of this movie.Nothing about this movie works:-the editing was so poorly executed that I thought my Wifi went down.-Every transition is just a fade to black as if it was made for TV in the 70's-The writing feels like a flower child wanted to write about his inner workings, but was too pretentious, high, and incompetent that it comes off as such. Any symbolism or spiritual undertones are so incredibly flat and obvious that it's ridiculous to even be labeled as 'cerebral' on Netflix.-the acting (aside from the young Depp) was so poor that it felt like a soap opera. everything from the stuck up, angry old man in his office, to the stereotyped Indian cut-outs to the shoot-out at the very end of the movie that made me burst out laughing at how lazy, stupid, and melodramatic it was.-there's no reason to film in black and white, nothing else was ever attended to in cinematography because it looked semi-artsy enough to hold over a regular audience without making anything original or coherent.-every act of violence in this movie appears to be baby's first SFX, the man's head getting crushed looked like f***ing clay. the child getting hit with a rifle didn't even come close to contact. The makeup of Depp's face looks like it was made of crayola wax.Don't watch this movie unless you have a hard-on for style over substance. but even then, there is no style to this movie, it's garbage. the only way this kind of laziness could be accepted is if it was made in the 30's. This came out the same year as Braveheart, 12 Monkeys, Heat, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects...This is 2 hours of your life that not only will you not get back, but they will be forced out of you like a f***ing laxative.