Dead Man

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Dead Man
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Jim Jarmusch
Produced by	Demetra J. MacBride
Written by	Jim Jarmusch
Starring	Johnny Depp Gary Farmer
Music by	Neil Young
Cinematography	Robby Muller
Editing by	Jay Rabinowitz
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	May 26, 1995 (Cannes Film Festival premiere)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	USA/Germany
Language	English
Budget	$9,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue	$1,025,488 (USA)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Dead Man is a 1995 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, and Robert Mitchum (in his final role). The movie is something of a Modern Western, dubbed a "psychedelic Western" by director Jarmusch,^[1] which includes twisted elements of the Western Genre. The film is shot entirely in black-and-white.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 References to William Blake 4 Portrayal of Native Americans 5 Reception 6 Soundtrack 7 In other media 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Plot

Bound from Cleveland, accountant William Blake arrives by train at the American frontier company town of "Machine" to assume a promised job in the town's namesake metal works. He discovers that his job is already taken and is driven from the workplace at gunpoint by John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company. Jobless and without money or prospects, Blake meets Thel Robinson, a former prostitute who sells paper flowers, and lets her take him home. Thel's ex-boyfriend Charlie surprises them in bed and shoots Blake, accidentally killing Thel when she tries to shield Blake with her body. A wounded Blake shoots and kills Charlie with Thel's gun before climbing dazedly out the window and fleeing Machine on a stolen horse. Company-owner Dickinson, the father of Charlie, hires three legendary frontier killers to hunt down Blake as the murderer of his son and Thel, although he seems to care most about regaining the stolen horse.

Blake awakens to find a large American Indian attempting to dislodge the bullet from his chest. The Indian, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake's heart to remove, and Blake is to all effects and purposes already dead. When he learns Blake's full name, Nobody decides Blake is a reincarnation ^[2] of William Blake the poet whom he idolizes but of whom accountant Blake himself is prosaically ignorant. Incredibly moved that Blake is now not only a visionary poet and painter but also a "killer of white men," Nobody resolves to escort Blake, before he dies, to the Pacific Ocean for a proper sea-burial that will return Blake to his proper place in the spirit-world. Discovering that Blake is being hunted, he also determines to assist Blake in expanding his legend by killing as many more white men as may become necessary.

Blake and Nobody travel West, leaving a trail of dead and encountering wanted posters announcing higher and higher bounties for Blake's death or capture. Nobody sends Blake into a camp of homicidal fur trappers, whom he and Blake dispatch. Blake learns of Nobody's past, marked both by Native American and White racism, which includes Nobody's abduction to, and escape from, Europe as a model savage. Meanwhile, the three bounty hunters are whittled down to one as the sociopathic Cole Wilson kills his less vicious companions out of annoyance.

Nobody leaves Blake alone in the wild when he decides Blake must undergo a vision quest. On his quest, two U.S. Marshalls surprise Blake and are killed, their bodies later found and desecrated by Cole. Blake spots local animal deities in human form, experiences the astonishing significance and beauty of his natural surroundings, and finds the remains of a young deer whose body he grieves over.

Later, he meets back up with Nobody, and they continue their journey. At a trading post, a bigoted Christian missionary trader identifies Blake and attempts to kill him, resulting in a shootout. Blake is shot again and his condition rapidly deteriorates. Nobody takes him by river to a Makah village and convinces the tribe to give him a sea canoe for Blake's ship burial. Blake deliriously trudges through the clean and orderly village before collapsing from his injuries.

Blake awakens in a canoe on a beach, wearing Native American funeral dress. Nobody bids Blake farewell and pushes him out to sea. As he floats away, Blake watches Cole sneak up behind Nobody, but he is too weak to cry out and can only watch as the two shoot and kill each other. As Blake gazes up at the clouds for the last time, he dies, and his canoe drifts out to sea towards the waiting sky on the horizon.

[edit] Cast

• Johnny Depp as William Blake, a meek accountant from Cleveland, Ohio.
• Gary Farmer as Nobody, a strong and opinionated Native American who was forcibly raised by whites and later given the mocking name "He Who Talks Loud, Says Nothing" or Exaybachay by fellow natives.
• Crispin Glover as Train Fireman, a coal-covered train worker who welcomes Blake to the "hell" of Machine.
• Robert Mitchum as Mr. John Dickinson, a shotgun-toting industrialist in Machine.
• John Hurt as John Scholfield, the business manager of Dickinson's factory, who informs Blake that the accounting job has gone to another man
• Mili Avital as Thel Russell, a young woman who makes and sells paper flowers.
• Gabriel Byrne as Charlie Dickinson, Thel's ex-boyfriend and John Dickinson's son.
• Lance Henriksen as Cole Wilson, an infamous bounty hunter and cannibal
• Michael Wincott as Conway Twill, a talkative bounty hunter
• Eugene Byrd as Johnny "The Kid" Pickett, a young African-American bounty hunter.
• Iggy Pop as Salvatore "Sally" Jenko, a cross-dressing, psychopathic fur-trader at a campsite
• Billy Bob Thornton as Big George Drakoulious, a mountain man at Sally's campsite
• Jared Harris as Benmont Tench, a British-accented fur-trader who is proud of his knife.
• Alfred Molina as Trading Post Missionary, a zealous but corrupt missionary and businessman.
• Gibby Haynes as Man with Gun in Alley

[edit] References to William Blake

There are multiple references in the film to the poetry of William Blake. Nobody recites from several Blake poems, including Auguries of Innocence, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and The Everlasting Gospel. When bounty hunter Cole warns his companions against drinking from standing water, it references the Proverb of Hell (from the aforementioned Marriage), "Expect poison from standing water". Thel's name is also a reference to Blake's The Book of Thel.

The film's soundtrack album and promotional music video also feature Depp reciting passages from Blake's poetry.

[edit] Portrayal of Native Americans

This film is generally regarded as being extremely well-researched in regard to Native American culture.^[3]

Dead Man is also notable as one of the rather few films about Native Americans to be directed by a Non-Native and offer nuanced and considerate details of the individual differences between Native American tribes free of common stereotypes. There are untranslated passages in several Native American Languages, and Jarmusch included several in-jokes aimed at Native American viewers, or at least those with a fluent knowledge of the languages used.^[3]

[edit] Reception

In its theatrical release, Dead Man earned about $1 million for a budget of $9 million.^[4] It is the most expensive of Jarmusch's films, due to the expense of black-and-white film processing, and the costs of ensuring accurate period detail.

Critical responses were mixed. Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-a-half stars (out of four stars maximum), noting "Jim Jarmusch is trying to get at something here, and I don't have a clue what it is".^[5] Desson Howe and Rita Kempley, both writing for the Washington Post, offered largely negative appraisals.^[6] Greil Marcus, however, mounted a spirited defense of the film, titling his review "Dead Again: Here are 10 reasons why 'Dead Man' is the best movie of the end of the 20th century."^[7] Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum dubbed the film an acid western, calling it "as exciting and as important as any new American movie I've seen in the 90s"^[8] and went on to write a book on the film, entitled Dead Man (ISBN 0-85170-806-4) published by the British Film Institute. The film scored a 'Fresh' 71% rating on website Rotten Tomatoes.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Dead Man (soundtrack)

[edit] In other media

Gary Farmer makes a cameo appearance as Nobody in Jim Jarmusch's subsequent film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, in which he repeats one of his signature lines of dialog, "Stupid fucking white man!"

Johnny Depp has makes a brief cameo as his character William Blake in the film L.A. Without a Map.

Rudy Wurlitzer's unproduced screenplay Zebulon inspired Jarmusch's film. Wurlitzer later re-wrote the screenplay as the novel The Drop Edge of Yonder.

[edit] See also

• List of recent films in black-and-white

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Dead Man at the Internet Movie Database
• Dead Man at Allmovie
• Dead Man at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dead Man at Metacritic
• Dead Man at Box Office Mojo

v • d • e Films Directed by Jim Jarmusch Permanent Vacation • Stranger Than Paradise • Coffee and Cigarettes • Coffee and Cigarettes, Memphis Version • Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California • Coffee and Cigarettes • Down by Law • Mystery Train • Night on Earth • Dead Man • Year of the Horse • Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai • Ten Minutes Older • Broken Flowers • The Limits of Control