Review of Dead Man (1995) by Brian H — 11 Jul 2010
This surreal western re-invents the genre with stark black and white cinematography and a plaintiff sound-track of Neil Young laying down haunting twangs of electric guitar riff. I can't remember when I last so deeply immersed in the flow of a film, nor a film that flowed so counter to the current of tradition.
A timid accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) ventures west after the death of his parents and the loss of his woman's love. He is the anti-thesis of Jeremiah Johnson, even shying from a pig peacefully wallowing in the street. A promised job falls through. Nearly penniless and lost in a terrifyingly brutal world, Blake winds up killing a man in self-defense and, wounded, flees into the night. The dead man happens to be the son of the town's most important person, John Dickinson. Blake is labeled a murderer and Dickinson.
Places a price on Blake's head. A trio of shiftless killers are sent on Blake's trail.
A peyote-eating, poetry-quoting Indian named Nobody finds Blake unconscious and near to death. Tending his wounds and believing William Blake to actually be the English poet of the same name, Nobody revives the accountant and leads him from his pursuers. Nobody prophesies that the gun would replace Blake's tongue ("your poetry will be written in blood") and the timid accountant proves to be more adept at staying alive than the men seeking his bounty.
Throw in a hired-gun with a taste for human flesh, a band of homosexual predators and a couple of sheriffs named Lee and Marvin and you have genre-bending homage to the classic western that is witty, artistic and bordering on profound. Depp is great and Gary Farmer as Nobody does a creditable job. A great coterie of actors (Robert Mitchum, Gabriel Byrne, William Hurt and even Iggy Pop) comprise the supporting cast. My favorite was Billy Bob Thornton as a gay mountain man. Having grown up in rural Arkansas, Billy Bob can talk "shit-kicker" like no one else in the business.
I'm going to to thinking and talking about this one for a long time.
This review of Dead Man (1995) was written by Brian H on 11 Jul 2010.
Dead Man has generally received positive reviews.
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