Review of Dead Man (1995) by Ankur D — 02 Mar 2012
To sum up my ideas about his movie I'll quote Roger Ebert review "Jim Jarmusch is trying to say something, but I don' know what." I agree with every one of those words, Jim Jarmusch is trying to say a lot and the movie itself is confused as to what it actually is trying to say. The movie made up to be a western, doesn't follow any of the conventions of the genre, which I admired about, however due to an incoherent and dull plot, less than interesting main character, and noised out soundtrack, makes Dead Man a dull and boring movie.
The set up of the story is basic, however what follows is a ride into the surreal imagination of the director. Johnny Depp's character William Blake, on his way to a town called Machine for an accounting job which has been filled in by a new hire, which leads to Blake wandering the town and meeting a woman who cheats on her husband and gets caught. She is killed, Blake is injured and kills her fiancée and sets out on a journey where he meets a free-spirited Indian who can guide him to his destiny.
After the movie is set up and Blake is on the run, Jarmusch tries to turn the movie from an ordinary into surreal, deadpan, absurd and in my opinion pretentious. Using a dull black and white cinematography with a few moments of beauty, Jim Jarmusch maybe trying to say something about the relationship between the new and old, relationship between the white man and native, or maybe an examination of death itself. It's hard to tell since the main character does not seem to be interesting enough for us to care what he does or where he ends up. However the people he meet and interacts with are both interesting and their idiosyncrasies make us wonder about them more than we do for Blake. A loud guitar driven soundtrack by Neil Young does not help in set the mood of the story but feels lazy and sloppy. Overall I did not enjoy this experience, however I also think that this movie should be given a chance by everyone, so they can interpret the movie for themselves.
This review of Dead Man (1995) was written by Ankur D on 02 Mar 2012.
Dead Man has generally received positive reviews.
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