Dead Man
d. Jim Jarmusch, 1995
Jim Jarmusch's best film, Dead Man, is a western like no other; a poetic and lyrical film filled with unforgettable moments, it is one of the best films of the 90s. The film begins with William Blake (Johnny Depp) on a train ride to the town of Machine, where he will assume the job of an accountant. Jarmusch uses black-outs during these first sequences to foreshadow the violent episodes that are to come.
Upon arriving, Blake finds out that someone has already filled his position and that he spent all his money getting there in vain. Dickinson (Robert Mitchum), the owner of the place Blake was to work at, scares him off. Blake heads to the bar to buy some liquor. Sitting outside, he meets Thel (Mili Avital), an ex-whore who know sells flowers she makes out of paper. They go back to her place and, in the morning, her lover Charlie (Gabrial Byrne), who also happens to be Dickinson's son, walks in on them.
After an awkward exchange, Charlie shoots Thel in the chest and the bullet hits Blake, who shoots Charlie in the neck and kills him. Blake finds himself on the run and the rest of the film is him coming to terms with his life. When he wakes up, Nobody (Gary Farmer), a native American, is hovering over him and tells him that he is a dead man, for he wasn't able to get the bullet out of his chest. Blake and Nobody continue moving through the woods and they soon find that Dickinson has sent men to kill him.
That's about as much as there is to know about the plot. But Jarmusch doesn't focus on story so much as his characters; and this seemingly simple western turns into a powerful metaphor of life as a journey. At the beginning of the film, Blake is not aware of the world around him, he focuses on worldly distractions instead of acknowledging that he himself is part of the world. But the more time he spends with Nobody coming to terms with the fact that he is dying, he learns of the things that truly matter. A poignant moment shows him curling up around a dead animal and then looking up to the sky.
Jarmusch's direction and composition is particularly amazing in Dead Man. The way he chooses to frame his scenes is truly something to behold, which has as much to do with the way the story is structured as with the shooting itself. For example, since the film follows both Blake and the people tracking him down, the audience often sees the same places twice; this creates a very unique lyrical effect. Robby Muller's beautiful black-and-white cinematography is really something to behold. Neil Young's minimalist score enhances the scenes without giving anything away, which solely relies on Jarmusch's thematic groundwork.
The overall effect created by Dead Man is one that is not easily forgotten, both as a purely fascinating piece of filmmaking and as a meditation on the connection between death and nature.
