Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)

Very much so. I've got a magazine somewhere that has an excellent interview with Jarmusch in which he talks a lot about where many elements came from; I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT: More so with the Blake in my memory, though the Native ideas are obviously important.

Great great movie, one of the best I've ever seen.

I have thought of it as a journey toward the afterlife and I do think an appreciation of Native American philosophies helps in interpreting the film.

From a Judeo-Christian perspective there is a sharp line dividing life and death. The movie presents another view and I can't remember enough from my college days to make an apt comparison with the beliefs of any particular native people, but there is that idea of a journey toward an afterlife or through a succession of states into the afterlife. Also there is the idea that the world of dreams is another world as real as ours which people pass into in their sleep. And Dead Man feels more and more like a dream as it goes on.

From another perspective it could be seen as a spiritual version of the Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge theme where we see events that are only the dying thoughts of a character as reality.

One of the things that I like about Jarmusch's films is that they are open to just about endless interpretations. To put it another way, they really challenge you to invest something in watching and understanding it. They're so rich that you can come back to them again and again, checking out something that you missed before.

Jarmusch always has an enormous respect for other genres--especially the book. In some ways, Ghost Dog was a call to read (from Frankenstein to Hagakure). I think that you can see that intention in Dead Man too. If you finished the movie and picked up Blake's "Tales of Innnocence and Tales of Experience," I'm sure that Jarmusch would be happy. The theme of "the journey" is also worth thinking about. Not only is this one of the oldest literary devices in the world (didn't somebody say that there are really only two great themes in literature--a stranger comes to town and a home town boy takes a trip?), it's a favorite of Jarmusch's (and one that he himself made, I guess, but in the other direction). Of course, it gets a different kind of spin in his hands.

Music is worth thinking about too. I think that Neil Young's score is one of the most organic soundtracks that I've ever heard. Lots of music jokes too. One of the characters is Benmont Tench--that's one of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. Two guys named Wilson and Pickett.

Jarmusch has a lot to say about other film too. Maybe McCabe and Mrs. Miller? The Searchers? And you could think about Mitchum's cameo forever.

It's political too--respect for Native American culture, criticism of violence, pollution, overdevelopment.

For a good article about Jarmusch and the film, check out Jonathan Rosenbaum's review in the Chicago Reader. Rosenbaum also has an interesting book about the film--well worth a read:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/...696/06286.html

Glad to see some love for this movie on the boards. It's one of my favorites.

I don't have much to add other than to chime in and say that this is a damn good movie. I really should buy it.

F.T.W. Kid

It took me a while but I finally found a thread about this film. I basically had the same question Greg had in his original post because my "passage to the afterlife" idea seemed too simple for Jarmusch. It did seem like Lance Henriksen was playing a pure incarnation of evil. I had a physical reaction to him smashing the Marshal's head open like a grapefruit. Something incredibly horrific about that.

I think Young's score feels so organic because I believe it was just him basically riffing as he watched the film. Beautiful score.

I will add my 2 cents and say that I really like Dead Man. It's one of the strangest Westerns I have ever seen. Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer were great. Lance Henriksen and Michael Wincott got to chew a lot of scenery, especially Wincott.

My favorite Jarmusch film. Sure it's a journey film, but it's also about an Artist finding himself in America, albeit in a violent medium (but doesn't that make Dead Man perfect for the American West?). Lance H's character is just a fucking Philistine who doesn't appreciate Art!

I think I've seen Dead Man at least a dozen times, probably more than any other western. In fact I watched it so many times with the boys in my band it became a movie we'd quote almost as often as some of our favourite comedies.

Lance Henriksen does A LOT of "chewing" in Dead Man.

I've only seen it once, but what I remember most is that every scene has a fade out. Possibly to symbolize Blake's fading out into the afterlife?

That's pretty typical for a lot of Jarmusch's films. I always just saw it as a preferred aesthetic choice on his part.

Dead Man and El Topo = the best WTF Western double feature ever.

For whatever reason, I could barely sit through this. I like Jarmusch a lot and I'm not sure why this movie didn't grab me. I think I may have watched it late at night or something and may simply have been lulled to sleep. I should give it another try.

Surprised no one's mentioned the amazing soundtrack by Neil Young. Minimal but haunting and incredibly affecting.

reading helps.

I like Ghost Dog better, but I love the meeting scene, passenger pigeons. I don't really see it as a journey to the afterlife, as just a man who changes as he faces the fact that he is doomed. It been some time since I last saw it though.