Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as a mild mannered accountant who travels to a western company town in the 1880s and after a series of altercations, he is running from the law while he is slowly dying. I have to say that this movie is a very different experience than the usual Jim Jarmusch series of sporadically connected episodes. Here he tells a fairly linear story. So your enjoyment of this movie might hinge on your opinion of what to expect of Jarmusch and of a Western.
Johnny Depp is great in this very restrained role the character has his own quirks, but these serve to illuminate the charter, rather than build the character. He is William Blake, who has come to the town of Machine for an accounting job, but when he gets there, finds out that it is already filled. He gets into an argument with the boss of the company and town (Robert Mitchum), who throws Blake out of his office at gun point. Blake goes to drown his sorrows in the local bar and meeting the town whore. After a quick tangle, her boyfriend (Gabriel Byrne) bursts into the room in an unholy rage. A shoot out ensues leaving the hooker and her boyfriend dead and Blake gravely wounded.
Blake is hunted by the local lawmen and townspeople. He travels into the wilderness with only an Indian named Nobody as his companion. Nobody thinks Blake is the reincarnation of the romantic poet.
Jarmusch doesn’t present the Old West in a romantic light. With his usual, deliberate pace, Jarmusch debunks the myths of the Old West as a place of independence and freedom. The stark subject matter is lightened in places by Jarmusch’s sense of humor, but it is a much darker movie than his usual wont.
The stark black and white cinematography plays beautifully in this movie. The thousands of shades of gray that pop on the screen bring attention to the grittiness of both the town and the countryside. Both are stark and in their own ways beautiful. It is well scored by Neil Young. The electric guitar grunge builds into a haunting melody that conveys the starkness of this vision of the west. Both those elements heighten this movie experience.
Jarmusch is also well served by a number of well known actors. In addition to Depp and Mitchum, who adds an incredible sense of menace in his few scenes, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Hendricksen, Albert Molina, Steve Buscemi and Billy Bob Thornton all turn in extremely strong performances.
Another place where this movie departs from Jarmusch’s usual style is its graphic use of violence. The squeamish should be aware that Jarmusch doesn’t shy away from showing violence, and its consequences as well as the causal way that many of the characters seem to be unaware of just how disturbing their actions are.
The deliberate pace and Jarmusch’s in experience with telling a linear story sometimes show as this movie has a tendency to drag in several places during its 2 hour running time.