Where to begin!

B


I know where to begin.

Usually Jim Jarmush flicks are hate/love for me. Broken Flowers and (especially) A Night on Earth go in my hate-department, but Ghost Dog is also one of my all-time favorite films. Dead Man is the only movie of his by now, to strike the middleground.

This is mostly thanks to a great as always Johnny Depp, but Gary Farmer also deserves accolades for his great appareance as Nobody. Iggy Pop's crazily menacing hitman as well as cameo's by Robert Mitchum, Lance Henriksen, Alfred Molina, John Hurt and Crispin Glover round up the great ensemble. Jarmush never fails to come up with a good cast, not even in rather bad movies. Another huge plus of the movie is its haunting soundtrack. Fits the movie very well and is masterfully chosen. I also support the idea of the movie being black 'n white. Fits the overall tone.

The storyline, however, left me rather unimpressed and I never bought into this whole "Native American Culture" aspect. If they wanted to show that, they should have delved deeper, otherwise I could care for it less.

It's a really nice movie to look at (and to listen to), but there is not much underneath the surface and the entertainment value is rather mild.

I don't think he was diving into Native American culture per se. He was delving into culture clash, which is different, and I've read before that he delved wuite deeply into the culture by riddling the film with inside jokes that wouldn't necessarily address an anglo-centric crowd. As much of this film was also about Blake, his art imagery and his writing. Its an intelligent textual reworking coming from Nobody's love of Blake when he was sent to England.

Brilliant work, and my favorite Jarmusch along with Down by Law.

A+