Dead Man (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

One of my favorite movies. Great story line, well acted and very entertaining. This is my 3rd time to purchase “Dead Man”. Friends “borrow “ movie and cannot find it then “lose” it. Like my friends I want to have the movie.

Might be based on personality type (e.g., INTJ - dark humor), but I most enjoy this movie for how relaxing it is and for its humor. The combination of acting, storyline, and soundtrack (by Neil Young) captures my attention in a vacation type of experience. I also enjoy the mistaken identity aspect of the story. Brilliant. Fun for the audience to watch the characters in that scenario.

This movie has been in my top 5 for years. I was delighted to find it’s still available on dvd, and I hope that at some point some enterprising platform (cough, looking at you, Prime Video) will run it for everyone.Jarmusch went way out there with this one. He managed to fuse some of the best actors of a generation with a perfect script and superb production, a lot of silliness, existential hopelessness, the experience of traveling through death til it’s last lights-out (or not...), and a genuinely, deliciously, human story. Expectation, lust, carelessness, a spirit guide to aggravate the dickens out of us...what more do we need when we seek the beyond? I hope my own experience is as interesting, when it’s my turn to open the door.

One of my all time favorite movies, and criterion doesn't disappoint with the transfer to blu ray. Basically an offbeat western , alluding to western expansion in America , and the destruction of the land , and people. Along with reference to the industrial revolution, all rapped up in the misadventures of a young man named William Blake, played by Johnny Depp, who's identity is confused with the poet and artist William Blake, by the Native Amerivan named Nobody, played by Gary Farmer. The story itself has many deep nuances, and is filmed in beautiful black and white. I love this film, but am pretty partial to the director Jim Jarmusch in general. May not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you like a western with an art house flavor, and some dark comedy, check it out.

This movie is very particular, as you can read in the very good booklet it's a visionary rather than a revisionist western and after the shooting involving William Blake, there are three possibilities: 1) Blake gets a vision while he's dying, 2) he is dead and is journeying through a purgatory-like world, 3) he escapes and is found in the wilderness by ''Nobody'' who guides him on a spiritual journey that makes him a cold-blooded gunslinger even if in the end...But the key factor is the fantastic soundtrack by Neil Young, as it's written in the booklet his guitar suggests weather events or organic processes and registers the attention the characters give to each other and to everything around them. I admit that I love the classic westerns or the spaghetti westerns, there are some quite good psychological westerns and Dead Man is amongst them.

Perfect condition!!! Glad to have this in the collection again!!!

Even if you are not a fan of early Johnny Depp.

I saw this movie in theater when it came out (two other people in attendance). Stunning-like nothing else. But because of the b/w high contrast, the film grain is very distracting on Blu-ray--like ants marching along any light area (faces, scenery). Weird. Soundtrack remaster is stunning. Example: you can hear Iggy Pop talking while Farmer and Depp are still up on the ridge, before Pop is even on screen. If you love this movie, Criterion Disc is most certainly worth it.

Great movie, very easy to get immersed in. DVD came quickly and in good condition.

When I visited the Western exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2017, which presented the Far West culture in paintings, sculptures, advertisement, music, cinema, literature, and video games, I discovered beautiful details about this fascinating genre. Artists that depicted the period, its figures, landscapes, and folklore either with beautiful poetry, or under art/society codes related to the time period these works were done. And among these art treasures came Dead Man, a Jim Jarmusch movie starring Johnny Depp that I never heard before. A production with amazing imagery, mood, and a superb soundtrack from Neil Young.A movie that I found out Criterion Collection released on Blu-Ray. In a superb edition I bought years ago, watched recently, and adore for its many beautiful qualities. A jewel in the western culture and a marvel in Johnny Depp’s filmography. Which I only saw recently for a specific reason I will mention below.In its story, Dead Man depicts the travels of William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland Ohio who, after his parents’ death and losing his girlfriend, receives a letter offering him an accountant position in Machine, a town set near the North Western Coast. A cold city of mechanical devices and ruffians, antipathic toward strangers. Which William discovers the day he arrives at Mr. Dickinson’s office, expecting the job, only to find out that because the letter was sent months ago and he arrived one month too late, the owner Mr. Dickinson engaged another employee. And as he doesn’t want to hear any protests from William, the owner orders him to leave. Following that depressing day, William meets Thell Russell, a paper flower seller with whom he spends the night with in her bedroom. Unfortunately, she is also the ex-fiancee of Mr. Dickinson’s son Charlie. Latter who wanted to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend. But after seeing William and Thell together, Charlie decides to kill him to defend his honour. Which does not happen as Thell shields William; who shoots Charlie with Thell’s gun and flees town with the man’s horse. Angering Mr. Dickinson who employs bounty hunters to kill William. As for our protagonist, he encounters in the woods a native american named “Nobody”; who — after trying to remove the bullet in William’s chest but can’t as it is to close to his heart — claims that William is the reincarnation of the late poet William Blake, whom he knows since his childhood. Therefore, as he realizes that William is slowly dying from his gun wound, Nobody decides to bring him up toward a long pilgrim path.Westwards.Toward the Spirit World and what occurs there.Through this metaphysical and poetic travel across the Northwestern landscape we discover this exceptional western. Exceptional for its visual/musical poetry. Exceptional for its realistic portrait of the Far West as a rough world. Without the politically correct cliches of certain Hollywood productions. What we have from Jim Jarmusch is a far west is violent, difficult, and not idyllic; which I think influenced series like Deadwood as its atmosphere and visual style is so similar too Jarmusch’s movie. A far west where towns like Machine are not clean and cosy, but rather tense and plagued by outlaws. Where people of various backgrounds try to co-exist together while experiencing strong clashes.As such, Dead Man is a humanist work. It explores the polar contrasts between the cold and heartless machine driven civilisation which exploits and denigrates nature and native american tribes versus the wide scape beauty/powers of forests, plains, and mountains. Depict these environments Roughness, but also humbling powers on its travelers such as William Blake, whose priorities he completely reconsiders during his trip. Making him, and us, realize the superficiality of society and its codes. As for the film’s thematics, life and death co-exist. Alongside dreams; inhabiting the film as it is shot in bribes similar to those of a dream. As if the camera was capturing the most memorable moments. Making us wonder if the film we see can be considered as a dream.But who is its dreamer? Jim Jarmusch? An unknown entity? The viewer’s? Or the dreams of the poet William Blake? For if we were to really consider Nobody’s claims that William is the reincarnation of the late poet, caught in the limbs of reality and needs help passing through the afterlife, could it be so? That the William Blake of Dead Man is the poet’s soul caught in our reality and needs help going beyond to the afterlife? That Nobody was destined to that mission all along? These are the many questions that travelled around my head while seeing this film brimming with abstract and realistic poetry.Abstract and realistic poetry obtained through the amazing cinematography of Bobby Mueller. Cinematographer I first knew in his work for Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves and Dancer in The Dark. Masterpieces he would do after Dead Man, but are perfect examples of what he did here. Presenting the wideness/beauty of nature under incredible lighting, and the reality of humanity’s kindness/nastiness. And watching the movie on a enormous screen makes you appreciate more the beauty of each image in this black-and-white production. Thoughtful absence of colour as we can enjoy the film’s images as if they were shots done back in the nineteenth century. Which is quite evident as we have camera angles and shots that remind us of such photos. Using stunning grey and whites.And in terms of realism, it is one of the few westerns that has tried to present native american tribes with faithful accuracy. Unlike other films that have fed certain cliches that were interpreted in corny ways by certain European medias like in France, where I have seen them present the Far West in childish, cringy, and naive interpretations.Now regarding Neil Young’s soundtrack, I have a few things to say first. Although I recognise Mr. Young as an incredible guitarist and influential performer, I am very critical about the man himself for a few reasons.Indeed, I am disgusted by the vile way he demeaned Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston in his video clip This Note’s For You, especially as he mocked Michael Jackson’s horrifying hair burning incident during a Pepsi commercial. It was a mediocre song where Neil was attacking the artists who did publicities for companies like Pepsi as sellouts. A mean-spirited video clip that reeked of disgusting/spiteful jealousy and prejudices toward more successful artists. As if Neil Young didn’t think that people like Michael Jackson would use the money they made from their commercials for charity projects like he did countless times during his life. In sum, it was a video clip that offended many viewers who denounced it as racist since, as they said, the only artists attacked in it were the black ones while it did not criticize the white rockers who did such commercials.An attitude of prejudices from Neil Young that was also denounced in his songs Southern Man and Alabama as he depicted that state and its culture with offensive descriptions. Which angered the group Lynyrd Skynyrd who did their landmark song Sweet Home Alabama where they denounced Neil Young’s behaviour. Which the rocker acknowledged as he praised their song while apologising for his two compositions which he felt deserved to be criticised for their condescendance and disrespectful terms.Of course, this review is not an attempt to bash Neil Young. But an attempt to explain how the man’s actions had discouraged me to see this film for though I had bought the film, Neil’s actions had discouraged me in seeing the film Dead Man for a while. So it wasn't until recently, reminding myself to separate this man’s past behaviours with the work here, that I decided to see the movie. And as I was watching it, I cut aside the man’s past behaviours and focused only on his music. Which I got to appreciate a lot.Guitar improvisations he did by himself while watching the film as it appeared on a screen. Mixing stunning electric and acoustic guitar notes. Emphasizing the metaphysical nature of the story, but also the ethereal beauty of William Blake and Nobody’s pilgrimage. Incredible musicality with guitar leitmotifs that shoot at you right into the heart.So although I am critical of Neil Young’s spitefulness toward his colleagues and over subjects that he does not know the full facts, I can appreciate here the beauty of his soundtrack here.As for the cast, this is the final part of my review where I can express all my love and respect for the main cast. Filled with many talented names like Gabriel Byrne, Robert Mitchum, and John Hurt doing wonderful small parts in the film. Some of them lasting only a couple of scenes, but all of them so well cast. Superb in their performances. Memorable in their actions. Of Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer, you couldn’t have found another superb duo to work together. Both of them excellent companions, superb at portraying their characters’ dreams, ideals, and skills as they interact around others. Try to survive and travel through the long path they took.In conclusion, Dead Man is an incredible movie that will delight fans of Johnny Depp, but will also allow fans of westerns to see a depiction of that genre and its codes in a much more poetic and realistic manner. So different from the codes of Spaghetti westerns and 1950s Hollywood classics. So original and influential in classics like Deadwood.

Too much of Johnny Depp's endeavours are panned. This movie in general is allegorical and the point of it may be lost due to that fact. The movie is good, the plot moves inexorably forward toward the statement it wishes to convey; there are no extraneous elements that weigh it down attempting to sink it. Yeah fer shur Johnny has gotten weird at times but his performances are always well researched, thought provoking and entertaining. The supporting actor "NOBODY" (Gary Farmer) Johnny"s spirit guide is also superb here even while walking a thin line between over exposing his mystical reality and understating the role into insignificance (therefore destroying everything this movie attempts to convey.) So go ahead you Johnny Knockers, cast your stones while those of us who appreciate his stuff will forever continue to enjoy everything he has to offer. GO JOHNNY DEPP! GO proudly into your next character development. YOU WERE A GREAT TONTO by the way.

Liked the dark humour