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Dead ManRating:
Release Date: 04 March, 2003 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $11.99 You SAVE: $3.00! Cast: Complete Cast (18 total) |
Dead Man Reviews
"Some are born to endless night."
Dead Man signals us right away that it is not the typical tenderfoot goes to wild west story by the gorgeous black-and-white film and the fade to black technique used to punctuate scenes. Johnny Depp plays William Blake, an accountant hired to work at the end of the railroad line in Machine, a town described as hell by the engine stoker on the railroad.
As is typical in these sorts of movies, the hero is down on his luck quickly and becomes a fugitive from the law. He is befriended by an outcast Indian while on the run from wild, cannibalistic bounty hunters. William never seems comfortable in his desperado role but somehow stumbles through to the California Coast.
This film had some potential. Unfortunately the stylistic conceit of Jarmusch doesn't really work in this film. The constant fading to black gets tiresome when it happens every five minutes, as does Neil Young's discordant soundtrack which rarely fits the action and is ham handedly and generously slathered onto every scene. The all star cast does a fine job, as does the star Johnny Depp who bemusedly acts as if he is in a dream--this is one aspect that really works for the film, though it would have been nice to see Depp play a larger range of emotions. Another part that is finely done is the filming of nature. Each tree and leaf seems to be perfectly delineated in the well-framed shots, evocative of Ansel Adams' prints. Could have been a stunner with some serious editing!
Postmodernism 101
This film perefectly exemplifies all that is best about Postmodernism. A timeless masterpiece.
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