Rating: 
Summary: Don't watch it if you're dead
Review: I am amazed at some of the negative reviews I have read about this film. I found this film to be completely overwhelming in it's beauty of ideas, photography and soundtrack. Perhaps it's the main character's metamorphisis to a 'killer of white men' that scares those who have written negative reviews. Perhaps their notions of humanity don't extend beyond the limits set by 'white men' and their 'machines', but who am I to judge? If you don't like to think too much and would rather have action and hot chicks force fed into your corpse, don't watch it, however, if you reckon you can handle an interesting perspective, beautiful scenes and a wickedly moody soundtrack (performed by a musical genious), check it out. Don't watch it if you're dead, it'll hurt!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: So you've got the people who think this film is self-imporant drivel. It is, but so much of any art is self-important drivel. Then there are the other's who proclaim it a masterpiece, a meditation on the intrusion of European man into the New World, and a commentary on William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell". Well, it's that too. But what cracks me up is that so many people blithely dismiss Gary Farmer's performance in this film. Perhaps he's not "indian" enough. I believe that his role was intentionally made as a slap in the face to America's perception of the Native American. We are made to expect a lithe, sinewy, loin-cloth clad, brown-skinned fellow spouting pseudo-mystic back-to-nature platitudes. What does this film give us but big Gary Farmer. Sure he's spouting seemingly pseudo-mystic pronunciations, but so many of these are just an example of Nobody's incredibly biting humor. ("How did you know I was here?" "Often the stench of white man precedes him.") It may take a slight perceptory switch to understand how funny Farmer actually was in this role. Bravo to Farmer and Jarmusch for creating a role that makes a real person of a Native American, and not a simple conformity to the cozy idea of an "indian". For the record, Farmer is very much Indian. Cayuga, to be exact. But alright, I'm with the "meditation" people on this movie. The relaxed, black and white approach of this movie points to the symbolic aspects of the film. Every scene is a furthering of the journey of our protagonist William Blake. Joseph Campbell would be flying about the room with this movie. I also enjoy Neil Young's meandering guitar score. I liked it so much I bought the soundtrack. DEAD MAN is as sure an example of any as Jarmusch's desire to understand the intersection of a culture he was raised in and others he doesn't know. While it may seem overwhelmingly bleak to some (How could it not? Look at the outcome.), it's probably one of the most understatedly humorous examples of the form you'll ever see.
Rating:
Summary: The Fate of The Fake William Blake
Review: Dead Man is a film beyond words, it is a masterpiece of black and white, a movie of texture and atmosphere, it is a lurid fantasy of western lore, a conflagration of the conventions of film action and acting, an ocher cucumber seen through a lens of vibrant green, a prefabricated orange in an otherwise somber bowl of fruit, something to regard with indigestion and a tendency to be pretentious, a motion of silence must be taken to avoid speaking too much about the subtle hysteria this film evokes, it is a film that aspires to be a silent film and fails only because it is not. Johnny Depp acts like Buster Keaton, with minimal facial movement, and a physical grace that makes you want to dance with him, while Crispin Glover shows up briefly just to remind you that he's a better actor than Johnny Depp, and Neil Young's raw and emotive guitar instrumental grows increasingly disturbing after the tenth time you hear it, but it is Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, and Robert Mitchum who remind you that this film is not meant to punish you but to make you laugh and then ask yourself why you ever took those old westerns seriously. If you don't like this western then I'd reccomend any John Wayne film (all his films are westerns) just for the thrill of seeing a drunken idiotic janitor shooting Injuns for two hours. I think the critic Roger Ebert said he liked this film because it made him want to read William Blake's poetry for ten minutes (in between screenings) just to have the pleasure of reading "some are born to endless night" over and over and feeling that at least one poet understood the horror of a movie critic's life.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth thinking about unless you think twice - please do!
Review: Some reviewers on this site find this movie totally empty and not worth thinking about. Nevertheless "Dead Man" has obviously made quite an impression on some of them, in fact so much, that they get themselves all worked up and can't wait to forget it. An apparently unexpectedly difficult decision to follow through, the alleged emptiness of the movie taken into consideration. Some of these angry reviewers obviously HAVE thought about it a great deal too, but it seems to have resulted in little more than a headache and a bad mood because they, like most of us after the first viewing, ended up confused. This can be a frustrating and scary experience, and with little tolerance for ambiguity and sad feelings they choose to give the movie neither a second thought nor a second viewing. They are thereby denying themselves a totally unique experience of coming to love a movie more each time you view it, even after 10 or 20 viewings. Yes, it is a sad, disturbing and confusing movie! But for most people life is at times sad, disturbing and confusing, and for some it takes a turn where there is no going back to the wellknown, there is only the painful task of letting go. Jarmusch's movie illustrates this like no other movie that I now of, and does it in a way that adds terrifying beauty to the sorrowfull recognition of this. The sadness and the beauty imbedded in every second of the movie points to something deeply human and trandescent beyond the pitcblack emptiness that some reviewers limit their insight to. Dear angry reviewers: It is not all emptiness! This movie changes with every viewing, because you will come to focus on different layers of meaning each time. It will reach deep into your soul, if you let it. It will resonate there forever.
Rating:
Summary: Poetry for people who hate poetry
Review: I'm not allowed to refer to another person's review here, but at the time of this writing, Amazon.com was posting a review of this movie that was clearly written by a person who was raised in Disneyland. This is one of the best movies ever made. Chicago Reader calls it an Acid Western and rates it "masterpiece". It compromises to no filmmaking convention. It's hardly possible to review it without giving away important aspects of the film the viewer should experience for her/himself. The movie is not a story, even though it's told through a story. The evolution of William Blake from innocent Cleveland accountant to a symbol (for English-educated Native American reject Nobody, played by Gary Farmer) for poetry itself; the tiny little worlds of late-19th-century white Western of-necessity survivalists, and the effects these little worlds had on Blake; the hilarious campfire scene with Iggy Pop and Billy Bob Thornton (and a third person -- can't find out who), and the dying beauty of the natives; the brutal innocence of the disenfranchised Nobody whose illusions (or were they?) propelled Blake to his -- future ... I was completely immersed. There is only one thing wrong with this movie. I love Neil Young, but, unless I'm missing some important symbolism, his score could have been more, well, varied. There are not many movies I want to own but this is one.
Rating:
Summary: I am regretting this review
Review: Dear amazon editors/censors.
Two times I have now tried to delete this review, because I became aware, that it is not allowed to comment on another review, as I had done here. I instead wrote another review not as direct in my address, and wanted to delete this one. I haven't succeded in deleting it. Why?
Rating: 
Summary: Totally empty pitch black eye candy, disgusting aftertaste
Review: So, here's the story. A gentleman from 19th century Ohio goes West to take a white collar job and ends up as an outlaw and then we don't actually know what happens to him in the end. If you saw this film, please tell me if I miss any single detail worth mentioning. That's it, there is nothing else there. No message to debate, no opinion to think about, nothing to come back to, to replay in the memory, nothing to watch again. In fact, I can't wait to forget that I saw it. Well, pretty good acting by Johnny Depp, can't deny this, in fact, top notch acting. The rest is nothing, emptiness, just some artsy scene arrangement, sort of cinematic ikebana. Dead body right, dead body left, kill this, kill that... Sound track matches the visuals with its sickness. I don't remember a seeing a NIGHTMARE that was as bad as this movie. The ending is nothing but a flop half baked in a hurry: some generic primitive native settlement that does not match anything you may find in any period of the history, for some reason with one hi-tech detail in it, two men shoot each other and set one more adrift into some water body, a lake or a sea, who cares. There were a couple Jim Jarmusch movies I liked, namely Night on Earth (very much) and The Samurai Way (sort of). Now, after that dead man-dead movie I am not sure if I like these either. Too much dark sickness, bad medecine.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: For me, this is THE revisionist western of the 1990s. It is also a bizzarrely compelling spiritual journey of one loner through capitalist America. It's hard to describe Dead Man. I think it's one of those movies that has to be seen. However, it is definitely not for all tastes. It is deliberately paced and quite strange at times. The two highlights for me (though I love the movie) are the endlessly amusing (and brilliant) cameos that give the movie its comedic edge, and Neil Young's fantastic score. I am a great admirer of him and the music in this film just cements my attitudes towards him. Dead Man nicely deconstructs lots of western myths and presents a truly original vision. It is a unique film that stands out from other recent attempts at the western.
Rating:
Summary: This movie is a masterpiece!
Review: I watched this movie many years ago. It really is a thinking mans movie. The fact that it's set to a western backdrop is irrelevant. Recently I started thinking more about this movie and relating with the concept of DEAD MAN. You'll really like the movie if you like introspective "Trippy Movies" If you like RAMBO pass this one up.
Rating:
Summary: A World with out Depp
Review: A cinematic world without Johnny Depp would be a very sad place indeed. He as proven time and again just how great he really is and this movie as easily got to be at the top of this list. Anyone with any film integrity who has seen this movies knows that it doesn't get much better. Jim Jarmusch is one of the greatest directors of our time and the pairing of these two is legendary (maybe not quite as legendary as Depp and Burton, but pretty damn close). If you haven't seen this movie than don't wait another minute. Don't be one of the poor fools who misses out on this diamond in the rough.
|
