Movies - Dead Man

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	Movies - Dead Man

Dead Man is a 1995 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Michael Wincott , Lance Henriksen, and Robert Mitchum (in his final role).

Plot

The era is never explicitly stated, but Jarmusch has reported that Deadman is set in the 1870s.

Johnny Depp stars as an accountant named William Blake. His parents have both recently died, and his fiancee broke off their engagement. Blake uses his last remaining money for a train ride from Cleveland, Ohio to Machine, Arizona for a job offered him in a letter. After arriving at the Dickinson Metal Works, he finds the letter was sent months ago; his job position has already been filled. Blake demands to see Dickinson, played by Robert Mitchum, who then points a shotgun at Blake and tells him to get out or get shot. "The only job you're gonna get is pushin' up daisies."

William Blake comes across Thel, (Mili Avital) formerly a prostitute, who is selling paper flowers. In the next scene, they are lying on her bed when Dickinson's son, Charles, who happens to be the woman's ex-fiancé, opens the door and finds the two. After a short speech, he takes out a gun and aims for Blake - but he kills Thel instead when she shields Blake with her own body. Blake takes the gun Thel had shown him earlier and shoots down Charles. Blake is next seen with a wound in his chest, trying to get out through the window. He escapes with Charles's horse

Mr. Dickinson hires three bounty hunters to track down and bring Blake back, dead or alive, for stealing his prized horse, for the murder of his son and the supposed murderer of Thel (Mr. Dickinson seems more concerned with recovering the valuable horse than with avenging his son's death).

The next morning, after running away with that horse, Nobody (a Native American), played by Gary Farmer finds him, mistakes Blake for his namesake, attempts to heal his wound, then realizes it will eventually be fatal. Nobody keeps wandering the land, while Blake, due to his apparent weakness, is forced to follow him, and along the way, help kill many of the violent, deranged people they keep encountering.

Blake, now barely alive, is put into a canoe and sent to the sea to in order to return to the realm of souls.

The Two Blakes

Blake is not initially familiar with the works of the poet William Blake (18th-19th century artist and writer of the same name). One of the more memorable lines in the film comes from Depp's character before he kills a man; after the victim asks if he's William Blake, Blake replies, "Yes I am. Do you know my poetry?" and then shoots. The poetry of William Blake is quoted by Gary Farmer's character, a Native American named Nobody, at several points in the film.

Nobody was acquainted with the works of Blake when he was captured by English trappers and sold as a circus curiosity to be exploited throughout North America and England before being assimilated. He then finally escapes to his people, only to be rejected as a liar. Nobody's character is fictional but there are many well-documented instances of Natives exploited like this throughout the early history of the New World. Another character, a parricidal cannibalistic bounty hunter indirectly refers to Blake's poetry when he advises a colleague not to drink water from a still pond ("Expect poison from standing water" -Blake). Blake and Nobody travel from the Crow area of the Southwest, up to (presumably) the Makahs along the Northwest Pacific coast.

Deadman and Native American Cultures

This film is generally regarded as being extremely well-researched in regard to Native American culture.

It is also notable as one of rather few films about Native Americans, as directed by a Non-Native, that offers nuanced and considerate details of the individual differences between Native American tribes, and furthermore free of common stereotypes. There are untranslated passages in several Native American Languages, and Jarmusch included several in-jokes aimed at Native American viewers.

The movie makes many poetic statements about both Native American and Anglo-American cultures. A brief but highly informative book on the film was written by noted film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum (ISBN 0851708064).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dead Man ]

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