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"Dead Man Acting" |
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Directed by Jim Jarmusch
- Written by Jim
Jarmusch
Starring Johnny Depp,
Alfred Molina, Crispin
Glover, Lance Henriksen
Distributed by Miramax -
1995 - 121mins - Rated R |
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Jacob Hall's
Review
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D |
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No one can survive becoming a legend. |
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Sitting
through "Dead Man" is like sitting through a warped version of history
class, where your teacher spews information about the old west and the
Native Americans while the room implodes due to an overdose of acid.
Speaking of acid, writer/director Jim Jarmusch must have been on a
steady supply of it while he made this film, judging by the lack of
entertainment or thoughtfulness. The same for whoever wrote the
soundtrack, which is one of the worst musical scores I've ever heard.
Seriously folks, if a dead cat with rusty hooks for paws teamed up
with an even more eccentric, slower Spinal Tap, then they would have
made this musical score.
"Dead Man" is about an accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp),
who kills a man and must evade the law. He meets an Indian (whoops,
NATIVE AMERICAN) who believes that he is the ghost (or reincarnation
or something, it's never clear) of the British poet of the same name.
What follows, is torturous.
It is shot in black and white for no other reason than to look arty.
The editing is made up of nothing but fade to blacks, and the camera
does nothing special. A nice cast is wasted. Depp, Crispin Glover,
Alfred Molina, Billy Bob Thornton, Lance Henricksen and others are
quite good (sparing the movie from a D), and I hope they enjoyed their
paychecks and bought something nice enough to make up for the time
they wasted making this.
Blake eventually becomes a serious killer, and slaughters many people
in many gruesome ways. The outlaws tracking him try to lighten things
up with dark humor, but it's all either flat, or sick and not funny.
An unrealistic head-squashing scene fails to liven the film up either,
just because, well, it's gross and un-needed!
Oh, yeah. According to this film, and it's acid driven makers, all
Native Americans are fat, speak in riddles, have bones littered in
their villages, and act like modern white trash in their attitudes.
Can you stomach all of the above? Can you resist torture? Then go see
"Dead Man." |
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© Written by Jacob Hall -
Email
Me! |
TC Candler's Comment
n/a
Richard Propes' Comment
Hmmm. How
shall I put it? Being as Jacob is a professional
peer, I simply must be respectful. Nah, screw
it. Jacob is just plain wrong on this one. "Dead
Man" is a vastly under-rated, brilliantly acted
film with beautiful cinematography and the
ever-present unique vision of Jim Jarmusch. Of
course, I will confess to being a rather diehard
Jarmusch fan. I will also confess that this film
is, in fact, NOT one of my favorite Jarmusch
films. Yet, I still find myself renting this
film about once a year and just watching the
screen with this silly, happy grin.
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