Dead Man (1996)

In Dead Man we have Jarmusch's trademark sense of humour and he's on top form here. I must confess that I initially watched this film to see Mr Depp in action. These days I'm a little tired of watching him, so if you find the energy to turn back to the best days of Johnny when he acted in great films then this is an ideal example.The tobacco line is as legendary as anything written by the Coen Brothers. Then there's the STupid White Man lines from the fake Red Indian and their references to William Blake the poet. It's all very funny in a light way. What makes Dead Man better than Jim's other movies is the stunning, rocky soundtrack and the brilliant black-and-white visuals. It's not a movie to learn the meaning of life, but it's a real memorable experience, almost psychedelic at times. You'd expect that when he enters Red Indian territory. And this time, you couldn't cast anyway as perfect as Johnny Depp for the role.

Fantastic choice of actors, led by Johnny Depp, perfectly portraying man who slowly crosses to the other side and blends with nature on his last journey, and Gary Farmer, who brings some colour into this black and white masterpiece. Jarmusch overcame himself in this movie. Beautiful black and white cadres followed by Neil Young's hypnotizing guitar make us slip into trance and drag us in another world where we peacefully flow towards the end. Story is deep and sad, at the same time full of death and of life. The best performances of both Jarmusch and Young mixed together in one of the best movies of all time. It simply has no flaws at all.

When I first heard the strum of a distorted guitar ten minutes into the movie, I thought "wow, that was annoying, I hope that never happens again'... If only I knew that the entire score was the same f***ing sound repeated for every literal beat of this movie.Nothing about this movie works:-the editing was so poorly executed that I thought my Wifi went down.-Every transition is just a fade to black as if it was made for TV in the 70's-The writing feels like a flower child wanted to write about his inner workings, but was too pretentious, high, and incompetent that it comes off as such. Any symbolism or spiritual undertones are so incredibly flat and obvious that it's ridiculous to even be labeled as 'cerebral' on Netflix.-the acting (aside from the young Depp) was so poor that it felt like a soap opera. everything from the stuck up, angry old man in his office, to the stereotyped Indian cut-outs to the shoot-out at the very end of the movie that made me burst out laughing at how lazy, stupid, and melodramatic it was.-there's no reason to film in black and white, nothing else was ever attended to in cinematography because it looked semi-artsy enough to hold over a regular audience without making anything original or coherent.-every act of violence in this movie appears to be baby's first SFX, the man's head getting crushed looked like f***ing clay. the child getting hit with a rifle didn't even come close to contact. The makeup of Depp's face looks like it was made of crayola wax.Don't watch this movie unless you have a hard-on for style over substance. but even then, there is no style to this movie, it's garbage. the only way this kind of laziness could be accepted is if it was made in the 30's. This came out the same year as Braveheart, 12 Monkeys, Heat, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects...This is 2 hours of your life that not only will you not get back, but they will be forced out of you like a f***ing laxative.

I really sought this out because of Only lovers Left Alive, a wildly entrancing, unique film. This is also unique in the pantheon of western genres. I think the score doesn't fit quite as nicely as it should with the film's content, but it doesn't distract too badly. Johnny Depp does great work here, totally in sync with what Jim intended. It's actually not as minimalist as people like to point out (from what I've read) but you can still see where some people get impatient to a point. It's hypnotizing and it does a fine job of setting up its atmosphere well enough to succeed in its points. Definitely recommended enough, even if not sure how much I really liked it.