ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607020008
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Fun with Jim Jarmusch is, well, fun with Jim Jarmusch.
That is to say, if you like this director's work - "Down by Law," "Stranger Than Paradise" or "Night on Earth," you really ought to check out "Dead Man."
And its star, Johnny Depp, does wear plaid - jacket, vest and pants, all the way into the Wild West on a train filled with hunters, trappers and assorted desperate looking people. Depp plays a mild-mannered accountant named William Blake, who has spent his life savings to travel to Machine, Somewhere. He has in hand a letter assuring him of a job at the Dickinson Metalworks.
His only human encounter on the interminable train ride is with a prophetic fireman, played by Crispin Glover, who warns him not to trust words on paper - and assures him that he is traveling to Hell.
Blake's first glimpse of Machine bears out the fireman's words. Its filthy streets are lined with piles of animal hides, skulls, antlers and coffins. Blake proceeds to the Metalworks, where he learns in short order that there is no job - and that Mr. Dickinson himself (Robert Mitchum) not only won't help him, but would kill him just for being a mild annoyance.
Back out in the street, he's befriended by a beautiful woman. OK, she's nothing but trouble. But she's important to the plot, about which I will say little else.
Jarmusch definitely has in mind here a hero's journey, complete with death, spiritual guide (an American Indian who calls himself Nobody) and rebirth. It is both unsubtle and sometimes slipshod. While Jarmusch takes time to convey, say, the interminability of the train ride, he takes not nearly enough time crawling inside Blake's head and showing a little bit of what's going on in there. The Big Moment seems to actually take place while Blake is relieving himself against the trunk of an interesting tree. And he is apparently charged, thereafter, with the responsibility of ridding the world of stupid white men.
But it's all a bit of a muddle. Let's not even start on the William Blake stuff.
Finally, there's the little matter of making Nobody a mouthpiece for American Indian history. Jarmusch's images - the movie is in black-and-white - are so powerful, it's difficult to see why he thought it necessary to have characters preach and point out the symbols. For example, after one shootout, a man falls so that his head is outlined in the sunray pattern of the campfire. A bounty hunter gazes down and says, "He looks like a godreligious icon."
Gee, thanks.
But there are several good reasons to forgive these excesses. First, there is Jarmusch's eye for an interesting shot - usually used with sound thematic intent. Second, Depp, Gary Farmer (who plays Nobody), John Hurt, Iggy Pop (as a cross-dressing outlaw, I guess), Gabriel Byrne, Alfred Molina and Michael Wincott are all very good - and occasionally very funny, with a lot of help from Jarmusch's characteristically quirky script.
Just a guess here - maybe old Jim ought to let his creative impulses work, uh, without inorganic assistance next time, because he seems to have confused himself a little bit (and made the pretty bad mistake of letting Neil Young make unpleasant noises all over the soundtrack).
But "Dead Man" is still exceptionally interesting, a perfect antidote to Blockbuster Syndrome.
Dead Man ***
A Miramax release showing at The Grandin Theatre. Rated R for profanity, explicit violence and several sordid details. 120 mins.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gary Farmer (left) and Johnny Depp star in "Dead Man."by CNB