Dead Man

B: We tend not to be very big fans of Johnny Depp. Perhaps this has to do with his mannerisms when speaking, or the weird stuff he sometimes does with his facial hair, or perhaps he didn't leave a very positive impression in the interview we caught on James Lipton's Inside the Actors Studio -- particularly with regards to what we saw as the unnecessary pretentiousness of rolling his own cigarettes during said interview (you can find the interview on YouTube). However, in Dead Man (1995), Jim Jarmusch's literary, post-modern, tripped-out western, we seem to be quite pleased watching him as "William Blake."

William Blake's journey to his new post as an accountant at Dickinson Metalworks in the town of Machine is actually the entrance to the more challenging journey that will test and prepare him for his final journey to where all souls come from. William Blake is guided and protected by Nobody (Gary Farmer) on the last leg of his journey. (And here I allow LK to interject since I don't know a thing about the historical Blake). The most important thing about him (that is the historical Blake) is that he is already dead, just like the movie's Blake (Depp).

LK: The fact that Depp-Blake never confirms that he is the William Blake and doesn't know any of "his own" poetry doesn't seem to bother Nobody. Depp-Blake morphs into a combination of the the identity given to him by Nobody and the circumstances in which he finds himself. It's not always clear when Nobody is reciting poetry, but early on he quotes "Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night" from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence." The reason Nobody does not closely examine whether Depp-Blake is the Blake may be because all that really matters is, as B states above, that they are both dead. All dead men are dead men. When souls return to where they come from, they are all joined -- therefore if Depp-Blake is dead, as Nobody says he is, he is therefore all Blakes.

Dead Man is not a passive viewing experience. No questions will be answered. While the movie can be watched as a literal narrative, it also is extremely complex on all levels. B has one interpretation that this may all be a journey through Purgatory, that Depp-Blake is either dead before he gets on the train or dies shortly after arriving in Machine, and he must go on this journey to finally achieve peace. (I never read The Divine Comedy -- anyone?) I think it's a compelling idea. There is some implication that the town of Machine is Hell, and Mr. Dickinson, who runs the metalworks, is the devil. This could mean that all of the characters in this place are either trapped there and reenacting the same events over and over (and their deaths within the realm of the dead are therefore very complex or are meaningless -- I haven't worked that out...), or the characters are other souls journeying through this land of the dead and who will either go back to Machine/Hell or on to the next level as Blake does. The souls in this place certainly are suffering (although purification seems to be less evident). Minions of hell (working for Dickinson) come after Depp-Blake to try to re-claim him before he finishes his journey.

B: As we watched the film we kept wondering why we didn't find Depp difficult to take but we eventually realized that it might have been that he doesn't talk much and doesn't do weird things with his facial hair (or any of his hair). [LK: Maybe we can actually watch another Depp movie after this. That irritation from the Actors Studio interview really did linger on for us...] Anyway, the film is shot in grainy black and white and Neil Young's music fills in the otherwise silent episodes with raspy chords that make the film a full sensory experience. Certainly, Dead Man is a film worth watching.