(aka 'Dead Man" or "Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man')

directed by Jim Jarmusch
USA 1995

 

 Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, a disturbing, mysterious black-and-white western, opens with someone named William Blake (Johnny Depp), a recently orphaned accountant from Cleveland, traveling west on a train with the promise of a job at a metal works in a town called Machine. He keeps dozing off and waking to new sets of fellow passengers, including several who fire their guns out the windows at a herd of buffalo. (Such occurrences were common in the 1870s, encouraged by the government as a means of wiping out Indians by eliminating one of their staples; in 1875, over a million buffalo were slaughtered.)

When Blake arrives at his destination--a nightmarishly squalid settlement of festering meanness and pollution--he's told derisively by both Dickinson (Robert Mitchum), the blustering, hostile metal-works owner, and one of his henchmen (John Hurt) that they no longer need an accountant, having filled the position some time ago. After repairing to a saloon to spend the remainder of his meager supply of cash on a small bottle of whiskey, Blake runs into a former prostitute named Thel (Mili Avital) selling paper flowers and winds up in bed with her. Later that night Thel's former lover (Gabriel Byrne)--who happens to be Dickinson's son--bursts in and, after a brief exchange, shoots her dead and seriously wounds Blake in the chest with the same bullet. Grabbing Thel's bedside pistol, Blake fires back three times, eventually hitting his assailant in the neck, and makes a clumsy getaway on the man's pinto after falling out the window.

Excerpt from Jonathan Rosenbaum's review at the Chicago Reader located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: May 26th, 1995 - Cannes Film Festival

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DVD Review: Miramax Home Entertainment - Region 1- NTSC

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Distribution Miramax  - Region 1- NTSC
Runtime 2:01:08
Video 1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 5.91 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) 
Subtitles English (close captioned), French, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Miramax Home Entertainment

Aspect Ratio:
Original aspect Ratio 1.78:1

Edition Details:

• Deleted Scenes (3:28)
• Outtakes (14:53)
• Dead Man Theme music video (2:40)

• Trailer (1:55)

DVD Release Date: September 7th, 2004

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Chapters: 19

 

 

Comments:

This is a very good DVD. The picture quality is excellent, it has some decent, if not illuminating, extras, is anamorphic and has removable close-captioned subtitles. I guess another of the big pluses of this intriguing film-on-DVD is that the price is very reasonable. This appears to be as clean and sharp a black and white print as I can remember and is accented further by the great outdoor cinematography. For Jarmusch fans and those ready to become one - this is a must-own DVD.  out of    

Gary W. Tooze

 





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Distribution Miramax  - Region 1- NTSC




 

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