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Gary Farmer & Johnny Depp, Photo: Christine Parry

" DEAD MAN is the story of a young man's journey, both physically and spiritually, into very unfamiliar terrain. William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels to the extreme western frontiers of America sometime in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American, named "Nobody" (Gary Farmer), who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name.

The story, with Nobody's help, leads Blake through situations that are in turn comical and violent. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blake into a hunted outlaw, a killer, and a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away. Thrown into a world that is cruel and chaotic, his eyes are opened to the fragility that defines the realm of the living. It is as though he passes through the surface of a mirror, and emerges into a previously unknown world that exists on the other side. "

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Eilen tuli kaapelikanavalta Johnny Deppin tähdittämä, kulttiohjaajaksikin tituleeratun Jim Jarmuschin ohjaama Dead Man. Omituinen, painostava, ahdistava ja brutaali leffa. L ei innostunut, piti kättään silmiensä edessä suurimman osan ajasta ja pyysi vaihtamaan kanavaa. Vaikea elokuvasta oli oikein löytää mitään juontakaan, mutta oli pakko katsoa kokonaan. Jotain hypnoottista ja perin juurin sairasta filmissä oli, varsinkin kun mukaan oli sotkettu koomisia tilanteita jotka kaikessa perverssiydessään nauratti väkisinkin. En saanut silmiäni irti kuvaruudusta, tuijotin vain suu auki. Näkemäänsä sulateltava pitkään. Vähän jotain vastaavaa koin viimeksi lukiessani Bret Easton Ellisin Amerikan Psykon. Dead Manissa ammutaan melkein joka kohtauksessa joku, jopa syödään ihmislihaa, pääasiassa syyttä suotta, kunnes itse tappaminen menettää katsojan silmissä tyystin merkityksensä.

" In 1995, Jarmusch released Dead Man, a film set in the American West in the 19th century starring Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer that has been called a Western movie, an "anti-Western," and a "post-Western" by various critics. The film has been hailed as one of the few films made by a Caucasian that presents an authentic Native American culture and character, and Jarmusch stands by it as such; however, critics have both praised and decried the film for its portrayal of the American West, violence, and especially Native Americans[1]. The film was shot in black and white by Robby Müller, and features a score composed and performed by Neil Young. "

Wikipedia