Wednesday, June 15, 2016

DEAD MAN





cinema à la carte                                 





DEAD MAN


The film was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.[12]

In its theatrical release, Dead Man earned $1,037,847[3] on a budget of $9 million.[2] Then, it was the most expensive of Jarmusch's films, due, in part, to the costs of ensuring accurate period detail.

The film contains conversations in the Cree and Blackfoot languages, which were intentionally not translated or subtitled, for the exclusive understanding of members of those nations, including several in-jokes aimed at Native American viewers.[10] The Native character was also played by an Indigenous American actor, Gary Farmer, who is a Cayuga.
Critical responses were mixed to positive. Roger Ebert gave the film one-and-a-half stars (out of four stars maximum), noting "Jim Jarmusch is trying to get at something here, and I don't have a clue what it is".[13] Desson Howe and Rita Kempley, both writing for theWashington Post, offered largely negative appraisals.[14] Greil Marcus, however, mounted a spirited defense of the film, titling his review "Dead Again: Here are 10 reasons why 'Dead Man' is the best movie of the end of the 20th century."[15] Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum dubbed the film an acid western, calling it "as exciting and as important as any new American movie I've seen in the 90s"[16] and went on to write a book on the film, entitled Dead Man (ISBN 0-85170-806-4) published by the British Film Institute. The film scored a 'Fresh' 71% rating on website Rotten Tomatoes. [Wiki]

In July 2010, New York Times chief film critic A. O. Scott capped a laudatory "Critics' Picks" video review of the film by calling it "One of the very best movies of the 1990s."[17]



If you're old enough to have seen DEAD MAN, you've forgotten that you did.  So there's that. The opening sequences in this film are so ... so outre as to be, well, outre.  "10 reasons why 'Dead Man' is the best movie of the end of the 20th century" is overstating it, but it is unique, and has a lot of righteous killings. Hell, I'll give it 5 Stars for style alone.


2 comments:

Roy Lofquist said...

I've watched it. Three times. It's about time to watch it again.

Brian E. said...

And for those so inclined, it's currently included in Amazon Prime...

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