Dead Man (1996) Synopsis & Summary

Synopsis

A dark, bitter commentary on modern American life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, a newly-orphaned accountant who leaves his home in Cleveland to accept a job in the frontier town of Machine. Upon his arrival, Blake is told by the factory owner Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) that the job has already been filled. Dejectedly, he enters a nearby tavern, ultimately spending the night with a former prostitute. A violent altercation with the woman's lover (Gabriel Byrne), also Dickinson's son, leaves Blake a murderer as well as mortally wounded, a bullet lodged dangerously close to his heart. He flees into the wilderness, where a Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer) mistakes Blake for the English poet William Blake and determines that he will be Blake's guide in his protracted passage into the spirit world. - Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Movie Info

Starring:
Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Robert Mitchum
Theatrical Release Date:
05/10/1996
DVD Release Date:
12/19/2000
Rating:
R
MPAA Reasons:
for moments of strong violence, a graphic sex scene and some language.
Run Time:
134 min.
Distributor(s):
Electric Pictures
Production Co.:
12-Gauge Productions, Miramax, Pandora Film, TriStar
Director(s):
Jim Jarmusch
Genre(s):
Action
Themes:
Bounty Hunters, Fish Out of Water, Sheriffs and Outlaws, Taming the West, Unlikely Criminals, Flight of the Innocent
Tone:
Enigmatic, Hallucinatory, Quirky, Melancholy, Bleak, Dreamlike
Keywords:
Native-American, accounting, bounty-hunter, cowboy, cross-cultural-relations, cross-dressing, drugs, escape, factory-owner, gunfighter, journey, law, murder, mysticism, on-the-run, outlaw [Western], revenge, spiritual, surrealism
Language:
English
Status:
In Theaters

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