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Dead Man

  • 1995
  • R
  • 2h 1m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
106K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,748
188
Johnny Depp in Dead Man (1995)
Trailer
Play trailer1:34
1 Video
92 Photos
Coming-of-AgeDark ComedyMountain AdventurePeriod DramaPsychological DramaQuestAdventureDramaWestern

On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.

  • Director
    • Jim Jarmusch
  • Writer
    • Jim Jarmusch
  • Stars
    • Johnny Depp
    • Gary Farmer
    • Crispin Glover
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    106K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    4,748
    188
    • Director
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • Writer
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • Stars
      • Johnny Depp
      • Gary Farmer
      • Crispin Glover
    • 393User reviews
    • 90Critic reviews
    • 62Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 14 nominations total

    Videos1

    Dead Man
    Trailer 1:34
    Dead Man

    Photos92

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    Top cast31

    Edit
    Johnny Depp
    Johnny Depp
    • William Blake
    Gary Farmer
    Gary Farmer
    • Nobody
    Crispin Glover
    Crispin Glover
    • Train Fireman
    Lance Henriksen
    Lance Henriksen
    • Cole Wilson
    Michael Wincott
    Michael Wincott
    • Conway Twill
    Eugene Byrd
    Eugene Byrd
    • Johnny 'The Kid' Pickett
    John Hurt
    John Hurt
    • John Scholfield
    Robert Mitchum
    Robert Mitchum
    • John Dickinson
    Iggy Pop
    Iggy Pop
    • Salvatore 'Sally' Jenko
    Gabriel Byrne
    Gabriel Byrne
    • Charlie Dickinson
    Jared Harris
    Jared Harris
    • Benmont Tench
    Mili Avital
    Mili Avital
    • Thel Russell
    Jimmie Ray Weeks
    Jimmie Ray Weeks
    • Marvin, Older Marshal
    Mark Bringelson
    Mark Bringelson
    • Lee, Younger Marshal
    John North
    John North
    • Mr. Olafsen
    Pete Schrum
    Pete Schrum
    • Drunk
    • (as Peter Schrum)
    Mike Dawson
    • Old Man with 'Wanted' Posters
    Billy Bob Thornton
    Billy Bob Thornton
    • Big George Drakoulious
    • Director
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • Writer
      • Jim Jarmusch
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews393

    7.5106.1K
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    Featured reviews

    10Bored_Dragon

    Hypnotizing dream

    Fantastic choice of actors, led by Johnny Depp, perfectly portraying a man who slowly crosses to the other side and blends with the nature on his last journey, and Gary Farmer, who brings some colour into this black and white masterpiece. Jarmusch overcame himself in this movie. Beautiful black and white cadres followed by Neil Young's hypnotizing guitar make us slip into a trance and drag us in another world, where we peacefully flow towards the end. The story is deep and sad, violent and romantic, at the same time full of death and full of life. The best performances of both Jarmusch and Young mixed together in one of the best movies of all time. It simply has no flaws at all.

    10/10
    sundevil-pictures

    Inescapable Doom at the End of the Line

    Heading towards a metalworks factory at the edge of the known universe, a pristine, young accountant named William Blake steps into the ungodly, mechanical hell that is the town of Machine. And so begins this man's descent into purgatory...in the wrong place, at a point where time itself is nonexistent.

    Blake arrives in Machine after a demented, tireless train ride through what may be his own self. Spanning the beauty of epic horizons and dense forests, yet ending in the bleak misery of the barren desert, we meet this out-of-place traveler in a tiring, strange situation. His frailty is evident: alone, without a living heir, struggling to make his way amidst the freaks and grim destination that awaits. As expected, the town itself begs no welcome, as the malevolent rumors prove true, and leave Blake face to face with the dusty spines of inexorable destiny. In more ways than one, the Wild West awaits...

    From this point on, Blake embarks on his surrealistic journey into nothingness, as he becomes a marked man running from nearly everyone and everything. Trusting in a Native friend (appropriately named `Nobody'), the descent into Blake's rejection is juxtaposed with the realities of a truly inescapable destiny. As such, the notions of ill fate and bad luck are separately defined alongside each other. Soon enough, however, Blake learns to cope with the road to ruin, and from his relationship with Nobody, he begins to transform into the gunslinging poet he never was.

    In these aspects - the premise, the cinematic device, and the endless attention to narrative and metaphoric detail - the film is simply brilliant. Watching Johnny Depp's character transformation amidst Jim Jarmusch's artistic direction of both beauty and brutality is simply exceptional, despite any problems the film may contain. A feeling of purgatorial confinement is truly achieved as humor is mixed with suspense, and uneasiness blends with inevitability. This is definitely one of the few movies that strangely seizes the disposition, toying with it until sufficiently queasy.

    Nevertheless, while the story, acting, and cinematic composition of the film are excellent, certain directorial choices do prevent it from achieving perfection. The primary problem concerns the dreamlike quality interspersed through several drawn-out fades: while effective, they are overused, and only serve to impair the flow of the film and it's intended message. Another problem is the tempo of the action: the characters, while quick to quip and raise their weapons, engage in gunfights at the speed of snails. When a shot is fired, the attacker simply stands in place, only to be killed by the target he missed. This particular criticism can lend itself to the film as a whole, as well. In other words, had the entire pace of the film been quickened, perhaps Jarmusch's voyage into the depths of doom and despair may have been more effective. Lastly, as in many independent films, superfluous `art film' shots and indie flavor over-season the picture simply to separate it from big-studio Hollywood...though as the film progresses, these moments become less apparent.

    Overall, this film is one to be seen by anyone who enjoys a creative story with TONS of review value. Several notable faces make their way through the screen (Gabriel Bryne, Robert Mitchum, Crispin Glover, Iggy Pop, and more), and the dirty, electric twang of Neil Young's guitar fills the gaps with a dark, mechanical, Southwestern gloom.

    Enter the town of Machine, and you'll be processed as well. Just watch out for snags along the trail - they make the journey a bit annoying, and certainly longer than what is warranted by the reaches of the attention span...or simply the principles of artistic efficiency.
    sukara

    Filmed Poetry

    Jim Jarmusch is one of my favorite directors, and Dead Man is probably the greatest work he has ever done. Very rarely does a film come alive with a sense of poetry. The only other film I can compare it to would be Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire. The film moves like a dream, floating and spinning around you. Neil Young's electric score churns like a ghost train and pushes the film farther. There isn't one performance that is wrong, nor is there ever a false moment. From start to finish this film pulls you into it's dream land, and carries you along on clouds until the finish.
    9Siradakis

    Magical trip to demise

    What a movie!... didn't want to see it at first.. But, then, when it begins, you take the trip with Blake to the big sea.

    So beatiful pictures, such poetry in every single one of them. Hypnotic black and white scenes, still and vast nature, music that takes you down the other side.

    It's the unconsious trip of one man to death, slowly descending to another level, deeper into nature. Or is he already dead and is not aware of it? Rivers, trees, animals and spirits to guide him along the way. This is a trip to self-knowledge, a hallucinational, sweet and slow resignation from needs and senses.

    Amazing directing, incredible photography and an also amazing Johnny Depp, sunk in his own visions and thoughts, excellent in his portrayal of a man's abdication to parrallel levels of consiousness.

    Thank god there is the indie american film making, that we see such beatiful movies.
    10NateWatchesCoolMovies

    One of my all time favourites.

    Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man is a truly one of a kind film, a film that I have been entranced for over a decade by, and constantly revisit it's haunting beauty, poetic absurdities and stark, gorgeous black and white cinematography (holla to Robby Muller). Johnny Depp basically plays a meek, downtrodden east coast boy mired in a wild, violent and confusing journey through a western outpost town and after a love triangle ends in murder, possibly his own, he embarks on a strange, spiritual walk through a Pacific Northwest netherworld of pine trees, outlaw bounty hunters, and oddball characters, led by a Native named Nobody (the excellent Gary Farmer). Is he dead? Was he even there to begin with? Jarmusch abandons logic for an expressionist approach, and the film ends up as a hypnotic tone poem and visual palette of events that don't really make sense, and may frustrate some. But to those open to its idiosyncratic writing and determined, enigmatic style, oh what a film it is. The cast is absolutely to die for. Depp is incredible in the best performance of his extremely uneven career. The character arc he inhabits here is wonderful, taking a feeble, checkered suited mess of a man and morphing him into a ghostly, predatorial, terrifying wilderness archetypal bandit, a force of nature among the trees and mountains. Haunted eyes, quick draw kill streak, moody contemplation, it really is his finest work. Michael Wincott steals his scenes as a chatty assassin and Lance Henriksen is scary as hell, playing a hired killer who "fucked his parents, then cooked them up and ate them." (Don't ask, just go with the film's demented flow). Gabriel Byrne, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Mitchum, Milli Avital, John Hurt and an especially weird Crispin Glover all nail their cameos, and Neil Young's beautiful, melodic, elemental score is the beating heart of the film. Dead Man isn't a traditional film in any sense, and in fact seems to take place in a cliché free, bizarro alternate western dream universe where the rules don't apply, but all the beauty, mysticism and rugged frontier intrigue of the genre still remain. Fine with me. One of my all time favourites.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Neil Young recorded the soundtrack by improvising (mostly on his electric guitar, with some acoustic guitar, piano, and organ) as he watched the newly edited movie alone in a recording studio.
    • Goofs
      Conway Twill sleeps with a Teddy Bear in scenes set in the late 19th century. The Teddy Bear was invented in the early 20th century, and named after US President Teddy Roosevelt.
    • Quotes

      William Blake: What is your name?

      Nobody: My name is Nobody.

      William Blake: Excuse me?

      Nobody: My name is Exaybachay. He Who Talks Loud, Saying Nothing.

      William Blake: He who talks... I thought you said your name was Nobody.

      Nobody: I preferred to be called Nobody.

    • Crazy credits
      Although Crispin Glover receives 9th billing, before Gabriel Bryne, John Hurt, Alfred Molina and Robert Mitchum, his part ends before his name appears in the opening credits.
    • Connections
      Edited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
    • Soundtracks
      Billy Boy
      (uncredited)

      [Played in the saloon]

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    FAQ17

    • How long is Dead Man?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 10, 1996 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Germany
      • Japan
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Facebook
    • Languages
      • English
      • Cree
    • Also known as
      • Hombre muerto
    • Filming locations
      • Beacon Rock, Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA
    • Production companies
      • Pandora Filmproduktion
      • JVC Entertainment Networks
      • Newmarket Capital Group
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $9,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,037,847
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $104,649
      • May 12, 1996
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,085,079
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 1 minute
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Stereo
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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