An accountant embarks on a strange journey across the late 1800s American West in Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 alt-Western Dead Man, now on 4k via Criterion.
The Film
I’m a fan of Odyssey-like stories. A protagonist on a journey featuring many odd interludes, strange character bits, and a descent into personal knowledge and understanding. O Brother Where Art Thou is my favorite Coen Brothers movie. Last year’s festival darling and one of my honorable mentions, Fucktoys is a candy-colored grindhouse odyssey. Let’s see how Christopher Nolan’s straightforward Odyssey goes this summer. In 1995, Jim Jarmusch took Johnny Deep across the American West in the alt-Western Dead Man. A hypnotic and often surreal film, I have always enjoyed letting the film’s slow rhythms wash over and engage, including this watch of the new Criterion 4k update to their 2018 Blu-ray disc.
Dead Man is a strange, often nightmarish odyssey as Johnny Depp’s William Blake (the works of the poet and artist of the same name flow through the film) works through the United States West at the end of the 19th century. After a train ride with increasingly scraggly passengers (wordlessly setting up the shifting of worlds and Blake out of his element) and a wonderlly weird speech by Crispin Glover, Blake is deposited in Machine, finds he doesn’t have a job and but soon ends up on the run due to being stuck with in a vioelnt lover’s quarrel that leaves both of them dead and he with a bullet near his heart, grinding its way to destiny. He meets Gary Farmer’s Nobody (my favorite character and performance here), a Native American who works in the film as a guide to the remainder of his life Like Glover, Depp’s Blake meets a variety of odd folks, often with violence, bringing character actors to great light: Alfredy Molina, Jared Harris, Iggy Pop, Gabriel Bryne, Robert Mitchum, John Hurt, and Billy Bob Thornton. Not to mention Lance Freakin’ Henriksen as a bounty hunter with Michael Wincott and Eugene Byrd. All these folks heighten the film in their brief moments: John Hurt clearly enjoying his small bit, and Mitchum is hilariously scary. 
The beautiful, stark black-and-white photography melds with the eerie guitar twangs of Neil Young to create an uneasy reality of the journey towards death. Jarmusch creates a gorgeously off-putting nature, along with the great production design by Bob Ziembicki. Filmed on exterior locations from Arizona up to the Washington/Oregon border (the shifting landscape over a few days of travel builds the otherworldly quality), it uses the beauty of the landscapes to heighten the oddity odyssey. It never feels quite real, like a soundstage is somehow transmogrified into nature. The misfitting artificiality enhances the unknowable quality of the journey and Blake’s descent to darkness and death. But also is profound with a depth of the quiet, somber road to death and Hell (as warned by Glover).
Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man is a dreamlike, alternate-Western; an esoteric and eccentric journey to the afterlife, led by a wonderfully subdued Johnny Depp and fantastically odd Gary Farmer.
The Package
Criterion packages the two discs in a single standard case. They overlap on the right side, with the booklet on the left. It is spine #919
The Presentation
Like Pee-Wee, this is a release I recall watching on grainy VHS. Grainy VHS for specialized Black-and-white photography wasn’t the best, so it’s astounding to see it in this way (I had the film on DVD but don’t recall how it looked). The incredible detail was wowing, sharp, and deep. Especially notable in a film set mostly in exteriors, in what we can see. The audio is 2.0. Subtitles are English only.
The Features
All features are ported from the 2018 Criterion release. Outside the 4K UHD, there is nothing new to this release.
Commentary
Production designer Bob Ziembicki and sound mixer Drew Kunin offer a great talk about everything behind the scenes to put the period piece together. It says selected scene, but they talk over most of the film. Good to hear from production design since so much of the film is the look and making it real, quick, and over a large amount of locations, especially for such a low-budget indie film. Even with their specialized niches, the talk is wide-ranging and full commentary on points of view.
Q & A with Jim Jarmusch
The writer-director answers questions sent to him, audio only, over a still of Depp and the deer fawn. Covering a variety of topics, Jarmusch has a fitting to his films odd, but still open way of answering. Much talk of the philosophical aspects of the film. Bill Hader sends a question, odd to hear a guy we think is fully entrenched in indie heap love on very mainstream titles. Appreciated the digging into Miramax’s often terrible methods. (47m)
Gary Farmer
Farmer talks about his career, living and working as a native American in cinema, how he met and worked with Jarmusch and Dead Man. Farmer has a quality where I can listen to him talk forever. (26m)
William Blake
Mili Avital, Alfred Molina, and Iggy Pop read William Blake poems over photos used for location-scouting. With so much Blake poetry heard in snatches in the film, cool to hear them read by familiar voices. (7m)
Deleted Scenes
A nice collection. Most don’t add to the film, repeating what did make it, but the best of them is seeing what’s an off-screen death in the film. Anything with more Lance and I’m cool. However, I do like the way it occurs in the film more, and I see why it was cut. (15m)
Neil Young
Footage from Jim Jarmusch of Young recording the score. Young developed it by watching the film and candoodling on his instruments. The commentary said it’s over in about 2 days. This might be of more interest to some, but I grew tired of watching Young riff after a little bit. (25m)
Music Video (1996)
One of Young’s tracks, edited with footage of the film mixed with Young on guitar. I loved the way the film was cut and used, which gives a great quality. Also features an alternate track of Depp reading a Blake poem (4m).
Black and White in Color
52 stills from the shoot in color. Weird to see something I only think of in black-and-white as fully colorful.
Trailer 3m
Booklet
18-page booklet featuring film stills, credits, and two essays. “Blake in America” by Amy Taubin and “Earth, Wind, and Fire” by Ben Ratliff
Final Notes
Jim Jarmusch’s strange western Dead Man receives a great package from Criterion. Outside of the updated video/audio of the 4k, there’s nothing new so if you want to update it would depend on how much you go for that. But if you don’t have it, as I did not, this is a great pick-up with a solid commentary, a beautiful transfer, and more.