\u201cStupid fucking white man.\u201d<\/em> Dead Man<\/em>, Jim Jarmusch\u2019s 1995 alt-Western starring Johnny Depp, is the first and<\/em> last Jarmusch film Miramax distributed. It\u2019s kinda crazy that Jarmusch and Miramax got in bed together in the first place; after all, Jarmusch is an indie-movie auteur known for making the movies he wants to make, no matter how strange, surreal, or downright bizarre they get. All those things and more happen in Dead<\/em>, an oddball oater that\u2019s more about the work of English poet William Blake than cowboys having shoot-outs in the Wild West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Blake also happens to be the name of Depp\u2019s protagonist, an accountant from Cleveland who travels to a skeevy-ass company town \u2014 called Machine \u2014 to accept a job promised to him in the town\u2019s metal works. Showing up in a dandy checkered suit, he discovers the position has already been filled. When he tries to reason with the boss (Robert Mitchum, in his final role before his 1997 death), the old man points a gun in his face and tells him to get to steppin\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A stranger in a strange land, he accepts some kindness from an ex-prostitute-turned-paper-flower-pusher (Mili Avital) who invites him to her room and her bed. Unfortunately, the good vibes are cut short when her ex (Gabriel Byrne) shows up looking to reconcile. A lovers\u2019 quarrel\/shootout ensues that ends with the girl getting killed, Blake fatally shooting the ex in self-defense, and Blake \u2014 now with a bullet lodged in his chest \u2014 on the run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blake\u2019s journey as a fugitive has him teaming up with Nobody (Gary Farmer), an ousted, Native American drifter who thinks that because Blake is named after the poet, he is also a reincarnation. All the while, they\u2019re being hunted by a trio of killers \u2014 led by Lance Henriksen\u2019s silent-but-deadly cannibal \u2014 hired by that metal-works boss. (It turns out the ex was the boss\u2019s son.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like so many Jarmusch films, Dead<\/em> is an esoteric, eccentric tale of unlikely people coming together and reaching common ground while on the road. Blake and Nobody become literal partners-in-crime, wiping out the lawmen and other nefarious folk (sometimes by accident) who come after the reluctant outlaw. But, since this is a Western, Jarmusch uses this as an opportunity to slyly remind viewers how our country, a land once covered with trees, animals and indigenous peoples, was built (and continues to run) on fear, paranoia and bloodshed. He\u2019s actually quite blunt about it in one instance: When Blake discovers a loaded gun underneath a pillow in that girl\u2019s bed, he asks her why she has it. Her response: \u201cBecause this is America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shot in black-and-white and featuring an echoing, electric guitar-heavy score from Neil Young<\/a>, Dead<\/em> also has a fascinating, international cast playing an assortment of rude rogues (several of them named after musicians and record producers who I\u2019m sure are friends of Jarmusch\u2019s). Not only do you get John Hurt and Alfred Molina in brief roles, but you also have Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jared Harris playing a rather crusty trio who almost have their way with Blake in one scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, like so many Jarmusch films, Dead<\/em> moves at its own weird, quirky pace. Hell, the first nine minutes has Depp riding a rickety train en route to Machine, doing myriad mundane things to pass the time, including having an intense conversation with the train\u2019s soot-covered boilerman (Crispin Glover \u2014 of course!). As you probably expected, Weinstein wanted to make some cuts. But Jarmusch, who owns all his films and makes deals with distributors to release the finished product, wasn\u2019t going back to the editing room. (He already trimmed a bit \u2014 without Weinstein\u2019s input \u2014 after it premiered in Cannes that year.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, Harvey didn\u2019t like that. When it eventually hit theaters a year later, he allegedly retaliated by restricting press screenings and giving the film minimal promotion & publicity. The $9 million film ended up making a paltry million at the box office. “He released the film ‘with tongs,\u2019 as the critic J. Hoberman put it,\u201d Jarmusch told the Guardian<\/em> in 2004<\/a>. \u201cWe had a problem because I sold him a finished film that was produced by my company, and then he wanted me to change it and I’d already signed a contract that he was distributing the film as is. He just bullied me, and I don’t like bullies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a Los Angeles Times<\/em> article<\/a>, Jarmusch publicly spoke of the sabotage during the 1997 New York Critics Circle awards dinner, when he gave a prize to Breaking the Waves<\/em> cinematographer Robby Muller, who also did cinematography for Dead<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c<\/em>Dead Man had been seen at more private screenings than public ones, he said–suggesting that it had received inadequate support in the marketplace. The director\u2019s comments were greeted by a round of applause–a reflection of what some in the movie industry see as a resentment toward Miramax\u2019s style and success.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Weinstein was ready to clap back. \u201cWith an art-house movie, you rely on the critics and promotional support from stars,\u201d he said in the same LA Times<\/em> article. \u201cSeventy percent of the reviews were mixed to negative, and in the U.S., Johnny Depp basically just came to the premiere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Jarmusch later told the Guardian<\/em>, he and Weinstein eventually kissed and made up. “He apologized and sent me a bottle of champagne and said, let’s not disrespect each other in print, and I said, OK, let’s let it go now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if he didn\u2019t torpedo the movie\u2019s chances of finding an audience, Weinstein probably would\u2019ve had a hard time selling this film. Unless Clint Eastwood had something to do with it, Westerns weren\u2019t big draws in the explosion-filled \u201890s. (See Wyatt Earp<\/em>, Posse<\/em>, The Quick and the Dead<\/em>, etc.) And I\u2019m sure those who dig Westerns would\u2019ve been baffled by Dead<\/em> and its elegiac, existential tone. (This movie would\u2019ve been right at home in the \u201870s, alongside such trippy, revisionist Westerns as Robert Altman\u2019s McCabe & Mrs. Miller <\/em>and Sam Peckinpah\u2019s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, Dead<\/em> does have its fans. Jonathan Rosenbaum loved it so much, he wrote a BFI monograph on it<\/a>, while Greil Marcus called it \u201cthe best movie of the end of the 20th century.\u201d<\/a> And, yes, it got the Criterion Collection treatment<\/a> back in 2018. Dead Man<\/em> sure wasn\u2019t a major success for Miramax, but, like all the films in the Jim Jarmusch canon, it gained a cult following even Harvey Weinstein couldn\u2019t keep away. Stupid fucking white man.\u00a0 “Dead Man”<\/em> is available to stream on <\/em>The Criterion Channel<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>HBO Max<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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