Dead Man : Tricky trip to Demise

"Dead Man" is not like any western that you've seen before. It's not a glorification of pioneers traveling out west, and it's not a direct indictment of the people’s treatment of Indians. Granted, it portrays the Old West as a pretty ugly place, but the movie almost seems to treat it as a parallel universe. Johnny Depp plays William Blake, who gets hired to be an accountant for a metal company in a town called Machine in 1876. When he arrives in town - after using up all his money - he learns from the corporate CEO (Robert Mitchum) that they've hired someone else. With nowhere to go, Blake hooks up with a woman, only to have her hubby walk in on them and kill her and wound him. Blake kills the guy and has to flee, since it turns out that this guy is the corporate CEO's son (and the CEO is more concerned that Blake stole a horse than that his son got murdered). Out in the open, Blake meets up with an Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer), who calls him "stupid white man". That's when the movie really starts to seem metaphysical.

I thought that this movie was quite good, although it's definitely not for everyone. All I can say is good filmmakers make mistakes, because otherwise they wouldn't be taking risks. Jarmusch tries to grow here but misses. Still, despite some patches which don't work, especially Lance Henrikson's character being a cannibal, this does achieve a poetic quality (as it should, since the main character is named William Blake) not unfamiliar to the genre. Of course, it helps to have actors like Depp and Gary Farmer, who takes the "noble savage" stereotype and makes it real. The very idea of an American film star Johnny Depp travelling in a steam locomotive to far west is amazing as it allows us to believe that leading players in Hollywood are always willing to contribute to innovative ideas. If you see it and don't love it, I say see it again.

I would have gone with 7/10 rating , but I think movie surely has independent cinema feel and must watch for any Johnny Depp fan, So I am going with  humble  8/10