A Nice Surprise From The Past

Dead Man 1995 (5/5 stars)

I got this movie on a total whim from Netflix.... and it was fantastic. Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers), this is a black and white western which tells the story of William Blake (like the poet, played by Johnny Depp). Blake is a mild mannered accountant who travels to a remote town to see the owner of a factory, and when refused, ends up in a hotel room with a woman whose jealous former lover walks in and kills her after which Blake kills the man in self defense, rather haphazardly. The dead man turns out to be the son of the factory owner, and Blake must go on the run. On the way he acquires a Native American travelling companion named Nobody (for the remainer of the movie he refers to him as "stupid white man"), who helps him along on the run. He is forced to fast by Nobody, and in combination with other events, he eventually turns into this bizarre bad-ass, eventually killing several marshalls sent after him.

The plot isn't really the great thing about this movie, what is so brilliant is the style and the completely new and bizarre, quirky take on the western genre quite unlike anything I've seen before. I highly recommend it for anyone, it is maybe the best western movie I've ever seen.