Sunday, June 27, 2010

DEAD MAN

Dead Man – German title
Halott ember – Hungarian title
Dead Man – Italian title
Dead Man – French title
O Nekros – Greek title
Homem Morto - Portuguese title
Мертвец – Russian title
Dead Man – Spanish title
Truposz – Polish title
Mrtav covjek – Yugoslavian title
Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man – U.S.A. title
Dead Man – U.S.A. title

A 1994 U.S.A., German, Japanese co-production [12 Gauge Productions, Miramax
Films, Newmarket Capital Group LLC (Hollywood), Pandora Filmproduktion (Munich), JVC Entertainment (Tokyo)]
Producer: Demetra J. MacBride, Karen Koch
Director: Jim Jarmusch (James Jarmusch)
Story: Jim Jarmusch (James Jarmusch)
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch (James Jarmusch)
Cinematography: Robby Muller (Robby Müller) [black & white]
Music: Neil Young
Running time: 121 minutes

Cast:
William “Bill” Blake - Johnny Depp (John Depp III)
Nobody - Gary Farmer
Cole Wilson - Lance Henriksen
Conway Twill - Michael Wincott
Thel Russell - Mili Avital
Salvatore ‘Sally’ Jenko - Iggy Pop (James Osterberg)
train fireman - Crispin Glover
Johnny ‘The Kid’ Pickett - Eugene Byrd
Nobody’s girlfriend - Michelle Thrush
Marshal Marvin - Jimmie Ray Weeks (James Weeks)
Marshal Lee - Mark Bringelson (Mark Bringleson)
Charles Ludlow ‘Charlie’ Dickinson - Gabriel Byrne
John Schofield - John Hurt
trading post missionary - Alfred Molina
John Dickinson - Robert Mitchum
man with gun in alley - Gibby Haines (Gibson Haynes)
man at end of street - George Duckworth
man with wrench - Richard Boes
Mr. Olafsen - John North
drunk - Peter Schrum (Peter Schroom)
first young Nobody - Thomas Bettles
second young Nobody - Daniel Chas Stacy
Big George Drakoulious - Billy Bob Thornton
Benmont Tench - Jared Harris
old man with wanted posters - Mike Dawson
first man at trading post - John Pattison
second man at trading post - Todd Pfeiffer
Makah villagers - Leonard Bowechop, Cecil Cheeka, Michael McCarty
bartenders - Steve Buscemi, Mickey McGee
with; Dusty Lane (Robert Laning)


William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio, becomes mortally wounded and embarks on a bloody journey through a sordid depiction of the American Old West.
William Blake rides by train to the frontier company town of Machine to assume a promised job as a bookkeeper in the town's namesake metal works. During the trip, a Fireman warns Blake against the enterprise while passengers shoot buffalo from the train windows. Arriving in town, Blake discovers that his position has already been filled, and is driven from the workplace at gunpoint by John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company. Jobless and without money or

prospects, Blake meets Thel Russell, a former prostitute who sells paper flowers. He lets her take him home. Thel's ex-boyfriend Charlie surprises them in bed and shoots Blake, accidentally killing Thel when she tries to shield Blake with her body. A wounded Blake shoots and kills Charlie with Thel's gun before climbing dazedly out the window and fleeing Machine on a stolen pinto. Company-owner Dickinson, the father of Charlie, hires three legendary frontier killers to hunt down Blake as the murderer of his son and Thel, although he seems to care most about recovering the stolen horse.

Blake awakens to find a large Indian attempting to dislodge the bullet from his chest. The Indian, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake's heart to remove, and Blake is effectively walking dead. When he learns Blake's full name, Nobody decides Blake is a reincarnation of William Blake, a poet whom he idolizes but of whom accountant Blake himself is ignorant. Nobody resolves to escort Blake to the Pacific Ocean to return him to his proper place in the spirit-world. After discovering that Blake is being hunted, Nobody also determines to assist Blake in expanding his legend by killing as many more white men as may become necessary. Meanwhile, the most ferocious member of the bounty hunter posse, Cole Wilson, kills and eats his comrades and continues the hunt alone.

Blake and Nobody travel west, leaving a trail of dead and encountering wanted posters announcing higher and higher bounties for Blake's death or capture. Nobody sends Blake into a camp of psychotic fur trappers, whom he and Blake dispatch. Blake learns of Nobody's past, marked both by Native American and White racism, which includes Nobody's abduction to Europe as a model savage and subsequent return to America. Nobody leaves Blake alone in the wild when he decides Blake must undergo a vision quest. On his quest, Blake kills two U.S. Marshals, experiences visions of nature spirits, and grieves over the remains of a dead fawn that was killed accidentally by his pursuers. He paints his face with the fawn's blood and rejoins Nobody on their journey.

At a trading post, a bigoted missionary identifies Blake and attempts to kill him, resulting in a shootout. Blake is shot again and his condition rapidly deteriorates. Nobody takes him by river to a Makah village and convinces the tribe to give him a canoe for Blake's ship burial. Blake deliriously trudges through the village before collapsing from his injuries. He awakens in a canoe on a beach, wearing Native American funeral dress. Nobody bids Blake farewell and pushes him out to sea. As he floats away, Blake watches Cole sneak up behind Nobody, but he is too weak to cry out and can only watch as the two shoot and kill each other. As Blake gazes up at the clouds for the last time, he dies and his canoe drifts out to sea.

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