Dead Man

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

New Restoration screening on Wed Apr 18 at 7:00pm!

This screening will be introduced by Lee Kline, Technical Director at Criterion, whose team worked from a 16-bit 4K film scan of the original 35mm negative A/B rolls to restore the film. The original 2.0 surround soundtrack, a live-wire score by Neil Young, was remastered from the 35mm magnetic tracks.

DEAD MAN, Jarmusch’s first period piece, is a surreal reimagining of the Wild West. Accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) has hardly arrived in the godforsaken outpost of Machine before he’s caught in the middle of a fatal lovers’ quarrel. Wounded and on the lam, Blake falls under the watch of the outcast Nobody (Gary Farmer), who guides his companion on a spiritual journey, teaching him to dispense poetic justice along the way. Featuring austerely beautiful black-and-white photography by Robby Müller (Breaking the Waves, Paris, Texas), DEAD MAN is a profound and unique revision of the western genre. With Gabriel Byrne, Crispin Glover, Jared Harris, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, Alfred Molina, Iggy Pop, & Billy Bob Thornton.

“A quantum leap by American independent Jim Jarmusch—a hypnotic and beautiful black-and-white western (1995). Johnny Depp plays an accountant from Cleveland named William Blake who travels west with the promise of a job to the infernal town of Machine, only to be told that the job’s been taken. After killing a man (Gabriel Byrne) in self-defense and sustaining a mortal bullet wound, Blake is guided toward death by a Native American outcast named Nobody (Gary Farmer) while a trio of bounty hunters and various others try to track him down. This masterpiece is simultaneously a mystical, highly poetic account of dying; a well-researched appreciation of Native American cultures; a frightening portrait of modern American violence and capitalist greed that refuses to traffic in the stylistic alibis of Hollywood; a warm, hilarious depiction of cross-cultural friendship; and a hallucinatory trip across the American wilderness. With Billy Bob Thornton, Mili Avital, John Hurt, and Robert Mitchum (in his last screen performance).” – Jonathan Rosenbaum

  • Country USA
  • Rating R
  • Year 1995
  • Running Time 121 minutes
  • Director Jim Jarmusch
  • Writer Jim Jarmusch
  • Editor Jay Rabinowitz
  • Cinematographer Robby Müller
  • Cast Johnny Depp, Crispin Glover, Gary Farmer

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.