Dead Man
About the Film
A timid Cleveland accountant named William Blake rides the rails west to the grim frontier town of Machine, only to find the job he was promised is gone. Penniless and adrift, a single violent night leaves a man dead, Blake wounded, and a price on his head.
Fleeing into the wilderness, Blake is found by a solitary Native American called Nobody, who is convinced this dying white man is the reincarnation of the English poet William Blake. As three bounty hunters close in, Nobody guides Blake on a strange, poetic journey toward the Pacific and the passage out of this world — Jim Jarmusch’s hypnotic black-and-white “acid Western,” scored by Neil Young.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp plays William Blake, a meek, bespectacled accountant transformed by circumstance into a hunted outlaw and, in Nobody’s eyes, a dead man walking toward his own spiritual passage. It’s one of Depp’s quietest, most internal performances.
Cast & Crew
Cast
William BlakeJohnny Depp
NobodyGary Farmer
Cole WilsonLance Henriksen
Conway TwillMichael Wincott
Train FiremanCrispin Glover
John DickinsonRobert Mitchum
Big George DrakouliasBilly Bob Thornton
John ScholfieldJohn Hurt
Charlie DickinsonGabriel Byrne
Crew
DirectorJim Jarmusch
ScreenplayJim Jarmusch
MusicNeil Young
CinematographyRobby Müller
ProducerDemetra J. MacBride
“Some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to endless night.”
— Dead Man (after William Blake)
Filming Locations
- Washington
- Oregon
- Arizona
- California
More about this film
Trivia
- Shot entirely in black-and-white — Jarmusch’s hypnotic “acid Western.”
- Neil Young improvised the guitar score while watching the finished film on VHS.
- Dialogue in Cree and Blackfoot was left deliberately untranslated as an in-joke for Native American viewers.
- One of Robert Mitchum’s final film performances.
Awards
- 1996 European Film Award — Best Non-European Film Won
- 1995 Cannes Film Festival nomination — Palme d’Or
- 1996 Four Independent Spirit Award nominations
