Strange Paradise

Tuesday, May 7, 1996

‘Dead Man’ is an off-rhythm allegorical Western focused squarely
on its eccentric characters. Who could spring this film on
culture-deprived Americans?

Only indie film maverick Jim Jarmusch.If Jennifer Aniston’s shag
is the essence of sitcom chic, then Jim Jarmusch’s gravity-defying
hair practically embodies indie film cool.

Sitting in a suite in the Rhiga Royal Hotel in New York City,
Jarmusch, dressed all in black but for his gray hair, is every inch
the prince of alternative filmmaking. Preparing for the release of
his current revisionist western "Dead Man," he is also remarkably
articulate on the current state of American independent film.

Twelve years after he rose from obscurity with his international
hit "Stranger than Paradise," Jarmusch continues to insist on
defying expectations. And the western was a genre that provided him
with conventions that he could stretch and change.

"The western genre is so open to metaphor," he says. "It’s a
frame inside of which you can put a lot of things. It’s very
allegorical because it allows for the writer to add elements of
mythology. I was intrigued by westerns because they are often
stories involving journeys into unfamiliar territory. And they are
often shaped around traditional themes, like retribution,
redemption, or tragedy."

But "Dead Man" is not a traditional western. If anything, it’s a
postmodern, psychological western ­ set in the West, but
without a climactic hero-villain shoot-out. The "hero," accountant
William Blake (Johnny Depp) is not a traditional hero per se: he is
angst-ridden and insecure rather than proud or boastful. When he
first arrives in town, he can’t even shoot. But the once-timid
Blake evolves from passive to active as he learns to commit
murder.

Another difference in "Dead Man" is the role Jarmusch wrote for
a Native American. In the film, Nobody (Gary Farmer) is the
cautious friend and ally of William Blake. But he is also a
well-rounded character: Nobody has his own angst and his own
neuroses.

"I really wanted to portray a different side of Native Americans
than people have seen in westerns," he explains. "Typically,
they’re shown in two ways: either idealized, treated as though
they’re all-knowing sages ­ this is a denial of attempted
genocide ­ or shown as savages to be eradicated like in John
Ford films. Both are insulting. I wanted to avoid the clichés
and portray him as a complicated character."

It wasn’t just revising the western that interested Jarmusch. He
had also been inspired by the poetry of English visionary poet
William Blake. He found that Blake’s work shared various traits
with Native American writings, and integrated strains of both into
his screenplay.

The result is a film which, he allows, is much like a poem in
its nontraditional structure.

"The film is character rather than plot-oriented. You’re not
thinking so much about the narrative and so it becomes like a poem
in the rhythm of the fade-outs and black spaces between scenes. The
black spaces are like pauses for respiration; they gently take you
from one thing to the next."

Adding to the film’s unusual poetic structure and rhythms, Neil
Young composed the music at Jarmusch’s request.

"The music is almost like another character in the film," he
notes. "It’s expressive and emotional. Neil recorded the music
directly to the picture without stopping, so it’s his own emotional
response to what he was watching. It elevates the movie."

"Dead Man’s" non-traditional structure might frustrate American
audiences, as Jarmusch’s movies ("Mystery Train," "Night on Earth")
sometimes do. But like other great American independents before him
­ notably John Cassavetes ­ Jarmusch is more admired
abroad for the whimsical originality of his vision. The paradox
makes him smile.

"In America, if you use the word ‘art,’ it’s a dirty word. Here
we have a perennial battle of art versus commerce. In Europe that’s
not the case. In Germany, Spain and France, filmmakers get funding
from the government to support their films. Here, we make
distinctions between the art house or independent film and the
commercially successful film. But in Europe those differences
aren’t applied."

Beyond that, he notes, the man on the street in Europe is often
more culturally savvy than the average American. Reminiscing about
Europe, Jarmusch paints a picture of local color as resonant as an
image from one of his films.

"On a street corner in Paris I talked to two garbage collectors
of African descent who were discussing Cézanne. And I was
sitting in a bar in Europe with my friend Roberto Benigni
(actor-director of ‘The Monster’) and there were these guys there
talking about Dante and Italian poetry. In America if you talked
about poetry in a bar you’d get your ass kicked."

FILM: "Dead Man," directed by Jim Jarmusch. Opens May 10.

(Bottom left) Director Jim Jarmusch on location of "Dead
Man."

(Below) Johnny Depp stars as the angst-ridden William Blake in
Jim Jarmusch’s revised western.