Source: Some information on this page may have been sourced as part of the 2023 Wikimedia Australia Partnership Projects grant, with the purpose of improving and expanding the use of Wikidata on our website. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Read more about this project here.
Jarmusch establishes a surreal tone for this visually poetic and highly idiosyncratic meditation on life and death and the loss of innocence. ‘Dead Man’ is the tale of William Blake, a naïve Ohio accountant who travels west to a primitive frontier outpost called Machine in expectation of a job that’s already been filled. Within a short space of time Blake is involved in a showdown and finds himself wounded and on the run. Pursued by malevolent bounty hunters, and badly wounded, Blake is accompanied on his hallucinatory journey by Nobody - an Eastern educated Indian who believes his new friend is the dead British poet and mystic William Blake. Gradually, Blake comes to fulfil his designated role as the most wanted man in this corner of the west, all the while preparing for life’s ultimate journey aided by Native American spiritualism. Accompanied by the haunting music of Neil Young and filmed in tunning black and white by cinematographer Robby Muller, ‘Dead Man’ is a lyrical film that acts as mordant comment upon American life.
Credits: Producer, Demetra J. MacBride ; director, writer, Jim Jarmusch ; photography, Robby Muller ; music, Neil Young ; editing, Jay Rabinowitz.
Cast: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Lance Henriksen, Mili Avitlal, Michael Wincott.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
F000099
Language
English
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
35mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)