6degrees, September 2000
by Richard Laughton
On 'This Week in Film' broadcaster Adrian Martin described Jim Jarmusch's 'Dead Man' as "..more like the ghostly burnt-out shell of a western, commandeered for sullen and obscure purposes." It is these sullen and obscure purposes that Rosenbaum sets out to define in the latest of the 'BFI Modern Classics' series.
Rosenbaum is up front about the fact that he has been a personal friend of Jarmusch for many years and has interviewed him throughout his career. This said, he has not always been an out and out fan of the director's work, but has chosen, quite rightly, to include a great deal of interview material as their views on 'Dead Man' are more or less compatible
The book is broken down into eight logical chapters, plus an appendix ('Asides on Authorship and Methods of Composition'), notes, credits and biography.
Chapter one looks a Jim Jarmusch's place in the American independent sector, his overall body of work and the perceived change in direction that 'Dead Man' marked.
Chapter two - 'The Story' - looks at the narrative structure step by step as William Blake approaches hi death. Here Jarmusch is interviewed and accepts that 'Dead Man' is a darker film that his previous outings and is in many ways far more political - indeed critical of American politics and revisionism. As an aside he also admits his dissatisfaction with the animated smoke that hovers over the town of Machine - an early, jarring image in the film.
'On Tobacco' goes some way to explaining the running joke between Blake and almost every character he meets on his journey
Chapter Four looks at the nature of violence in 'Dead Man' and in particular its seemingly incongruous relationship to the far slicker treatment of violence in Jarmusch's next film 'Ghost Dog.'
'On Music' discusses the relationship between the director and composer, Neil Young. Young, it transpires, improvised the score to a two and a half hour rough-cut of the film (three times in two days) before delivering his finished musical "map". As something of a returned favour, Jarmusch directed 'The Year of the Horse', which followed Young and his group Crazy Horse on tour.
'On the Acid Western' is perhaps the most fascinating chapter. The author and director discuss the western genre, its constant misrepresentation of native Americans and the cultural and social contexts within which they have been made.
'The Acid Western' is Rosenbaum's term for what he describes as "counter-cultural dreams" - these might include 'Two-Lane Blacktop', 'El Topo' and 'The Last Movie.'
Chapter Seven examines 'Dead Man' in literary terms - placed within a now semiliterate (American) society.
The final and shortest chapter is 'Closure.' It begins with a Samurai quote later utilised in 'Ghost Dog' - "The end is important in all things." Here 'Dead Man' is discussed in terms of both its spiritual and philosophical dimensions.
Rosenbaum has constructed a fascinating and intelligent insight into what is probably Jarmusch's most ambiguous and challenging film. It is an excellent addition to the 'Modern Classics' series.