Dead Man 1995 - Movie Review

Revisiting the underrated surreal Western

Jim Jarmusch called his 1995 Johnny Depp starrer ”Dead Man” a psychedelic western. Believe the famed independent filmmaker, ’Dead Man’ is indeed a brooding post-modern western or as a film critic, Jonathan Rosenbaum called it, a trippy authentic ”Acid Western”.

Johnny Depp shines in this hypnotic movie that seems even more trippy to watch it again. Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Alfred Molina, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Lance Henriksen, Gabriel Byrne, Gary Farmer and Robert Mitchum add to the star quality while Neil Young amplifies the surreal weirdness with his guitar-driven soundtrack. Even though this strange movie flopped on release, it divided critics and has now become a cult Western. 

I personally like it because of Johnny Depp, the character of Nobody, and William Blake's poetry: 

'Oh why was I born with a different face 

Why was I not born like the rest of my race? 

When I look, each one starts 

When I speak I offend 

Then I'm silent and passive 

and lose every friend.' 

Watch it. The film is also achingly beautifully shot by acclaimed Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller in crisp black and white, which adds to the minimalist gritty feel.

5 Great Films Marlon Brando Turned Down

The 5 Most Memorable Roles Brando Turned Down 

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was an actor was so huge (in stature), so ground-breaking (in acting style) and so bankable (at the box office) that virtually every A-project was tossed his way. That actor was Marlon Brando and for your reading entertainment, here are 5 roles Brando turned down, screwed up or was kicked off of... 

1) The Egyptian (1954) - After the huge success of Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata and On The Waterfront, Brando found himself on the hook to Twentieth Century Fox to star in a sword-and-sandal epic called The Egyptian. Brando quickly realized the film’s script was el stinko and endlessly sought a way out, even diagnosing himself as “very sick and mentally confused,” and “under a mental strain and facing a personal crisis.” Fox head Daryl Zanuck, who saw the film as a prime vehicle for his mistress Bella Darvi, was outraged and hit Brando with a $2 million breach of contract lawsuit. Ironically Brando eventually broke free of the film that co-starred Victor Mature and Jean Simmons, only to star in another horrid period costumer Desiree, about the troubled romance between Napoleon and the secret love of his life, his seamstress (Jean Simmons, again). And Darvi? After the film was eventually released, one critic sniped she was nothing but “a high price harlot who comes off like a five cent piece.” 

2) Mister Roberts (1955) - Henry Fonda was Mr. Roberts on stage in the late ‘40s and everyone assumed he’d also be Mr. Roberts in the big screen adaption to be directed by the legendary John Ford. Instead Brando was courted for the part of the stoic and rugged individual who does psychological battle with his tyrannical commanding officer (James Cagney). Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and Fonda, a native Nebraskan like Brando, got the part, one of his most lasting creations. Still, one can't help but wonder what the Brando-Cagney star clash would have yielded as well as how the notoriously rigid Ford would have handled method actor Marlon. 

3) Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) - David Lean’s epic historical and psychological film had been in the works for some time and Brando’s name had always appeared at the top of everyone’s wish list. Brando and Lean met several times and eventually had a falling out with Marlon later complaining "Damned if I wanted to spend two years of my life out in the desert on some fucking camel." Marlon would quickly move on to star in another historical epic, (and his own personal Waterloo), the remake of Mutiny On The Bounty. Of course, Peter O’Toole ended up getting the part of Lawrence and stardom, for him, was born 

4) Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969) - Brando was originally set to play the Sundance Kid to Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy in hit cult american western. Things, as usual, didn’t work out which some critics claim was because Brando was already committed the critically acclaimed Italian action drama Queimada aka Burn (1969) while others comment Brando found it too similar to his role in One Eyed Jacks (1961), the only film Brando himself directed too but still even now the idea of Marlon and Paul together, makes film aficionados drool. Newman had long been a serious rival of Brando and had even begun his career as something of a Marlon clone, witness his acting style in The Left Handed Gun.

5) Child's Play (1972) - Not to be confused with the Chucky killer doll horror series, this was instead a mystery drama with subtle horror overtones from the early 70s (when acting and not killer dolls were the rage), about dueling Catholic school teachers at a boy’s school. Brando, who was to star opposite James Mason, got as far as even filming a few scenes of the Sidney Lumet helmed feature when he was let go by producer David Merrick who told the LA Times, “Disagreement? There was no disagreement. I simply threw Mr. Brando out of my film. He wanted to make basic changes in the story and I could not accept that.” Robert Preston took over for him in a film Leonard Maltin called, “Well acted but somber and confusing...”JC

The Homesman (2014)

JohnnyTwoToes finds this western mildly comic but still quite entertaining! 

A Palme d'Or nominee in the main competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Tommy Lee Jones' newest film, The Homesman, is an interesting western themed mix (set in the 1850s) of a love story, action and dark comedy with a heartbreaking twist three quarters of the way into it. One I did not see coming and it threw me for a loop. 

The film stars Hillary Swank as Mary Lee Cudy, a single lady who is desperate for a husband and as the film opens she is conversing with a farmhand whom she wants to marry. He refuses, so depressed as she is, she agrees to drive three women who are accused of horrific crimes across the country to a mental institution. Cudy is fierce, tough and independent but still craving a man's touch. She is not ugly, but she is described as being 'plain as a bucket'. One can only imagine her personality is the reason she cannot find a suitor. 

En route to their destination, the group happen upon a drifter that has been strung up a tree with a hangman's noose while still sitting on an animal. He begs and pleads Cudy to save him and she does with one condition. The drifter, George Briggs (Jones), must help her navigate through hostile open country chock full of Indians, robbers, three crazy women and now a lazy boozer in the form of Briggs. "I'm afraid this is more than I have bargained for, Ms. Cudy" But she holds him to their agreement, in addition he will be paid $300.00. 

The prairie is still untamed, fraught with danger and provides the group with no shortage of perils, which could have been boring and filled with cliches, but Jones is as good behind the camera as he is in front. His direction is smoothly confident and the script by Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley Oliver, based on the novel Glendon Swarthout, is sweet, sentimental and lightly comic at times. Its also an added pleasure to see a great ensemble supporting  cast on screen including Meryl Streep, William Fichtner, John Lithgow, Miranda Otto and James Spader besides a mesmerizing score by Marco Beltrami.

I enjoyed the company of this group of misfits as they all seem to have fallen on hard times, seem destined to lead unhappy lives but, they become sympathetic towards one another as the film progresses. Jones never forces the emotional bonds they form so we genuinely care about these characters as people. 

There is a big intresting twist about three quarters of the way through The Homesman. Trust me, you will know only when you see it. I will not say anything further about the plot but The Homesman struck me as a quietly effective film about lonely souls who find kindred spirits with other lonely souls even in the harshest conditions. It is about dealing with pain and what we seek in others to ease that pain. On that personal level The Homesman works and it entertains us in the process. The Homesman-*** out 5

Ride the High Country / Guns in the Afternoon (1962)

A tepid showdown in the high sierras

This was American action director Sam Peckinpah's second film and it bears only a few traces of his 1969 masterpiece, The Wild Bunch. Even though Newsweek called it the Film of the year, you'll most likely yawn, roll your eyes, and fidget uncontrollably until the closing scenes. The film lacks the raw violence and debauchery that cements each scene of the later film. 

Ride the High Country (released in the UK as Guns in the Afternoon) is set in California's High Sierras, which is a welcome contrast to the Monument Valley backdrop that typifies the 1950s westerns directed by the likes of Hawks and Ford. The scenes in the high country are awash with warm yellows and russet tones evinced in the aspens, sorrels, and tarnished leather vests. The film's conceit and for that matter the conceit of most of Peckinpah's westerns is that times are a changin' and leaving behind old men, who adhere to a shared code of honor. 

Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) and Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) team up to bring gold back to the town of Hornitos from a distant mining camp. They take a young upstart named Heck Longtree (Ronald Starr) with them and wind up with an unexpected burden en route when they stop for the night at a remote farm. This burden is a young woman, Elsa Knudson (Mariette Hartley), who is running away from her father and who wants to marry a former suitor in the mining camp. 

The script hints at an incestuous relationship when Elsa tells her father, "It seems every kind of man is the wrong man except you." Some of the stereotypes are particularly annoying. For example, although the sniveling, quivering bank clerks, who enter into a contract with Westrum, are supposed to make the hero look even more heroic, actor Scott simply isn't all that convincing. What's more, the two old men reminisce at length about the good old days when they were partners, but the stories they share about their feats make them seem more like tin men than iron men. 

What works in the film is when the old timers shut up about their past and start talking about their predicament. It's then that their past deeds become easier to swallow. After Elsa gets roughed up (read almost raped) at the camp by her fiance, Billy Hammond, and his three brothers, the couriers not only must return her safely to her father but also get the gold back to the town. 

What then unfolds is a shootout at close quarters reminiscent of the gunfight at the OK Corral. At one point, having already taken one round in the gut, Westrum tells his partner, "Let's take 'em head on, halfway like always." Then, as the two climb out of the ditch where they were hiding and face off with the three remaining Hammond brothers, one of brothers shouts, "Start the ball, old man!" Despite the movie's tiresome build, it's worth watching to see who buys it in the end and who doesn't. Besides, its considered by many critics as one of his finest!  

The Lone Ranger (2013)

JohnnyTwoToes reviews the biggest bomb of 2013!

I know this is coming late, but better late than never. Gore Verbinski is a man that can direct the Pirates Of The Caribbean films which are not awful. The first two were enjoyable if nothing ground breaking. The third part 'The World's End' I dubbed 'At Wit's End' for the shear fact that it was so awful and bone crushingly dull I could not bring myself to watch the last one, at all. Verbinski's best film is 'The Weather Man' with Nicolas Cage as a local meteorologist whose career is about to take off, but whose home life is utter ruin. It was a quiet, well written and directed film and exceedingly well acted so it was on my list of 10 best in 2005. 

The Lone Ranger has come and gone. A critical and commercial bomb that has the studio (Walt Disney) losing an estimated 175 million dollars. At least, that is what my sources tell me, anyway. It might make back its money with DVD sales and overseas sales but it will take a while. Verbinski and Johnny Depp who plays Tonto have gone after critics saying it was, "Their Fault" the film was such a bomb. Could it be the film was a stinker because......oh, I don't know........it stunk? I am just guessing. 

Is The Lone Ranger as bad as everyone said it was? No. Is it a misunderstood classic? Helllllll, NO. The Lone Ranger is a perfect example of how NOT to make a big budget extravaganza. With a 225-250 million dollar budget one has to wonder where all the money went. Simply put, The Lone Ranger is an overstuffed and overblown film that suffers, for me, because of the miscasting of Armie Hammer as John Reid (AKA The Lone Ranger). His presence on screen pales in comparison to just about everyone else on screen and for The Lone Ranger to work he has to be a strong character, not a mousy waif. 

In this version, Reid and Tonto are battling Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner) but for added monotony they also are battling the corrupt Latham Cole (Tom Wilkinson). There is the added characters of Reid's slain brother's wife that has a fondness for John Reid but the film does not deal much with it and the only real enjoyable character that seems to be having fun is Helena Bonham Carter's local Cathouse custodian named Red Harrington. 

If I was going to recast this film, I would not hesitate to have cast Johnny Depp as John Reid. He has gravitas and depth that Mr. Hammer does not have. The villains are pretty much your standard bad guys as they snarl and spit their way through two and a half hours of bland dialogue, mundane shootouts and some rather unfunny comedy. 

For the millions of dollars pumped into the budget, there could have been a lot more effort put into the script which has been penned by Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio and Justin Haythe. There should have been more rewrites for the script because what the viewer is left with is a film that is all style and no substance. The Lone Ranger suffers from just too much hype and too much effort into the look of the film rather than a compelling story and a roguish title character. Depp is merely doing a different variation of his Jack Sparrow character from the 'Pirates' films. This is the kind of 'bad' film people can enjoy if you want to swill booze and make fun of it but due to its bloated length the viewers might pass out before they make to the predictable end. 

Still, The Lone Ranger looks great with its cinematography by Bojan Bazelli making good use of the locales and Hans Zimmer's score is a a terrific mixture of electronics, percussion, western guitar and orchestral arrangements that flow very well together. 

And remember, I am one of the few that have actually said this is not an awful film and liked the effort they have put into the look of the film if only the script and the lead where up to snuff with the technical achievements. The Lone Ranger is up for some Academy Awards for the technical aspects I have praised, but for the viewers and Walt Disney, it is too little, too late. The Lone Ranger-** out of 4