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Year: 1995 - Miramax
Director: Jim Jarmusch Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch Starring: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Mili Avital, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thorton, Jared Harris, Crispin Glover, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt and Robert Mitchum Cinematography: Robby Müller |
Johnny Depp plays William Blake, an accountant heading West from Cleveland, Ohio. He has been promised a job at the Dickinson Metal Works in the remote town of Machine. The opening sequence of Blake's journey is reminiscent of many of Jarmusch's other travel sequences. We see the beautiful landscape of the country hurriedly passing by as seen from Blake's window in the passenger car of the train. There is no dialogue during this sequence as Blake makes no conversation with his fellow travelers. As Blake heads further West, the passengers in the car change. At the beginning of his journey the car is filled with well dressed ladies and businessman like himself. Days later, many farmers and their families are on the train. By the end of the line, the train is filled with rough, gun-toting, mountain men and hunters. Jarmusch has effectively taken Blake out of his familiar surroundings and made him a stranger in a strange land. This is a common theme in many of Jarmusch's films. By doing this, Jarmusch lets us see the character stripped of society's context. Blake has to rely on his own strength of character to negotiate his way in the world, or totally reinvent himself..
Blake is confronted by the fireman of the train, played by Crispin Glover, who seems quite insane, telling Blake his premonition of a boat ride Blake will take in the future. He questions Blake about what he is doing on this train and where he is going. Blake tells him about the promised job at which the fireman scoffs. He warns Blake about his destination and the certain death that awaits him. As the hunters begin shooting at buffalo from the moving train, the fireman states that they slaughtered over a million in the past year. Blake is left wondering what kind of men these could be that would slaughter so many.
The frontier town of Machine is an earthly Hell. As Blake walks down its muddy street in his clownish Eastern business suit, he is accosted by vile and vulgar sights. Freshly made coffins are stacked in the doorway of a shop. He passes a cart of sun bleached bones and piles of carcasses. In another open doorway he can plainly see a man sodomizing a women at gunpoint. The Dickinson Metal Works is a seemingly endless maze of narrow walkways and over-sized machines. When Blake finds the office of the plant, he informs the office manager, played by John Hurt, that is the new accountant. The office manager, Schofield, tells Blake that he is too late and that the position is already filled. When Blake demands to see the owner, John Dickinson, about the promised appointment, Schofield and all of the office workers laugh derisively. Upon entering Dickinson's office there appears to be no one there. On Dickinson's desk there is a smoking cigar and a human skull. There is an open safe with a pile of money. Dominating the room is a larger than life portrait of Dickinson and a stuffed and mounted grizzly bear. When Blake turns to look back at the desk, Dickinson has suddenly appeared there pointing a rifle at Blake. Dickinson, played marvelously by Robert Mitchum, is obviously quite paranoid and a little crazy. He threatens to shoot Blake if he doesn't leave, so Blake does.
That night Blake goes to a saloon and spends what little money he has left on a small bottle of whiskey. By the looks and stares people give him, it's obvious they regard him as a fool. Outside of the bar he comes to aide of former prostitute who is selling paper flowers. She has been roughly shoved into the muddy street by a drunk. She invites Blake back to her room. Here Jarmusch's film makes its first overt references to another William Blake, the great English poet and artist. The woman's name is Thel, the same as the heroine of William Blake's sexual poem, The Book of Thel. The Thel in the film makes flowers she sells herself. This is a reference to the poet Blake's line, "To create a little flower is the labour of ages". Thel, played by Mili Avital, asks Blake to smell one of her flowers. He says it smells like paper. Here is Blake grounded in reality, trusting only in his senses. After sleeping together, Thel asks Blake if he has any tobacco. He replies that he doesn't smoke. Repeatedly, throughout the film, Blake is asked this question to which he always replies that he does not smoke, not knowing that his answer is inconsequential to the question. In the frontier West, tobacco was more valuable than money and could be traded for many things or offered in friendship. Many people carried tobacco, who did not smoke as a way of easing relations with other people.
Blake finds a gun hidden under Thel's pillow. When he asks her why she has it she simply replies, "Because this is America." Just then, Thel's former fiancee, Charlie (Gabriel Byrne) comes into the room. Charlie confesses he still loves Thel. As he turns to leave, Thel tells her dejected fiancee that she never loved him. He draws a gun and fires at the cowering Blake. Thel throws herself in front and is killed. Blake fires back and kills Charlie. Blake is wounded by bullet that passed through Thel's heart. He escapes out the window, taking Thel's gun with him and stealing Charlie's horse.
The interesting aspect about the gun play between Blake and Charlie, as are all of the gunfights in the movie, is how non theatrical and realistic it is. Unlike virtually all movies, people are shot and killed in this film with no glorification of the violence. Jarmusch shows that there is nothing brave about pulling a trigger. Early in the film, Blake seems to be the only person afraid of dying. This is ironic because he is the condemned man in the story. All of the other characters in the film shoot and are fired upon at close range with no show of fear. They have accepted the inevitability of their own deaths
Blake awakens in the Wilderness where an Indian is unsuccessfully attempting to remove the bullet from Blake's chest with a knife. Angrily asked "Do you have any tobacco?" Blake gives his standard reply. The Indian then rants at Blake in his own language and Blake again passes out. Meanwhile, Dickinson has hired three bounty hunters to track down Blake. It turns out that Charlie was Dickinson's son. The three killers are Cole Wilson (Lance Henriksen), Conway Twill (Michael Wincott), and Johnny "The Kid" Pickett ( Eugene Byrd). Pickett is a young black man who has made a reputation for killing so many men for his young age. Twill is known mostly for his non-stop talking, and Wilson for his ruthlessness. Dickinson regards Blake as nothing more than a sporting prey. This could be a reference to William Blake's philosophy. When the poet was older, he looked back at his poems he wrote in his youth and thought he had been innocent like a lamb. After writing his "Songs of Experience" he thought that a wise man should be more like a tiger. The transformation of Blake from a frightened, submissive man into an assertive, brave human is one of the main themes of the film.
In the meantime, the mysterious Indian has been nursing Blake back to health using what healing techniques he knows. He knows that Blake will not fully recover and asks, "Did you kill the white man that killed you?" To which Blake replies, "But I'm not dead." The Indian then asks what Blake's name is. When Blake tells him, the Indian is astonished. He has read and knows by heart the poems of the British poet William Blake. For some strange reason the Indian believes that the dead poet he knows and admires is living in the body of this young man, nearly a century after he was supposed to have died. To the bewilderment of Blake, the Indian recites a passage from one of the great poet's poems. He know regards the young man with respect. To the Indian, the fact that the poet would kill the evil white man is consistent with the poet's philosophy. The fact that this Indian believes that the young man before him is the dead poet is a novel part of the story; but it seems highly unlikely, unless the Indian was slightly insane. To American Indians, names were not unique to one individual. The great Lakota Chief, Black Elk, shared his name with his father and grandfather. Most Plains and Western Indians went by several names during their lifetime. Many times a baby was given the name of a great person as someone to aspire to. As a adolescent they were sometimes given a derisive name until they reached adulthood and received an adult name. For this Indian to believe that these two William Blakes were the same person would be quite strange.
Later the next evening, the Indian reveals his name to Blake. It is Nobody. His actual name in his own language means, "He who talks loudly and says nothing." He prefers Nobody. Nobody tells Blake that he was shunned by his people as a child because he was the offspring of mixed parents. He was captured by white hunters and displayed like an exhibit in a cage in many cities in the United States. Nobody was eventually taken to England where he learned to read and write English. There he first read the poems of William Blake. He finally escaped England and returned home, where he was still shunned by his people, because they did not believe the stories of his adventures and thus gave him his humiliating name. Nobody is a good mentor for Blake because he is a person who has had to rely on his own image of himself, outside of any society.
At night, Nobody and Blake come upon three rough looking trappers settling down to a dinner of beans. Two of the trappers, Big George and Tench, played by Billy Bob Thorton and Jared Harris, are being cared for by the third man dressed as a woman, Sal (Iggy Pop). Blake is hungry but afraid of the men. Nobody tells Blake to go and talk to the men while he observes. The men are taken with Blake's youth and good looks and end up fighting over who will get to have Blake. As Big George is about to shoot Blake, Nobody kills the trapper. Blake kills one trapper as Sal is killed by the accidental discharge of Big George's rifle. Afterward, Nobody seems impressed with the outcome of the encounter with the trappers. Nobody appears to be a spiritual guide for Blake, leading him through the wilderness of the West and the wilderness of Blakes spiritual journey.
The next day, Nobody and Blake come upon "Wanted" posters offering a reward for the return of Blake for the murders of Thel and Charlie. Angered at the false accusation of the murder of Thel, Blake begins tearing up the posters. When Nobody quotes a passage from one of William Blake's poems, Blake becomes very angry at Nobody. He chastises his friend for always reciting confusing Indian proverbs.
Later, Nobody takes hallucinogenic peyote buttons as a way of having a true vision. Weak and exhausted from hunger and his bullet wound, Blake asks if he could eat some of the peyote buttons. Nobody refuses saying that the sacred food is only for Indians. Under the influence of the peyote, Nobody sees Blake as a living corpse. He paints lightning bolts on his young companion's cheeks. Nobody tells Blake that if the young man goes without food or water, the Great Spirits may visit him and impart a vision to him. When Blake asks about his glasses he finds that Nobody has taken them. Nobody leaves Blake telling Blake that he may see more clearly without the glasses. When Blake awakens the next morning, he goes to relieve himself against a tree. Looking up at the tree the near-sighted Blake notices the tree has been struck by lightning. This could be a reference to the poet Blake's Proverbs of Hell: "A fool sees not the same tree as a wise man sees." While Blake is occupied, two Federal Marshals come upon his camp. One sees Blake approaching and aims his rifle at him while asking if he is William Blake. Blake answers while drawing his gun, "Yes. Do you know my poetry?" He kills the one marshall whose gun discharges, wounding the other marshall. Blake dispassionately finishes off the dying man. During this brief exchange, Blake has shown no fear, as if he had been transformed into another person. The first marshall he has killed lies with his head on the cold campfire. The sticks of from the campfire appear to form a nimbus about his head. The Christian references and associations with the white men throughout the film are a reference to the poet Blake's problems with the Christian religion. He was at odds with the concept of good and evil and one true religion.
In the meantime, the three bounty hunters are not getting along. The youngest, The Kid, becomes very angry at his companions when he sees the "Wanted" poster and realizes that Dickinson has lied about the exclusiveness of their contract to bring back Blake. When he bends over to drink from a small pool of water, he ignores Wilson's warning that drinking from it would not be good for his health. Wilson then shoots the youth dead. This is a reference to the Blake line, "Expect poison from the standing water." Later in the day, fed up with Twill's constant chatter, Wilson kills Twill and then eats him. Wilson symbolizes a destroyer that kills and literally consumes men.
Hungry and thirsty, Blake has a vision of the four Great Spirits as Indians hidden in the brush. He travels onward alone while being stalked by Wilson. While Wilson is pausing on the trail of Blake, he is wounded by an arrow that appears out of nowhere. Eventually Blake is reunited with Nobody, surprising his friend who is having passionate sex with a woman. Glad to find him still alive, Nobody decides to take Blake to a place where Blake's spirit can cross over the water to return to where his spirit belongs. Blake and Nobody come upon a trading post along a river. Nobody says that they should get a canoe for their journey at the post. Outside of the trading post are several wanted posters with Blake's face and a much higher reward offered for him than in the earlier posters. Blake enters the post to buy some ammunition for his gun. A priest is in charge of the post and is very friendly to Blake. When Nobody enters the store, the priest scowls at the Indian. The priest quotes the Bible to Nobody, at which the Indian responds by quoting William Blake, "The Vision of Christ that thou dost see is my Vision's Greatest Enemy." Nobody wants to buy some tobacco. The priest says he has none. When Blake asks to buy some, the priest finds that he does have some to sell the white man. The priest recognizes Blake and attempts to capture him. Blake ends up killing the priest and two other men at the trading post. Blake has become a dispassionate about killing and death like the buffalo hunters on the train. In the exchange of gunfire, Blake is badly wounded. Nobody loads his dying friend into a canoe a paddles down the river.
With Wilson still in pursuit, Nobody brings Blake to a Northwest Indian village. As Blake stumbles down the thoroughfare of the village, he his reminded of his walk through the street of Machine. Here there are similar signs of death, like bones and such, but there are also signs of life, such as a mother and baby. There are not the vulgar excesses of the boom town in this village. Nobody meets with the village elders inside of lodge in order to obtain a seafaring boat for Blake. During this time, Blake drifts in and out of consciousness, for he is dying. Blake can no longer trust what he sees as real. He is no longer grounded in reality. He awakens in the boat with pine boughs for a bed and clutching a twist of tobacco. Nobody says his good-bye and pushes the boat out into the surf. As Blake watches the shore from his boat, he sees a final gun battle between Nobody and Wilson in which both are killed. Blake looks up at the sky and clouds. Strangely, he is experiencing exactly what the fireman on the train described. One gets the feeling the Blake feels he is dreaming, as if he is crossing over to a spirit world. The film closes with Blake's boat disappearing in the fading light.
From the beginning to the end of this film, Blake's final days seem
to be totally controlled by fate. All of his enemies are killed, either
by his hand, by others, or by accident. By the end of the film, Blake has
been able to accept the inevitability of his own death without fear. Overall,
this may be Jarmusch's strongest film. Depp is great as always, and Gary
Farmer is wonderful as Nobody. Like Jarmusch's other films, there are many
funny, ironic moments in this movie. What sets this film apart from Jarmusch's
other work is the sense that the subject is close to the director's heart.
Jarmusch's fans will enjoy this film, and hopefully his many detractors
will be won over.
Links to the Works of William Blake:
Offline: Johnson, Mary Lynn and Grant, John E., eds. Blake's
Poetry and Designs. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979.
Online: Welcome
to the William Blake Archive at http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/blake/
The
Blake Multimedia Project at http://cla.calpoly.edu/%7Esmarx/Blake/blakeproject.html