Dead Man (BFI Modern Classics) by Jonathan Rosenbaum


Dead Man (BFI Modern Classics)
Title : Dead Man (BFI Modern Classics)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0851708064
ISBN-10 : 9780851708065
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 96
Publication : First published August 26, 2000

When it was released, "Dead Man" puzzled many audiences and critics. Here, the author argues that the film is both a quantum leap and a logical step in the director's career, and it's a film that speaks powerfully of contemporary concerns.


Dead Man (BFI Modern Classics) Reviews


  • Talie

    چند سال پیش فیلم را دیده بودم و می توان گفت نکات اصلی فیلم را در نیافته بودم. اواسط کتاب فیلم را دوباره دیدم مطالعه کتاب و البته بینش بدست امده در طول این چند سال تماشای فیلم را بسیار لذت بخش کرده بود.

    مثلن درباره ی توتون:
    در فیلم بارها از شخصیت اصلی -و گاهی از دیگر شخصیت‌ها- پرسیده می‌شود که توتون داری و بلیک در جواب می‌گوید من که سیگار نمی کشم. " نگرش غربیها به این مسئله خنده داره:"مردم به این ماده معتادند و فکرش رو بکن چه پولی از این راه میشه به دست آورد" برای مردم بومی ، توتون هنوز یک آیین مقدس است، چیزی است که شما به خانه‌ی دیگران می‌اورید، چیزی است که هنگام دعا و نیایش می‌کشید. گاهی اوایل صبح قبل از فیلم برداری با افراد بومی گروه به دامنه‌ی تپه‌ها می رفتیم و نیایش می‌کردیم و توتون می‌کشیدیم. کتی در یک پیپ مخصوص و ایینی توتون می‌ریخت و آن را دور می‌گرداند و ما با کشیدن توتون خودمان را تطهیر می‌کردیم"

  • Blakepatterson

    An exemplary analysis of one of the great American indies. Rosenbaum acknowledges the political, philosophical, cinematic, spiritual, and literary facets of Jarmusch’s complex film. There is also a brief section concerning Harvey Weinstein’s maltreatment of the movie due to Jarmusch’s nonconformity. Luckily, Jarmusch stood up for himself because a mainstream cut of Dead Man would have been bizarre and safe. Anyways, this is a great film book about a motion picture I adore. Watch Dead Man. Then, read the Rosenbaum.

  • Jack Messenger

    Another reading for this wonderful analysis of a mesmerizing film.

  • EduardoP706

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  • Muzzlehatch

    When Jim Jarmusch's DEAD MAN was released in the USA, critics and the public for the most part didn't seem to know what to make of it. Though it did get a fair number of good reviews, most of those were from the "elitist" critics - Siskel and Ebert among others weren't fans. Miramax, it's distributor, unceremoniously dumped it with a minimal release during the summer - hardly the best time for a difficult and challenging art film that nonetheless with a major star (Johnny Depp) might have turned some respectable business - because the director, Jim Jarmusch, refused to cut it into what they considered a more palatable shape.

    We should all be glad that Jarmusch held his ground. In Chicago and a couple of other cities, and in France and Japan, the film did reasonably good business, and in the decades since has come to be considered something of a modern classic. I consider it one of the greatest of all American films and unquestionably the greatest western since the 1970s, and this little volume in BFI's "Modern Classics" series by Jonathan Rosenbaum, a Jarmusch friend and admirer and immediate champion of the film, is ideal in helping to expand on one's appreciation of this deceptively challenging work.

    Rosenbaum's book is divided into chapters that detail various aspects of the film's concerns, and the director's place in the American cinema at the moment. A listing:

    1 - Jim Jarmusch as American independent, DEAD MAN as dealbreaker
    2 - The Story
    3 - On Tobacco
    4 - On Violence
    5 - On Music
    6 - On the Acid Western
    7 - Frontier Poetry
    8 - Closure

    Some discussion of the director's earlier work is included, and a fair amount about the film succeeding, GHOST DOG: WAY OF THE SAMURAI. The situation of Jarmusch as a poet (as opposed to a storyteller) in cinema, as an heir to the European avant-garde, and as a radical alongside such figures as Monte Hellman from the 70s is nicely detailed; what I missed was more depth on how the film functions in relation to both the classical westerns of Mann, Boetticher, Hawks, and Ford, and the more modern "mainstream" endeavors by people like Eastwood - who I don't believe is once mentioned. Still one can't have everything in a 96-page pocket-size book that has room for some stills, and I recommend this warmly to all fans of the film in any case.

  • Amir

    کتاب با وجود فصل‌بندی‌های متعدد هیچ نظم و ترتیب خاصی نداره.

  • Kourosh Ghaniyoun

    با اينكه مطالب بي نظم در كنار هم قرار گرفتن اما در مجموع پاسخ مناسبي براي بسياري از ابهامات فيلم فراهم مي كنه.