Alternative to What: "Dead Man" (1995)

Johnny Depp
Welcome to Alternative to What: a weekly column that tries to find a great alternative to driving to the multiplexes. Based on releases of that week, the selections will either be thematically related or feature recurring cast and crew. The goal is to help you better understand the diversity of cinema and hopefully find you some favorites while saving a few bucks. At worse, this column will save you money. Expect each installment to come out on Fridays, unless specified. 

THIS WEEK:
Dead Man (1995)
- Alternative To -
Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass (2016)


Things for Johnny Depp haven't been easy over the past few years. Since The Lone Ranger, he has been on a steady decrease in successful films. Even his return to less bizarre films with Black Mass were met with underwhelming results. Considering that Alice in Wonderland was one of his last major hits, it does seem odd that its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, is being met with arguably an even bigger bomb than his 2012 western. It doesn't help that Tim Burton is absent, instead replaced by director James Bobin (though you can't likely tell), formerly of The Muppets. With that said, how do you remember the weirdness of Johnny Depp without Burton? It's easy, but not common. In this case, you have to turn to Dead Man.
For the sake of comparison, this week's selection was done solely on the basis of surreal Depp movies that were done away from Burton. There are a plethora of good films to choose from period for the actor, but this week's felt the need to go with something that is straight up weird, like most of Through the Looking Glass is probably going to be. In this case, I am turning to director Jim Jarmusch, whose status in the indie world is definitely weird enough to warrant his own form of auteurism. When he worked with Depp, it was on a fantastical western called Dead Man, which saw Depp as an accountant venturing through the rough and weird world of the west. It may lack the tassels of his later work, but there's no denying that it's weird.
For starters, the film may best be seen as a dark comedy with a heavy lean towards deadpan. Considering that 1995 was early in Depp's transition into the character actor he perfected in the next decade, he still had a sense of drama to him that has unfortunately faded over time. Here, he is the straight man in a series of absurd events, all shot in black and white and ending with the death that the title was promised. For those needing bombastic production, or merely don't find this type of humor funny, it may be a poor recommendation this week. However, it still manages to deliver the unnerving potential of what a young Depp had. He was inventive and nuanced in ways that his many make-up-heavy performances lacked.
 
 
It also helps that Depp was collaborating with some strange talents. True, Jarmusch has yet to make anything accessible by mainstream standards. However, he manages to tear apart one of cinema's most beloved genres and add so much creative and bizarre imagery that one cannot help but pay attention. It comes across as almost an acid trip as the story goes into unexpected places and ends up producing its own version of a psychedelic trip, albeit one that you need patience for. It makes sense then to compare it to Alice in Wonderland, which is another fantasy film that goes into surreal places, admittedly with less success.
Whatever the case, it may be difficult to assess if Depp's career as eccentric character actor is done for, or if he's in the middle of a down period. Either way, there's plenty of evidence here that he's at least charismatic with the right collaborators. He maybe even excels at a level that few other actors can even dream. Then there are those who don't quite use his potential to the best of their ability. Maybe Through the Looking Glass is that. Whatever the case, Dead Man at least suggests that he is good at playing weird, even if the 2016 version of the story isn't quite as convincing anymore.

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