"Dead Man" is not like any western that you've seen before. It's not a glorification of pioneers traveling out west, and it's not a direct indictment of our treatment of the Indians. Granted, it portrays the Old West as a pretty ugly place, but the movie almost seems to treat it as a parallel universe. Johnny Depp plays William Blake, who gets hired to be an accountant for a metal company in a town called Machine in 1876. When he arrives in town - after using up all his money - he learns from the corporate CEO (Robert Mitchum) that they've hired someone else. With nowhere to go, Blake hooks up with a woman, only to have her hubby walk in on them and kill her and wound him. Blake kills the guy and has to flee, since it turns out that this guy is the corporate CEO's son (and the CEO is more concerned that Blake stole a horse than that his son got murdered). Out in the open, Blake meets up with an Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer), who calls him "stupid white man". That's when the movie really starts to seem metaphysical.
I thought that this movie was OK, although it's definitely not for everyone. It almost seems to have as its main strength a giant cast: Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Billy Bob Thornton, and a whole bunch of other people. You might want to check it out, although mind you, you may find it very strange.
I thought that this movie was OK, although it's definitely not for everyone. It almost seems to have as its main strength a giant cast: Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Billy Bob Thornton, and a whole bunch of other people. You might want to check it out, although mind you, you may find it very strange.