Dead Man

1995 film by Jim Jarmusch

Dead Man is a 1995 American Western film about an accountant on the run after murdering a man who encounters a strange North American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.

Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.
No one can survive becoming a legend.

William Blake edit

  • If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.

Nobody edit

  • Every night and every morn, some to misery are born. Every morn and every night, some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to sweet delight; some are born to endless night.
  • The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn from the crow.
  • That weapon will replace your tongue. You will learn to speak through it. And your poetry will now be written with blood.
  • Don't let the sun burn a hole in your ass, William Blake. Rise now, and drive your cart and plough over the bones of the dead!
  • Things which are alike, in nature, grow to look alike.

Other edit

  • Train fireman: Look out the window. And doesn't this remind you of when you were in the boat, and then later than night, you were lying, looking up at the ceiling, and the water in your head was not dissimilar from the landscape, and you think to yourself, "Why is it that the landscape is moving, but the boat is still?"
  • Conway Twill: I'll tell you one thing: if that there Blake fella keeps on shootin' marshals, I might end up liking the bastard!

Dialogue edit

Nobody: The vision of Christ that thou dost see... is my vision's greatest enemy. Do you have tobacco?
Trading Post Missionary: We sure don't.
Nobody: Aren't those tins of tobacco right there behind you?
Trading Post Missionary: Sure are, but those cans are empty. There's no tobacco in them. Perhaps I could interest you in some beads...

[William has just discovered a colt in Thel's bed]
Thel Russell: Watch it. It's loaded.
William Blake: Why do you have this?
Thel Russell: Because this is America.

William Blake: What is your name?
Nobody: My name is Nobody.
William Blake: Excuse me?
Nobody: My name is Exaybachay. He Who Talks Loud, Saying Nothing.
William Blake: He who talks... I thought you said your name was Nobody.
Nobody: I preferred to be called Nobody.

William Blake: Do you still have my eyeglasses?
Nobody: No, I traded them. Do you have any tobacco?
William Blake: No, I traded it.
Nobody: For what?
William Blake: I'm not telling.
Nobody: Liar.
William Blake: Thief.

Nobody: [seeing William touching his chest wound] Leave that alone stupid white man.
William Blake: [as Nobody attends to his wound] Am I going to die?
Nobody: The circle of life has no ending.
William Blake: Why are you helping me?
Nobody: A bird told me.
William Blake: A bird told you?
Nobody: A small magical bird with bright blue feathers. [pauses] I was following him in your forest, hoping to acquire one of his indigo feathers... and then I lost him... and then I found him again. He was perched on your chest tasting your blood. He looked at me. Then he flew directly west in a straight line - his small beak red with your blood.

Nobody: Did you kill the white man who killed you?
William Blake: I'm not dead. Am I?

Trading Post missionary: God damn your soul to the fires of Hell!
William Blake: He already has.

[Nobody has put wounded William Blake in a canoe, and is about to push him out to sea]
William Blake: Hello.
Nobody: I prepared your canoe with cedar boughs. It's time for you to leave now, William Blake. Time for you to go back where you came from.
William Blake: You mean Cleveland?
Nobody: Back to the place where all the spirits came from, and where all the spirits return. This world will no longer concern you.
William Blake: [shows Nobody a reel of tobacco] Found some tobacco.
Nobody: That tobacco is for your voyage... William Blake.
William Blake: Nobody... I don't smoke.

Cast edit

Music played by Neil Young


External links edit

 
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