Dead Man (1995)

Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (1995) is like Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), only without the broad jokes and slapstick humor. While the latter flick was a critical miss but a box office hit, the opposite can be said of this pic. Nevertheless, both movies prove a move to the Wild West probably won’t go as well as planned. Set in the 1800s, this black-and-white film follows a mild-mannered accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) who is traveling from Ohio to a frontier town for work. Along the way, he encounters ex-hooker Thel Russell (Mili Avital); mountain man Big George Drakoulias (Billy Bob Thornton); a corrupt trading post missionary (Alfred Molina); a cross-dressing fur trader (Iggy Pop); and a couple of bounty hunters (Eugene Byrd, Michael Wincott), plus one who’s a cannibal (Lance Henriksen). The film also features Gabriel Byrne, Jared Harris, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, and the nudity on Gary Farmer! While William is on his geographical and spiritual journey, he crosses paths with Nobody (Farmer), a Native American who believes Blake’s actually the long-dead poet of the same name. William and Nobody develop a strange bond that sparks an existential transformation in Blake, turning him into a outlaw and a killer. No, we don’t get to see Mr. Depp in the buff, but Mr. Farmer bares his buns, balls and cock when he’s pulled away from having sex with Michelle Thrush. Suffice it to say, this farmer can come and plow our field any day!