62
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumJarmusch has said that the film's odd, generally slow rhythm -- hypnotic if you're captivated by it, as I am, and probably unendurable if you're not--was influenced by classical Japanese period movies by Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa.
- Jarmusch's trademark quiet irony, affinity for the outcast and oddball, and moonscape visuals suit the Western genre well.
- 80EmpireEmpireIt's a tale that subtly reinterprets the genre and delivers Jarmusch's most accomplished, if not necessarily his most accessible film to date.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannDead Man plays a lot of cards at the same time, and Jarmusch occasionally loses his rhythm when he allows his actors their improvisational riffs.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliFilmed in black-and-white with an eerie score by Neil Young, and using contemporary dialogue and mannerisms, Jarmusch's picture has a dream-like quality.
- 50Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovIt's not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, just one that grabs your attention and then lets it go, time and time again.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe film's energy begins to flag after less than an hour, and as its pulse slackens it turns into a quirky allegory, punctuated with brilliant visionary flashes that partially redeem a philosophic ham-handedness.
- 40Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonAfter a promising beginning and an amusing middle, the movie gets stuck in limbo.
- 38Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDead Man is a strange, slow, unrewarding movie that provides us with more time to think about its meaning than with meaning.
- 25San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserSan Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserParticularly because unlike so many other boring movies one sees, Jarmusch films require many more words to explain the boringness than less certifiably artistic films would.