Dead Man
By Jim Jarmusch
NYU Graduate Design class
Instructor Susan Hilferty
A "Psychedelic Western", Dead Man is the story of William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio who travels west, looking for new opportunity but finding only trouble. After being shot Blake awakens to find a large Native American man attempting to dislodge the bullet from his chest. The Native American, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake's heart to remove, and Blake is effectively walking dead. When he learns Blake's full name, Nobody decides Blake is a reincarnation of William Blake the poet, whom he idolizes but of whom accountant Blake himself is ignorant. Nobody resolves to escort Blake to the Pacific Ocean to return him to his proper place in the spirit-world.