Criticism of the Western Genre in Jim Jarmusch’s Film Deadman

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Criticism of the Western Genre in Jim Jarmusch’s Film Deadman

Jim Jarmusch’s Deadman is a complex interweaving of the rough and tough world of cowboys mixed with blatant criticism of the Western genre as well as the American lifestyle during those times in history. The separate scenes in the movie seem be collected and stringed together allowing the director to bounce between making fun of the whole Western idea to completely embracing the genre.

The movie focused on William Blake (an accountant from Cleveland) and his transformation from being an ordinary man to an outlaw. Most Western movies focus on cowboy outlaws, who live by their own rules and follow their own beliefs on justice, while this film focuses on the transformation rather than the man. Jonny Depp’s character stepped into the role of being an outlaw accidentally. The use of violence is prevalent in the film, which fits the Western genre, yet at the same time, the use of guns and violence is always awkward. It’s as though it’s a foreign concept instead of a display of machismo and pride as in most Westerns.

The film also has minimal displays of women and their contribution of adding a dynamic of lust and love in the testosterone driven Western genre. This film does not focus on William Blake having any attachments to family or a fiancé. A brief explanation is offered for the lack of femininity in the film, yet it leaves the audience wondering why the director did not deem it necessary to include this attachment in the film. Instead the few times that women are shown in the film, they are there to pleasure the males sexually. In the Western genre, women aren’t regarded as vital elements, yet at the same time their contribution is usually to play damsels in distress and show the humane side of the manly hero. In the Western genre women blatantly display the differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

The social commentary in the film is overwhelming, sometimes seeming to drive the slow-paced plot. The director gives the film a dark undertone, to show the violent lifestyle of the people in the West.

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