CasparCritique: Dead Man

This blog is a-long time coming. Somehow it has been on my mind for some time, without concretizing. So now here it is, a critique on Dead Man, a great movie by Jim Jarmusch, but even more importantly to the CasparBlog: with a score by one of Caspar's favorites: Neil Young.

Now, maybe one of the reasons on hesitating to write this particular critique, was the question on my mind if I should go into Jarmusch' body of work, or stick by Young's music, because this blog is about music. But hey, I can write about my passions, right? And, so far the blog has written substantially about music in combination with documentaries. So, Caspar, don't hesitate, just rattle on! From the eighties onwards I have been following Jarmusch' carreer from a distance. Back then I remember seeing Down by Law, with Tom Waits in one of his character roles as a runaway convict. Shortly after I learned that Waits was actually a singer-songwriter, and my first encounter with his talent was his live album Big Time, starting with the unforgettable words 'good evening' in his hoarse, low voice. Another Jarmusch film I remember vividly was Night on Earth, with Roberto Benigni impersonating a sodomized sheep, getting the priest in his cab to die from a heart attack. You can imagine Jarmusch made quite an impression on young Caspar...
As we discussed in an earlier CasparCritique (CasparCritique: Year of the Horse), somewhere midway the Nineties, Jarmusch and Neil Young made a deal. Young would provide Jarmusch' new movie with a sound track, and as a return of favor, Jarmusch would make a documentary of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. On a personal note, Caspar gave the documentary 4 stars, but apparently, Neil Young wasn't very happy with the result. Do we think that Jarmusch was happy with the music score? I bet he did. The movie Dead Man was Jarmusch most expensive movie, and maybe his shot at becoming a bit more main stream (Caspar strongly advises not to take any of his apparent knowledge of movies too seriously), and the score made by one of the USA's big selling artists would certainly help in that respect.
Back to business Caspar, let's talk a little on the sound track. When I sat down the other day to watch the movie, I had no idea what to expect. As the movie is from 1995, I realized that Young's projects just before that were collaborations with Pearl Jam (Mirror Ball), and Crazy Horse (Sleeps with Angels). So, both band-, and rock oriented, although Sleeps with Angels was a bit more gloomier. But surprisingly Young's contribution to Dead Man is solo work. At the very start of the movie, you can hear Young's Gibson valve ampifier turned on loud. Then he starts hitting the strings slowly with the outer side of his hand, making a sort of thumping sound. With his pick, or plectrum, he scribbes notes and phrases, that because of the reverb in the amplifier, and probably some slight echo effect, gives a big sound like he'd be recording in a church. This is what continues throughout the movie, with the only, apparent, difference that he goes faster bit by bit, thus giving the movie a pace like a steam train slowly speeding up towards the end of the story. And I must say: a nice story it is. Leading character Johnny Depp as an accountant in the Wild West, getting into more and more trouble, and finally saved (or is he?) by an indian called Nobody.
I enjoyed the movie very much, and I thought the music accompanied it effectively. Also it fits in with Young's carreer for being different than the usual. If I'd had to give it marks, I'd give it five stars out of five. Not for being amongst Neil's best work, but for being the perfect accompaniment to one of Jim Jarmusch's master pieces.

A final thought would be on the accurateness of what you just read. Maybe what I just told you, on the technical side of things, and the substance of the sound track, could be wrong. The interesting part for me is that this CasparBlog is an account of watching a movie once, late night, and then telling about the score a few months later.

Casparcritique: Pearl Jam's 20

Over a period of twenty years, filmmaker and journalist Cameron Crowe filmed Pearl Jam, and assembled all sorts of material of the band. For their twentieth birthday, he put it all together and managed to make a two hour documentary out of it. As the band surely was a big influence on rock music from their first album onwards, I had to see it for sure. It is a great film, especially because it makes clear why I have had such a love-hate relation with them.

I remember vividly when their first single 'Alive' appeared on MTV in 1992. After the unforgettable Grungerock impact Nirvana made with Smells like Teen Spirit, we would also call it grungy. Of course Pearl Jam was from the same 'Grunge' capital Seattle, as was Nirvana. At the same time, it was more melodic, more traditional then Kurt Cobain's band. The singer had this peculiar style, sort of singing through his teeth, the guitar solo was nice, but a bit too smooth for what was considered reinvented punkrock music. Quite obviously, Cobain called Pearl Jam too commercial, allthough the film contains footage of him talking about Eddie Vedder and calling him something like 'nice'.
After Alive, the second single released was called Jeremy. And that is when I lost my, potential, being a fan. I simply disliked that song, and the accompanying video with it. Bassist Jeff Ament explains in the film that their song writing abilities were not that great yet: they play an A throughout most of it. Now, that is not a reason not to like a song, but it sort of whimpers on, maybe I didn't catch the drive of it thinking what are you so upset about it and why do you splash your emotions in our faces. The over the top yeah-oh singing in the chorus was what finally finished my interest.
Years after I got two Pearl Jam albums by chance. For some reason that I cannot recall buying Yield, the other was called No Code. A friend of mine gave it to me stating that he couldn't listen to it because he thought it was horrible. What's funny about that, is that No Code is actually pretty good, when you get past the first, like, five songs, and my friend probably didn't get that far. Also, I really liked most of Yield, also because of the fact that Jack Irons played drums, and he was the first drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is one of my quintessential sources of music (as regular readers of this blog will know). Another major feat in the mid nineties was the Pearl Jam show on Pinkpop festival. Watching it on the telly, you could feel the energy, adrenaline, and decibels coming through the screen. It is still considered one of the best shows ever in 45 years of Pinkpop history.
So, with Pearl Jam sort of rehabilitated, and with a position in the subtop of my favorite bands, there was one more thing thatt bugs me about the band. For a long time, the majority of singers in rock bands in the Netherlands thought it was cool to sing Eddie Vedder-style; down your throat, and through your teeth. Best known for doing this is Dinand from the band called... hum, can't recall now, but still big over here. But many, lesser known, singers did this. Man, there was no talking them out of it. And you know what? They said they didn't do it on purpose, meaning that it got down in our collective DNA, or something. From a more theoretical perspective, this means great credit to Eddie Vedder, of course, but when you are in the middle of it...

Now, back to the documentary again. Did it change my perception of the band itself? Well, I guess so. Eddie Vedder seems more real then I thought he was, and the rest of the band too. In the core, they do not seem to be commercial in any sense. (Selling millions of CD's is not the same thing, apparently!) I mean, many of their albums contain unbareable songs, are released first only on vinyl, and they do not use any artificial things like top models in video clips. They took the company Ticketmaster for a fight when they tried to make too much money over the heads of many live acts. I got the impression that they have stuck to their believes and roots. As the film is larded with unknown, private scenes, it gives a good sense of what it means to be big in the States, eventhough that is not always what they wanted.
More than enjoyable, this film, 4 stars out of 5. I guess we will have to except the fact that the film might inspire a new generation of singers singing through their teeth again.