Dead Man is a bit of a dark horse and probably not a film a lot of people have seen. The film's director is Jim Jarmusch who I have a lot of respect for. I have always described his work as visionary and along with Tim Burton seems to have established himself in the upper echelons of Hollywood. A former film student, he first came to the public's attention in 1984 with his low budget black and white piece, Stranger than Paradise, and then two years later Down by Law. But he is probably best known, however, for his obliquely observed study of foreign students adrift after hours in Elvis haunted Memphis in 1989's Mystery Train, and for his stunningly visualised Night on Earth three years later. So he has some pedigree and cult status and I guess it makes sense for Depp to take the lead role in his hypnotic and slow-moving, sometimes astonishing western that seemed to have more in common with Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Sam Shephard's musical western Silent Tongue from 1993 which was River Phoenix's last movie, than it had with any characteristic Hollywood outing.

This isn't a film for everyone. Although it is a beautiful, intiguing story it stretches out to 2 hours and the pace is slow. It is artistic and humorous and there is what I would call a kind of ominous visual philosophising which some people will think is pretentious, I am sure. Jarmusch is a very independent director and has always put his artistic energy into developing characters rather than plot. I would probably say he is pretty hopeless when it comes to plot. This is not a commercial film in any way and if you are looking for a heavy plot driven film or an action packed film then this is not for you. If you like black and white photography, poetry, rhythms and have an interest in Native America then this is for you.

The friendship between Blake and Nobody dominates the film. It is warm and humorous and although they seem to have a strange bond neither really understand each other.

Much the same can said about Robert Mitchum who is also in the film. One of America's accomplished actors of the western genre, who four years before this film had returned to the screen for a cameo role in Martin Scorses's Cape Fear - the director' gripping remake of Mitchum's 1962 original. I think a lot of moviegoers think of Mitchum as a celebrity first and an actor a poor second, and that his career, his work and even his personality are judged accordingly. I have always found him to have a kind of silent dominance in most films. In Ryan's Daughter he gave an outstanding performance. His sheer size - god knows how tall he is, is dominating enough. In Dead Man he is in great shape physically and I think does a terrific job.

There is a rag bag of stars also in the film, like John Hurt, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Wincott but they fade into one as I thought they all over acted and I lost interest in them.

There are some very bizarre depictions of human behaviour, like the greedily chewing of a human hand and a crushing of the head of a corpse under the boot of one of the marshalls. We have Iggy Popp wearing a frock (which is probably quite normal for Iggy!) and a marshall sleeping and talking to his teddy bear. All very hallucinatory. It's as if the whole cast are on acid.

What I do think is beautiful is the way Nobody recites some of Blakes (the poet) proverbs to Blake, the young man, and he thinks they are normal utterings from a Native American because when Nobody speaks his own words of wisdom they have very similar meanings and he doesn't know the difference. It is really weird to see a Native American rambling away like a romantic poet stuck miles out in the wild west. There is a wonderful scene where Blake, lost and forlorn in the wilderness, curls up against a young deer that has accidentally been killed. This is Depp at his best - not moving or speaking - just looking with his doe eyes.