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Posted: **Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:47 pm**

With Dead Man, his first period piece, Jim Jarmusch imagined the nineteenth-century American West as an existential wasteland, delivering a surreal reckoning with the ravages of industrialization, the country's legacy of violence and prejudice, and the natural cycle of life and death. Accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) has hardly arrived in the godforsaken outpost of Machine before he's caught in the middle of a fatal lovers' quarrel. Wounded and on the lam, Blake falls under the watch of the outcast Nobody (Gary Farmer), a Native American without a tribe, who guides his companion on a spiritual journey, teaching him to dispense poetic justice along the way. Featuring austerely beautiful black-and-white photography by Robby Müller and a live-wire score by Neil Young, Dead Man is a profound and unique revision of the western genre.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New Q&A in which Jarmusch responds to questions sent in by fans
• New readings of William Blake poems by members of the cast, including Mili Avital, Alfred Molina, and Iggy Pop
• New selected-scene audio commentary by production designer Robert Ziembicki and sound mixer Drew Kunin
• New interview with actor Gary Farmer
• Deleted scenes
• Jarmusch's location scouting photos
• More!
• PLUS: Essays by critic Amy Taubin and music journalist Ben Ratliff

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:06 am**

hearthesilence wrote:Echo Bridge is reissuing this on Blu-Ray. It's set for release on August 9th, and Amazon's taking pre-orders for $8.99.
To my understanding, Dead Man was given a new HD transfer for a Blu-Ray release in Europe, so it's possible this is just a clone of that mastering. BUT this is Echo Bridge, and if you check out their recent DVD reissues of Dead Man (including a stand-alone DVD and a shitty two-fer that pairs it up with a random B-flick), you'll notice that it's actually worse than the old Miramax DVD, giving it a lower bitrate so that it fits on one single-layer DVD instead of a dual AND unlike the original Miramax DVD, it's not anamorphic, which is absolutely ridiculous.

I am extremely curious as to how it's possible for Echo Bridge to have outbid Criterion on the rights to this title, if such a showdown took place (and why wouldn't it have?)

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:06 am**

mfunk9786 wrote:I am extremely curious as to how it's possible for Echo Bridge to have outbid Criterion on the rights to this title, if such a showdown took place (and why wouldn't it have?)

I don't think that Criterion has acquired any Miramax titles since Chungking Express, and I have a feeling that they actually licensed that long before they released it. The odds that there was any "bidding" on individual Miramax titles are slim. They licensed massive packages to both Lionsgate and Echo Bridge, but I don't know of any licenses beyond that.

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:48 am**

Jeff wrote:
mfunk9786 wrote:I am extremely curious as to how it's possible for Echo Bridge to have outbid Criterion on the rights to this title, if such a showdown took place (and why wouldn't it have?)
I don't think that Criterion has acquired any Miramax titles since Chungking Express, and I have a feeling that they actually licensed that long before they released it. The odds that there was any "bidding" on individual Miramax titles are slim. They licensed massive packages to both Lionsgate and Echo Bridge, but I don't know of any licenses beyond that.

Yes, I remember reading somewhere that these were "bulk" licensing agreements with Echo Bridge and Lionsgate. It wouldn't be feasible for Criterion to have bid for movies that would probably never make it into their collection. It's ridiculous that Echo Bridge and Lionsgate can't even properly reissue DVDs that were originally released by Miramax.

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 11:30 am**

Dead Man BD review

Good news?
no worries of Non-Anamorphic anymore
extra features from the DVD are carried over
soundtrack in DTS-HD MA

Bad news?
5.1 is bumped down to 2.0
picture quality is not a big step up

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:15 pm**

Just be thankful the film is black & white, so they didn't mess the colors and not 2.35:1 so they didn't mess the framing...

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:50 pm**

Echo Bridge didn't "outbid" Criterion, Miramax still had the distribution rights to Dead Man and they licensed their entire back catalog out to Echo Bridge.

Posted: **Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:13 pm**

Ashirg wrote:Just be thankful the film is black & white, so they didn't mess the colors and not 2.35:1 so they didn't mess the framing...

It looks like they did manage to stretch the image quite significantly, though.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:31 pm**

It looks like the Echo Bridge Blu and DVDs are out of print. Long shot for Criterion but we know they are living legends

This really needs the supervision of Robby Müller and/or Jim Jarmusch to ensure image quality.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:39 pm**

Earlier this year there was an article that mentioned the rights for this film had reverted back to Jim Jarmusch and that he had partnered with Match Factory to find a distributor. Which certainly bodes well for a Criterion release at some point in the near future.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:44 pm**

The scene that always bothered me A/V wise was the Big George/Belmont/"Sally" meeting. There was this flicker that makes it look jerky. I don't think that was intentional on the part of the filmmaking. Also the ADR bugs me with Sally telling that violent version of Goldilocks off-camera when Bill Blake and Nobody approach the camp. I probably can't help the latter =]

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:14 pm**

The Echo Bridge Blu-Ray reportedly used the wrong HD master (which could explain some of glitches caught by viewers).

Even worse is the Echo Bridge DVD. Not only does it drop all the bonuses from the original Miramax DVD, it squeezes the film into a single layer DVD (the Miramax DVD was a dual with the feature itself requiring both layers), and worst of all, it's LETTERBOX, not anamorphic like the Miramax DVD. They completely f-ed it up.

Posted: **Tue Oct 31, 2017 6:55 pm**

I wonder who this is licensed from. The Miramax home video library has been with Lions Gate for a while, and Lions Gate hasn't really licensed their library out to other distributors (with a few exceptions like Kicking and Screaming and Naqoyqatsi as part of the Qatsi Trilogy release). So maybe the "classic" Miramax library and/or other Lions Gate titles are being opened up to boutique labels. Or it could just mean that Dead Man's right reverted back to Jarmusch or someone else.

Posted: **Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:23 pm**

paulm wrote:Or it could just mean that Dead Man's right reverted back to Jarmusch or someone else.

Jarmusch says that he owns his films, so if the rights have reverted then they would be to him. All of Criterion's previous Jarmusch titles have been licensed from outfits like "Black Snake Inc." and "Mystery Train Inc." that are pretty clearly companies Jarmusch set up to make the films. In the case of Dead Man this was "12 Gauge Productions" and I'm betting that'll end up being the licensor.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:12 pm**

We are currently working on the special edition of Jarmusch’s Dead Man, which will feature a new 4K restoration and is slated to be released in 2018, and we’re wondering if you have any questions you would like answered about the film.

We’ll be accepting all of your questions from now until December 8 and sending the most thoughtful and creative ones to Jim. Though we can’t guarantee that all will be answered on the release, feel free to ask as many as you like. Personal requests will not be answered.

Now ask away! Just make sure to include your full name, city, state, and country of residence with your questions.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:14 pm**

Criterion to release Jim Jarmusch's DEAD MAN in 2018 in a 4k Restoration.
As per emailed Newsletter.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:10 pm**

The actual questions submission form can be found here.

And the Google Form also features this image, which I can't say is a frame from DEAD MAN or not.

Posted: **Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:05 pm**

Apr 24

Posted: **Thu Jan 25, 2018 11:44 am**

The Soda Pictures release of Dead Man, which was advertised as being approved by Jarmusch himself, was presented in 1.78:1 according to this review, while the new Criterion release is listed as 1.85:1. Can anyone comment on the discrepancy?

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:55 am**

I would assume that it is cropped, as no-one (especially in the 90's) shot on film in 1.78.

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:40 am**

Films shot in 1.85 are shot in 1.37, with 1.85 in mind, and then masked to 1.85 for projection (which is why we used to often see boom mikes in films that are incorrectly projected). It's very likely the Soda Blu is "open matte" 1.78 (with slightly more picture at the top and bottom than 1.85) rather than "cropped".

Many HD masters were created "full frame 1.78 (16:9)" for HDTV broadcast (for that stupid inclination to "fill the television"), and should really have been matted to 1.85 for broadcast and Blu-ray – as they were for projection first time round.

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:34 am**

Is it then similar to what Warner do with their 1.85 movies released at 1.78 on BD ?

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:46 am**

Films shot in 1.85 are shot in 1.37, with 1.85 in mind, and then masked to 1.85 for projection

Actually, the Open matte exposed negative size is somewhere in 1:1.17 - 1:1.19. The boom mikes are safe in1:1.37, but often some "idiots" projects the whole frame, or have the mask incorrect, so that the frame is not in symmetry.

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:51 pm**

tenia wrote:Is it then similar to what Warner do with their 1.85 movies released at 1.78 on BD ?

Yes, it's not a crop from 1.85 to 1.78. It's an opening up of 1.85 to 1.78, so the 1.78 has slightly more information at the top and bottom than the 1.85.

Posted: **Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:38 am**

Is it possible that Dead Man was shot in Super35? A lot of independent productions in the 90's shot super35 to save money

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