Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This is evidenced in the final intersection between the two overriding themes, love and death. In terms of plot, the crisis is fairly predictable, and takes the easy way out. However, it culminates in a weirdly erotic scene fusing death and sensuality with a frankness which may jar those who were expecting a different kind of erotic climax. Admittedly, it effectively forces Angelo to finally shake off the constraints of his pride--and the rigid code he has used as a shield against his own feelings. But the remainder of the movie seems to run out on itself...
...make a "postmodern" Western? You start, if director Jim Jarmusch is any guide, by throwing out the term "postmodern." You also make the plot and dialogue incidental, while giving such elements as setting and soundtrack full narrative weight. In a recent interview with The Crimson, Jarmusch described his latest Miramax release, "Dead Man," as an "acid Western," a term perhaps appropriate to a film which takes the Western idiom and stretches it to its most surreal limits...
...addition to its passive main character, "Dead Man" subverts the Western genre by relying on visual and sound effects, rather than plot events, to chart the progress of the character. The film is shot in black and white, an effect which "was built into the story from the moment I started imagining it," says Jarmusch. "A guy goes into a world that becomes very unfamiliar to him and the black and white allowed that kind of eerie, unfamiliar quality to be maintained." The use of black and white was necessary to further dismantle the Western rubric because "the color values...
...show's strongest characters and, unlike David and Waskewich, Salahuddin sings as impressively as he acts. Despite this strong cast, the scenes of dialogue throughout the first act are beset by frequent problems with timing. The flow of the dialogue is constantly interrupted by small pauses which prevent the plot from progressing smoothly. Fortunately, the many musical numbers are carried along by the surprisingly strong chorus, most notably the three "pit singers" who first appear during the overture...
Fortunately, the second act comes off far better than the first. Although problems with singing and balance continue throughout the show, the actors are much more enthusiastic and, with the help of several exciting songs, move the plot convincingly along. After several misadventures with the Wicked Witch Evillene (Liz Vladeck), Addaperle's more refined sister Glinda (Tracy Erickson) arrives and, in a delightful scene and song, brings the musical to its happy ending...