A quantum leap by American independent Jim Jarmusch – a hypnotic and beautiful black-and-white western (1995) set in the 1870s. Johnny Depp plays an accountant from Cleveland named William Blake who travels west with the promise of a job to the infernal town of Machine, only to be told that the job’s been taken. After killing a man (Gabriel Byrne) in self-defense and sustaining a mortal bullet wound, Blake is guided toward death by a Native American outcast named Nobody (Gary Farmer) while a trio of bounty hunters (Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd) and various others try to track him down. This startling masterpiece is simultaneously a mystical, highly poetic account of dying; an intricate, well-researched appreciation of Native American cultures; a frightening portrait of modern American violence and capitalist greed that refuses to traffic in the stylistic alibis of Hollywood; a warm, hilarious depiction of cross-cultural friendship; and a hallucinatory trip across the American wilderness (vividly shot by Robby Müller). It contains elements familiar from Jarmusch’s five earlier features – surreal existential encounters (Permanent Vacation), a singular and highly musical sense of film rhythm (Stranger Than Paradise), a memorable feeling for natural landscape (Down by Law), the comedy of cultural misunderstandings (Mystery Train), and a minimalist use of recurring formal patterns (Night on Earth) – but with this picture he sets a new standard and becomes a visionary poet.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Chicago Reader”, 29 August 1996