Dead Man
Dr. Sexson loaned me a copy of Dead Man so I am now able to make an entry. I first must note that having heard our discussion on the movie and then watched the movie gives me a greater appreciation. In class we only watched a few parts but I feel as though watching the whole has given me a greater grasp on what's really going on actually and metaphorically.
My contibution to the discussion had I been prepared for our discussion would have been a reference to the Bible only it would be more of a reference against the Bible. I first noticed this when Nobody says that because of his encounters with the white man he is expelled from his own culture and forced to walk the world alone. This reminds me of Judas and how he too is forced to walk alone. Perhaps because Nobody's situation is not his own fault, we should not be so hasty to judge the situation of Judas; perhaps he too was inadvertently forced to walk alone. This scene is quickly followed by the scene with Billy Bob Thornton, the British sounding man, and the man in drag. They then recite a sloppy, sanguine type of grace before eating. This perhaps suggests that the whole concept of grace is really just a farce much as the movie's scene of grace appears to be.
My final example would be when William Blake kills the two sherrifs. Both are stuck down dead however one is crowned with a halo of sticks surrounding his head. This is reminiscent of medieval paintings wherein any hole figure was crowned with a halo of gold. The sherrif is not only killed but his head is then crushed in, like a rotten pumpkin after Halloween. The graphic nature of the destruction of the haloed figure leads me to believe that the director was trying to represent a graphic destruction of the Christ figure.
Marilyn