On the seedy nighttime streets of New Orleans, Jack, a small-time pimp played by John Lurie, and Zack, an unemployed disc jockey played by Tom Waits, are framed for separate crimes and placed together in a jail cell, where they are eventually joined by Roberto, an endlessly cheerful Italian tourist, played by Roberto Benigni, who has been arrested for manslaughter. When their new cellmate, who speaks limited English, shows Jack and Zack an escape route, the three of them take off into the expansive Louisiana bayou country. As these wildly disparate individuals struggle to avoid capture in the swamp, they form an unlikely friendship.
The low-budget black-and-white 1986 cult classic,
Down by Law, the third feature-length release from director Jim Jarmusch, broadened the scope of the indie filmmaker after his first two features,
Permanent Vacation (1980) and
Stranger Than Paradise (1984), both of which primarily took place in New York City. This time around, cinematographer Robby Müller, whose remarkable visual style graced such films as
Repo Man and
Paris, Texas, makes the settings into characters in and of themselves. The shadows of the French Quarter street corners take on a noir sensibility, a getaway in a subterranean tunnel conjures comparisons with
The Third Man, and the bayou waterways recall older prison escape films like
The Defiant Ones. Sparse jazz music, courtesy of Lurie, whose work with the band, The Lounge Lizards, complimented his acting career, adds atmosphere to the proceedings, while two songs from the brilliant 1985 Tom Waits album, Rain Dogs, bookend this screen story.
There is no such thing as a boring movie. There are only boring people. As with other Jarmusch works, many viewers may lose patience with his brand of low-fi minimalism in
Down by Law, but I could have watched the dialogue between our three antihero protagonists for hours. Waits, whose vocal style in his songs has always sounded to me like the Cookie Monster on a multi-day eating binge, is strangely captivating to watch as he slouches in the middle of any given place, and his garish shoes during an early scene are instrumental in setting the stage for his character. Lurie, whose 1950s gangster clothing styles are for the ages, is similarly effective. Of course, Benigni, who was new to America, is the wild card spark that really sets the story in motion, and his facial expressions shape the tone of the final half of the narrative. Be on the lookout for Ellen Barkin (
Sea of Love), Billie Neal (
Jacob's Ladder), and Nicoletta Braschi (
Life is Beautiful) as women who figure into the lives of the main players.
I love how this third Jarmusch effort comes across like a greatest hits of 1950s film noir and 1950s prison movies. All the while, however, it does not lose any of the uncanny coolness that brings adventurous audiences to his other works.
This Criterion Blu-ray, which has been languishing in my still-unwatched stack for far too long after my only previous exposure being the old DVD edition, is one of the label's best presentations of a black-and-white film. The details of both the Orleans nightlife and the swamp wilderness have an entrancing immediacy.
Right now, I'm listening to the extended Jarmusch audio interview, and I'll be plowing through the rest of the supplements tonight.
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Down by Law (1986)
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