episode 1

down by law

    this is the second (i think)   feature film written and directed by jim jarmusch.  it stars the musicians john lurie (of the lounge lizards) and tom waits as jack and zack, respectively.  two down on their luck ne'er do wells who (through a tragic and comic mixture of their own stupidity, desperation and bad luck)  find that their separate paths lead them from the underbelly of new orleans into a prison cell.  with each other.  in prison they hate each other immediately, eventually learn to barely tolerate each other, and finally meet another man, bob, played by the italian comic roberto benigni.  bob is the only one of the three men who was not framed (he killed a man), and yet, bob is also the one who in the viewers mind is the least guilty.  bob finds a way for the three of them to break out of jail (one of the most impressive moments in the film takes place when bob first breaches the subject of trying to break out, but he doesn't know the proper word in english. he asks jack what the word is, and then repeats it to himself. "escape.", he says, quietly. for the viewer, watching him, and hearing him say "escape" in that situation, is to hear the word and all that it means for the first time right along with him.)  guess what? even after they successfully break out  zack and jack are still in the prisons that they were in when we first met them, and bob is still more or less on the right track.
   all of jarmuschs movies (and i HIGHLY recommend all of them ('stranger than paradise', 'down by law', 'mystery train', 'night on earth', 'dead man'), except, be forewarned, 'night on earth' has a terrible handicap. winona ryder. she is a black hole of bad acting the likes of which even the fabulous gena rowlands (who plays opposite her) cannot completely escape from)) are basically about the same two things.  the first thing that they are always about is the fact that people really don't understand each other, but  need each other anyway.  jarmusch uses a hundred different devices (brilliantly) to illustrate this.  devices including language barriers, race, gender, musical preferences, class, personal morality and family.   the other theme that he puts in all of his films is said very explicitly by bob the first time that we meet him in 'down by law'.  this line so simply and clearly states the overall mood of the film, and all of jarmuschs films, that it will undoubtedly one day be the name of a book or scholarly article on jarmusch.  the line is "it's a sad and beautiful world."

it's a sad and beautiful world.

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