BLOODLESS DEAD
Jarmusch’s very own take on zombie movies
“The Dead Don’t Die” is a zombie movie … kind of. First and foremost, it’s a Jim Jarmusch film, full of the deadpan drollery and uniquely skewed worldview that has made him one of the most influential and revered indie directors from “Stranger Than Paradise” up through “Paterson.”
“If people want to see something like ‘The Walking Dead,’ this isn’t that,” Jarmusch told the Daily News. He doesn’t like gore and has his zombies spouting dust instead of blood when they’re beheaded. “Once we die there are no fluids left,” he said.
Jarmusch, who has previously given Westerns and vampire flicks his own twist, loves genre films but as a framework for the story he wants to tell: “I wanted the zombie metaphor, the reason they’ve been reanimated to be some stupid thing that humans have done.”
In the film, “polar fracking,” something Jarmusch invented, caused the Earth to slide off its axis. The first sign is extra daylight in the quintessential small town of Centerville, but more ominous is the rise of the living dead.
“It gets quite dark and it does a sociopolitical thread — the ecological crisis is, or should be, the main concern for all living things now,” he said. “But this is a characterdriven comedy.”
His zombies may be murderous beasts, but “they are us, monsters come from within the system that’s broken.” They can speak, but each can say only one thing, Jarmusch explained, “some obsession of theirs, whether it’s pharmaceutical products or cell phones or coffee.” One undead creature says “Wi-Fi,” another “Free cable, and a third “Fashion.”
He admits the balance between humor and horror may occasionally slide off its axis. “I’m not sure how well all those things are balanced,” he said, but he hopes the laughter is healing. He paraphrases Oscar Wilde, with, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
The film boasts star power beyond its budget: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Tilda Swinton, Chloe Sevigny, Rosie Perez, Selena Gomez, Tom Waits, Carol Kane, RZA, Caleb Landry Jones, and Iggy Pop. “They weren’t paid anything near what they should be, which meant so much to me,” Jarmusch said.
Actors love working with Jarmusch and willingly return, often becoming friends with him outside work, according to Buscemi and Sevigny. They add that he creates a warm, friendly set.
“I work with each actor individually because they have different strengths,” Jarmusch explained, adding that he wrote many parts specifically for friends like Murray and Buscemi. “With Bill I always leave him space to improvise but I also give him a map to his character — he likes his latitude but he wants guidelines.”
Sevigny plays emotional police officer Mindy, who stands in stark contrast to the wry stoicism of her colleagues played by Murray and Driver. She didn’t need to see a script to say yes. “That’s testament to [Jarmusch] as a filmmaker and a person,” she said. “Like all the greatest storytellers he has such a distinctive voice. But he’s also a very considerate person.”
Buscemi was also ready to sign on without a read, but Jarmusch cautioned his character was “pretty severe.” Farmer Miller is ignorant, angry and hateful; he sits in a diner next to Glover while wearing a red baseball hat that reads, “Keep America White Again.”
“I would not do this role for anybody, but I trust Jim implicitly and so I didn’t want to soften this guy in any way,” Buscemi told The News.
Working with actors he knows allows Jarmusch to indulge in little jokes for film fans. In “Broken Flowers,” he named Murray’s character Don Johnson, so this time he chose another actor’s name: Cliff Robertson. Since Driver played the title character in Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” this time his name is Peterson.
Jarmusch writes material that makes him laugh but then trusts his actors and his crew to bring it to life … or not. “A lot of those things are in there to amuse myself when I’m writing and then I see how much of it should stay in,” he says