Jim Jarmusch’s 1986 release Down by Law is a film about life, how a person’s experience in life can be filled with moments of meaning, and also be filled with just moments; everyday occurrences we all might have in common in a typical day. To Jarmusch, each moment is of equal importance, even the mundane, such as shooting the breeze with a friend or having a meal.
(Spoilers below)
Hollywood pictures tend to be about something; otherwise, how do you make any money? An audience of a Hollywood blockbuster expects something to happen, usually something with lots of explosions. Or, if you are Homer Simpson, a film where someone is kicked in the groin.
In that sense, Down by Law is a million miles away from what a typical Hollywood picture would be. It’s really not about anything (at least, not on the surface), but it is about living, and how human beings fill their lives with meaning, or no meaning.
Down by Law is filmed in black and white, and in doing so Jarmusch creates a unique tone. His use of black and white brings his characters to life, making them somehow more there, more alive.
Early in the film, we meet three men: Zack (Tom Waits), a former DJ down on his luck; Jack (John Lurie), a pimp who is a little too relaxed about his profession; and Roberto (Roberto Benigni), a man who can only be described as inexplicable, possibly an Italian tourist separated from his tour group with a limited command of English.
Zack and Jack are separately framed for crimes, and end up sharing the same jail cell together.
I really enjoyed the way Jarmusch used the prison scenes as a way to show how slowly time passes. Zack and Jack never leave the tiny cell, and we as an audience are not immediately aware that time is passing (Jarmusch provides some visual clues, such as hash marks written on the cell wall). No cutaways to the two eating meals, or sleeping, or doing anything outside the cell.
The two are soon joined by Roberto, who apparently is in prison for killing someone with an eight ball following a seemingly deadly game of pool. Roberto is full of energy, and keeps a notebook on him with various bits of English slang and words.
Roberto brings some laughter into the lives of Zack and Jack. Once Roberto arrives at the prison, the film shifts gears a bit and we as an audience share with Zack and Jack the experience of spending a lot of time with an animated Italian in a small prison cell. Roberto seems eternally optimistic, despite the circumstances, and his charm not only rubs off on Zack and Jack, but also throughout the prison block, in one inspired scene where Roberto leads a sing-along of the ice cream song.
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