Director Jim Jarmusch has made a lot of movies that you could describe as being “of a place” and Down by Law is no exception. Here we get a miserable, film noir-inspired version of the Louisiana bayou country that Jarmusch conceived of before he even arrived to make this movie. The story begins in New Orleans and it’s portrayed as a moody, rundown, desolate, rotting carcass of a city, populated only by the damned and the pitiful. And then we go to jail. Shot in Jarmusch’s signature black and white, on the surface, Down by Law seems like it might as well have been called “abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” But, more than my now-missed posting deadline, there was something to this story about three misfits which inspired me to keep watching.
One night, Jack, a small-time pimp played by John Lurie, a musician Jarmusch turned into an actor with Stranger than Paradise, is arrested after being lured into a compromising position. At the same time, out-of-work DJ Zack, played by another musician-turned-actor, Tom Waits, is jailed after he’s tricked into driving a car with a dead body in the trunk. Jack and Zack end up sharing the same cell and quickly realize that they don’t like each other very much. But that’s nothing compared to the contempt they share when a new cellmate arrives: Bob (Roberto Benigni), an Italian tourist who struggles with English and wasn’t framed at all, he killed a man in self-defense. Bob has a loud personality and the other two men, who had little desire to share any words before, start to bond out of annoyance at this silly guy.
But Bob has a plan and soon enough the three men have escaped into the swamp surrounding the prison. What follows are high jinks and cliches as this unlikely trio evades whoever may be pursuing them. The Criterion website called it “part nightmare and part fairy tale” and I couldn’t think of a better description for unusual encounters that make up the last part of this movie. It’s nothing compared to Weekend, mind you, Down by Law is far too American and literal than that. It’s more a case of amusing contradictions or extremely unlikely coincidences – Bob can’t swim but he can hunt for food, the trio find an abandoned cabin that looks a whole lot like their cell on the inside, that sort of thing.
Tom Waits is listed first among this cast and I was a bit leery about that because Waits’ music is a taste I haven’t acquired yet. But, come to think of it, I always like him as an actor and this movie is no exception. That said, the real star is Roberto Benigni, who was, at the time, an unknown in America making his English-language debut. He’s great here, props for some of the most believable hiccups I’ve ever seen on film. All three leads being slightly uncomfortable performers actually does enhance this movie too, as you sort of feel like none of them are 100% in character, there is just this slight vibe of them also being three guys having fun making a movie.
I refuse to say I’m surprised that a Jarmusch movie was only interested in characters in the end, but, like Ghost Dog, I was hoping for one thing that he was never really trying to do. In this case, it was a prison break sequence. As a fan of heist movies, I love watching a job come together. Down by Law has none of that, it kind just shows that our three prisoners got bored and then one day escaped. It’s all the “why” and none of the “how.” And that’s fine, I still had a good time. I just think it would have been cool to see Tom Waits make a bomb out of gardening equipment or something.