Down by Law

A prison film without an overt sense of morality? That comes as no surprise from Jim Jarmusch. One of the pioneers of independent filmmaking in the 1980s, Jarmusch cares little for plot or crafting a message for his audience and much more about drawing up scenarios for his characters that reveal nuances of the human condition.

"Down by Law" features three men in New Orleans who are guilty of their crimes though wrongfully imprisoned. Zack (Tom Waits) is a radio DJ who — after being thrown out by his girlfriend — agrees to a shady odd job driving a car that sets him up to take a fall. Jack (John Lurie) is a local pimp who ends up the victim of a sting operation. Both men feel unfairly hit just for letting their guard down. In prison they meet Bob (Roberto Benigni), an optimistic and overly friendly Italian immigrant with a similar story. The three men connect within confinement, but that bond is tested in new ways after they escape.

Aside from Zack and Jack's arrests, Jarmusch takes his laid back approach to most of the events in the film, choosing to show only the aftereffects of the major plot points that most filmmakers would want to depict on screen. He did the same thing in "Stranger Than Paradise" a couple years earlier, wanting to focus his film on how the characters respond to swings of fortune. The prison break, for example, is not explained. We only see the before followed by a cut to the three prisoners on the run.

Zack, Jack and Bob make for an interesting trio, particularly Bob. Benigni brings impeccable spirit and joviality to break up the somewhat slogging animosity between carefree cool guy Zack (Waits is spot-on casting) and the self-righteous, sarcastic Jack (deployed similarly to the way he was in "Stranger Than Paradise"). Benigni is specifically responsible for a couple of the film's best moments, one an ice cream protest and the other involving a rabbit. His comedy brings a dimension and energy to this film that "Paradise" was missing, and it fits within Jarmusch's style and framework.

"Down by Law" also feels more cinematic. Jarmusch includes more of the New Orleans setting and the Louisiana wilderness with dollying/trucking shots that help immerse his very intimate stories in something larger, in this case the lawlessness of NOLA and the swampland. Maybe Jarmusch doesn't have a neatly wrapped up moral to send us home with, his film clearly establishes a belief in an unpredictability to our world. And given the way his characters handle it, you can tell that he views humans as people who are eternally torn between self-interest and companionship.

Jarmusch's early work shows great vision of how he wants to tell stories, with less emphasis on what those stories are trying to say. It's as though he's running experiments with his characters, and what plays out in his films are the results. Fans of art films and theatre will surely appreciate these early offerings, while those who prefer a director take them on a ride rather than present them an experiment to observe will have trouble connecting.

~Steven C

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