An author of outsiders: Jim Jarmusch’s "Down by law"

Jim Jarmusch is an American independent film director with a dominant characteristic of his cinema; marginality. The director’s movies focused on outsiders, people who wander with no destination, at odds with themselves and others, traveling through a wasteland of modern America. This study seeks to determine how Jarmusch creates marginality via the cinematography of a film Down by Law. The primary source of this paper is the film. Secondary sources include existing interviews of the director and other related materials. The analysis part will briefly touch upon technicalities of implemented camera work and provide images from the film. The study proposed that marginality has its cycle that consists of four elements; stranger, interference stage, freedom, separation. Further analysis demonstrates the depiction of the cycle in the film. The results indicate that Jim Jarmusch employs specific camera techniques such as long shots, momentum, lighting, horizontal representation, static shots, and black and white choice of photography to underline the notion of marginality in the film Down by Law.

"I’d rather make a movie about a guy walking his dog than about the emperor of China." --Jim Jarmusch 

Loners, outcasts, misfits, and marginal people have a prominent cinematic ally, a filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. An American independent movie director spent the last three decades portraying immigrants, taxi drivers, Zen hitman, and vampires. Marginality has been a defining element in his cinema from the critically acclaimed black and white picture Stranger than Paradise (1984) to his recent comedy/horror work The Dead Don’t Die (2019) portraying zombies/ultimate outsiders. Jim Jarmusch deliberately avoids the Hollywood cinema production and cultivates aesthetic marginality by his minimalistic style and limited financial conditions. Moreover, the concept of marginality is visually depicted through the technicality of his camera work. This essay will attempt to understand the concept of marginality and investigate the technical depiction of the concept in Jim Jarmusch’s film Down by Law (1986). 

The concept of marginality has a long history of definitions and transformations within sociological and philosophical context. The origins of the concept appear in sociological studies by R. Park’s Human migrations and the Marginal man (1928) explaining the cultural differences, races, and ethnicities among people in different situations. An author introduced a concept of cultural hybrids that refers to someone who shares the cultural life of two separate groups and at the same time does not belong to either of them. A marginal man is not accepted because of the social prejudice insisting that one must belong to a place or a group of people in order to exist in society.

The latter deviations of the concept introduce Strangerhood and Otherness. The sociological study of S. Demir, "Old Concepts, New Contents: The City, Cinema and the Stranger," offers a transformed understanding of the concept Strangerhood that refers to a mental state of a person rather than a characteristic. This type of strangers differs from the ones who were innocently pushed by the circumstances, they determine their existence as the border that cannot be separated from inner and outside inbetweennesses (Demir, 2018).

Otherness, however, offers different but related understanding of the concept. A philosophical essay of M. Cauchi, "Otherness and the Renewal of Freedom in Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law: A Levinasian and Arendtian Reading," analyzes the pattern of renewal of freedom through otherness and refers to ability of otherness to offer newness into the world (Cauchi, 2013). Other is an element that refers to a difference, ethnical or racial, religious and ideological that has a power to renew freedom that can only by achieved through an encounter with the other element 

Both studies, however, did not touch upon the whole aspect of marginality, only partly. Arguments that were made by authors are nearly components belonging to the bigger idea of the concept. This study proposes that marginality has its own cycle where numerous elements combined altogether represent marginality as a whole. There are four parts to the cycle of marginality; stranger, interference stage, freedom, separation. These elements are in specific order, after every step is completed, the cycle as a loop returns to the first stage; stranger and continue its mechanism. The framework is a lens that helps to discover and deliver specific employed camera techniques and most crucially illustrate the cycle of marginality in the film.

Down by Law is one of the earlier works of the filmmaker that reassured his position in the independent cinema industry and brought to Jim Jarmusch recognition as an art-house movie director. Down by law has a black and white aesthetic that received an award in Cannes for the best picture (Suarez, 2007). The film begins with a graveyard shot, slowly moving horizontally away, implementing a long shot accompanied by the iconic voice and ironic lyrics of Tom Waits "A Jockey Full of Bourbon." The shots introduce the audience to the outskirts of the city of Louisiana, portraying strangers who are passing by and melodically synchronized opening scene of marginal characters Jack and Zack. From the early scenes of the film, the audience begin to recognize the detachment and distance of the characters. The characters are outsiders, marginal people who cannot be identified as heroes of the film but rather partly present, partly connected, and not belonging people who are about to take a journey through the timeframe of the movie. The scene then fades to black, and additional credits of the film appear on a dark screen.

Momentum and lighting are the techniques that help to develop the characters. Momentum gives enough of timely freedom to portray the actions and show who characters are, it is described as a technique that helps to gather the steam throughout the film. Lighting on the other hand, contributes in representing their motives. The representation of momentum. A character Bob sits in the same shot for two minutes, sharing about his family and opening a door into his life for the audience. 

The second stage of the cycle is interference stage that is depicted by the same techniques, long shots, momentum and angles. Angle shares a perception of characters, a location where they meet, a place with their take of seeing. Angles portray whether a character changes, remains the same or becomes indifferent. A good example of an angle positions is when Bob tries to connect with Zack and Jack. Bob is depicted by the left corner of the screen frame and the camera position that is slightly over the heads of two characters. The audience now is seeing Bob’s perception of events and how they turn out.

The third element; freedom. A process of getting the freedom in their minds as well as the reality in the film, was illustrated through the camera technique named horizontal representation. The film has a straightforward horizontal shot of the process to escape which was portrayed traveling on feet, as well as a boat while duration of the film. These shots move in a linear direction with no interruptions of turns, and characters become a part of the scene. The crucial part of portrayal of escape from the prison/mind was depicted by a static shot. 

The last stage is separation. Near the end of the movie, there are two scenes depict the element of separation. After the characters’ accomplishment of escaping prison and stumbling upon a house where Bob meets Nicoletta and get food and shelter, they start to make up their minds about the next steps each of them wants to take. Bob decides to stay with Nicoletta confessing his love for her. Zack wants to move to another state, he mentions West, Los Angeles to which Jack replies that he wants to go East, giving an inside reference about the incompatibility of two. And so, they say goodbye to Bob and Nicoletta, accompanied by the wide-angle shot which provides the whole frame of background, emotions, and a slight confusion on the faces of marginal characters. They separate renewed by the experience, even more, marginal than they were before they went through the adventure of the film’s timeframe.

In the second scene that portrays the separation between Zack and Jack. The camera applied the wide- angle shot, depicting a depth of the space and literal separation between two set apart roads. Zack and Jack walk away, and the audience left with an open-end finale. The above mentioned camera techniques within the framework of conceptual analysis suggest the fulfillment of four elements of the cycle of marginality. The analysis unfolded specific techniques as long shots, static camera position, general lighting situation, momentum, wide-angle shots, and horizontal representation. Furthermore, concepts and interpretations of the two studies by Cauchi and Demir were described and applied to the body of the analysis. 

This study situated that Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law in relation to the concept of marginality through in-depth analysis of the concept and technical aspects of the picture. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that Jim Jarmusch’s depiction of the marginality is achieved through a use of specific camera techniques which are: long shots, position of angles, lighting, horizontal representation, momentum, black and white choice of cinematography, static camera shots as well as distant shots. Furthermore, findings of the study illustrate that marginality consist of four elements as stated in the analysis part of the study. Moreover, the cycle is found in the film and applies to the cinematic depiction of the concept through camera work. 

With regards to the marginality the importance of this study is also in providing the understanding of the significance of individualism. Marginality cannot be fully understood without an acknowledgment of individualism. In the origins of the study on the concept, they mention that marginality can have negative connotations as segregation of the cultural mismatch or even abandoning marginal style of life and join the dominant groups. Of course, dominant groups will expect the marginal people learn their dominant values and principles. However, marginal people often times choose to embrace their sense of freedom and thus it certainly enhances their individualism and the self.

Finally, Jarmusch’s marginal characters depicted in the film seem to have an insight observation of the world, life, and their experiences that remained unspoken in the picture. It probably is not due to their introverted nature or unwillingness to share knowledge with others but the importance of a sacred type of knowledge that is found in solitude and should remain unspoken. Perhaps, this could be one the reasons why they are loners, outsiders and misfits. A further investigation could allow a useful discussion on the mentioned observation. 

References


Cauchi, M. (2013). Otherness and the Renewal of Freedom in Jarmusch's Down by Law: A Levinasian and Arendtian Reading. Film-Philosophy, 17(1), 193-211.


Demir, S. T. (2018). Old concepts, new contents: the city, cinema and the stranger. Türkiye İletişim Araştırmaları Dergisi, (31), 121-133.


Piazza, S. (2015). Jim Jarmusch: Music, Words and Noise (Illustrated). Reaktion Books.

[This essay was written by Guzal Koshbahteeva. It is based on her Master's research at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan.]