Mystery Train

Jason Parkes

at 5:07 pm

I don’t think that Jim Jarmusch has ever made a bad film, sure Dead Man in the wrong mood is a bit dull & Year of the Horse is only appealing if you find epic guitar solos played by grizzled 50somethings appealing, but he more than warrants his place in US cinema.

Mystery Train was the follow-up to his early works, the student feature Permanent Vacation (once shown on Channel4, who like to show repeats of Graham Norton now instead), 1984’s debut proper Stranger Than Paradise & its follow-up Down By Law- which was another joy featuring Tom Waits & Roberto Benigni.

Mystery Train is a film that few appear to be aware of- facets such as it’s structure, the quirky fools who occur, the ghost of Elvis & its hotel locale will be familiar to viewers of Tarantino’s True Romance and (especially) Pulp Fiction. Here we get three stories set in Memphis, the film beginning with the arrival of a train & ending with its departing to the classic Elvis song of the same name. Story #1 sees Jarmusch employ his love of world cinema- looking at Memphis through Foreign eyes, we follow a Japanese couple (Masatoshi Nagase & Youki Kudoh) as they come to the home of Elvis. They visit Sun studios, argue about who was more important: Elvis or Carl Perkins, smoke cigarettes & eventually arrive at a sleazy downtown hotel (where the night clerk & bellboy are Screamin’ Jay Hawkins & Cinque Lee- who connect the stories). They then settle in for the night, an almost surreal scene occurs where Nagase puts on his girlfiend’s make-up. & later, a shot rings out…

The second story is like an inversion of Billy Wilder’s Avanti, Benigni’s wife Nicoletta Braschi plays an Italian window transporting her husband’s body home- having to stay for a night in Memphis, she is grifted for a shaggy dog story about Elvis as a ghost-hitchhiker, prior to coming across a slighted girlfriend of a character from the third story- they both decide to split a room in the same downtown hotel, where the ghost of Elvis appears and a shot rings out…

Finally the third story sees the wonderful Steve Buscemi go to the aid of his sister’s jilted boyfriend- played by the late, great Joe Strummer. There are some knowing references to Strummer’s Elvis hairstyle & him being a Brit & along with Rufus Thomas, the three go on an adventure that leads to armed robbery, that leads to a hotel where a shot will ring out & the stories all converge…

Mystery Train is an excellent film, another of Jarmusch’s great films fit to stand next to his early work & such later joys as Night on Earth, Dead Man & Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. Added to that, the soundtrack has a great version of ‘I’ve Put a Spell On You’ by Tom Waits. There’s a difference between Tarantino & Jarmusch- the former is just an imitator, the latter is a pioneer. This film demonstrates why…
Rating: 5 / 5

Sebastian Palmer

at 6:45 pm

I’d give ‘Mystery Train’ an unreserved 5 stars as a film, but I have to reduce that to 3 stars on account of this DVD release (on MGM Home Ent) having no subtitles (the same is true of the ‘Night On Earth’ DVD, but thankfully I found that out before shelling out for it).

I saw this fabulous film at the cinema when it came out, and the first mini-story with the Japanese couple is a wonderful and heartwarmingly deadpan bit of comedy; their dialogue is superb. My dissappointment at discovering this edition has no subtitles was therefore huge, and it more or less ruins the film for me. If you understand (or are) Japanese you’ll have no problem. Why on earth have they omitted subtitles on DVD? It seems insane to me. If you love Jarmusch as I do, then write to MGM and ask them to amend this stupid oversight. I’m certainly not buying ‘Night On Earth’ until a subtitled edition is available.
Rating: 3 / 5

Andres C. Salama

at 9:53 pm

I’m not much of a fan of Jim Jarmusch, but 1989’s Mystery Train (his fourth film and first one in color) is quite engaging in they way it tells three minimalist stories occurring in what is presumably the seedier side of Memphis. An Elvis motif runs through all the episodes, which are set mostly in a rundown hotel during one night (Blues legend Screaming Jay Hawkins plays the clerk). In the first episode, a young Japanese couple arrives in the town which gave birth to rock and roll (she is quirky, he is impassive; she loves Elvis, he Carl Perkins). In the second episode, an Italian woman (Niccoleta Braschi) whose husband has just died has to spend a night in Memphis. She shares the room in the hotel with a talkative American woman (Elizabeth Bracco). During the night, she imagines or sees the ghost of Elvis. In the third episode, a British guy who is called Elvis by his lowlife friends, and who has just broken with the woman of the second episode (and is played by the late Clash guitarist Joe Strummer) more or less accidentally shots a liquor shop seller, and has to take refuge in the hotel, along with his brother in law (played by Steve Buscemi). A gunshot heard during the night sort of links the three episodes. Nothing much happens, but Jarmusch shows his love with American pop culture and his fine ear for the way the American working class talk everyday.
Rating: 5 / 5