Down By Law is third film by Jarmusch, an it's the movie that catapulted him to independent American cinema in the 80's.
The film takes an original approach on the prison-movie genre. Instead of going over the top, prison break style with drama and suspense, Jarmusch prefers to keep the film deliberately small and personal. Treading between a prison film and an odd comedy, the movie works on several different levels. The plot of the film is simple: we follow three different convicts that end up in the same cell.
The movie begins with the long character introduction of the two main characters played by Tom Waits and John Lurie. They are two low life petty criminals who get framed for two serious crimes they didn't commit, as we follow them to the their cell, they are joined by another convict who is played by Roberto Benigni, and the entire film gets situated in one prison cell.
In Down by Law, Jarmusch invites the viewer to be patient and he take some time to introduce us with the characters. We have Zack, played by Tom Waits, who is an unemployed DJ and a lovable loser, Jack (John Lurie) a small time pimp and Bob, an Italian tourist, in love with American idioms, although not good at English language, played by Roberto Benigni who absolutely steals the show. Of the trio, Bob is the only one who actually committed a crime, at least we think - he murdered in self defense, with a billiard ball, and its a shockingly laughable moment when you find out that piece of information.
“All three of them are really outsiders. The view we get of America from all of them is very much outside of the expected one. It’s about people who are outside. They are foreigners, in a sense, in their own country.”
It's a weird trio of misfits who are heartbreakingly human. We watch as they begin to mirror each other and as their friendship form. There is this wonderful scene where Bob (Benigni) draws a window on the wall and asks Jack (Lurie), ''Do you say, in English, ‘I look at the window, or do you say, ‘I look out the window?'” and Jack replies “In this case, Bob, you’d say “I look at the window.”
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The all time favorite scene though, would definitely be where Jack, Zack and Roberto sing ''You scream. I scream. We all scream for ice cream!" :
Spoiler alert: The best thing about the film, for me at least, is that the film is building like a prison break, and Jarmusch never shows you the actual prison break, he takes away that classical drama, and cuts from planing the escape to - puff! they are out.
As Vincent Canby, from NY Times wonderfully puts it: ''The excitement of ''Down by Law'' comes not from what it's ''about.'' Reduced to its plot, it is very slight. But the plot isn't the point. The excitement comes from the realization that we are seeing a true film maker at work, using film to create a narrative that couldn't exist on the stage or the printed page of a novel.''
