Down by Law (1986)

Directed by

Jim Jarmusch

Genre

drama film, comedy film, independent film, prison film, buddy film, road movie

Country

Germany, United States

Runtime

1h 47m

Rated

R

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 851 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Three men meet in a New Orleans jail cell and decide to escape together. The movie focuses on the way they talk and get along instead of the escape itself.

slow-burnwrybleakoffbeatdreamlikeatmosphericunderstatedseriocomic

What happens

Down by Law (Italian: Daunbailò) is a 1986 American independent Southern Gothic neo-beat noir comedy film. It was written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, and stars Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni (in his first American film role). The film centers on the arrest, incarceration, and escape from jail of three men. It discards jailbreak film conventions by focusing on the interaction between the convicts rather than on the mechanics of the escape. A key element in the film is Robby Müller's slow-moving camerawork, which captures the architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou to which the cellmates escape. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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