Dead man's hand in popular culture feature the aces and eights hand as a foreshadowing of death. In "Stagecoach" (1939), the hand is held by Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler), soon to be shot by the Ringo Kid (John Wayne). In "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), Liberty Valance draws the hand just prior to his death. In Anthony Mann's film "Winchester '73", "Dutch" Henry lays down a full house, aces over eights, stating that he just missed a "dead man's hand." In the 1941 Western "The Badlands of Dakota", Wild Bill Hickok, played by Richard Dix, is shown to be holding the aces and eights
Dead Man "Jim Jarmusch is trying to get at something here, and I don't have a clue what it is". Desson Howe and Rita Kempley, both writing for the "Washington Post", offered largely negative appraisals. Greil Marcus, however, mounted a spirited defense of the film, titling his review "Dead Again: Here are 10 reasons why 'Dead Man' is the best movie of the end of the 20th century." Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum dubbed the film an acid western, calling it "as exciting and as important as any new American movie I've seen in the 90s" and went on to write a book