Down by Law (1986) on Netflix
Zack, a New Orleans disc jockey, is thrown out by his girlfriend, then arrested when a corpse is found in the car he was paid to drive. Pimp Jack shares his cell.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.6/1059,233 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
In New Orleans, Zack works as a disc jockey and shares an apartment with his girlfriend Laurette until an argument sends him out of it. An acquaintance, Preston, offers him fifteen hundred dollars to drive a Jaguar across town, and police stop him with a body in the trunk. Meanwhile Jack, a small-time pimp, is set up by a rival who sends him to a hotel room where the girl waiting is underage, and a police sting follows. Both men are convicted and share a cell in a Louisiana prison, where they argue constantly. Bob, an Italian immigrant who speaks little English, joins them as a third cellmate, and his cheerfulness and fractured English first annoy Zack and Jack.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Down by Law (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To prepare for the prison scenes, Jim Jarmusch had Tom Waits and John Lurie locked in one cell at Orleans Parish Prison and himself and Roberto Benigni in another; the guards and inmates did not know the warden had arranged their release after four hours.
- Roberto Benigni got his part in Down by Law after Jim Jarmusch befriended him in Italy, where the two were jurors at a film festival; they communicated in broken French because neither spoke the other's native language, and Jarmusch then rewrote the screenplay to include him.
