tradition of earlier Western cinema. Particularly vivid and realistic are the western village and the Native American settlement seen at the end.
Regarding the plot, did William Blake actually die when he was first shot? And if so, was the rest of the film just the tale of an imaginary voyage, forged upon the literary tradition including Divina Commedia and Pilgrim’s Progress? The character of Nobody, colourfully interpreted by the excellent Gary Farmer, fuels this suspects when, shortly after meeting him, he asks Blake: “Did you kill the white man who killed you?”
During the initial train trip ‘to hell’, the coal-stoker tells Blake about a ship; this will be understood only at the end of the movie. Dickinson Steel works is indeed an infernal place, reminiscent of Lang’s Metropolis factory, in a town called Machine (Pink Floyd, anyone?), at the end of the line.