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Bringing Out the Dead (22-Oct-1999)
Director: Martin Scorsese Writer: Paul Schrader From novel: Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly Keywords: Thriller [watch trailer]
REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 12-Jul-2007) Robert Richardson's familiar light filled cinematography showers scenes of
close up intimacy the way they have in many other films but it is
particularly startling in the case of 'Bringing Out the Dead'. Set in
the early 90's in New York City, Nicolas Cage stars as a paramedic
named Frank Pierce, a man haunted by the people he couldn't save and
has a re-occurring vision of one particular young woman whom he sees
while driving in his ambulance every time he looks at some of the
city's derelicts. Richardson's photography echoes the notion of
spirituality as those who believe in the spiritual nature of mankind
will connect with the striking camera effects that give way to
believing the soul leaves the body at the moment of death. Cage's
performance as the paramedic is brilliant. Sort of an up tempo
variation on his performance in 'Leaving Las Vegas'. In that film from
1995 for which Cage won the Best Actor Oscar, he played an alcoholic
L.A. writer who was determined to move to Las Vegas and drink himself
to death within 30 days. In 'Bringing Out the Dead', Cage looks like he
did in the above mentioned film. Pale, stressed out with bad hair, bags
under his eyes and an overall structure of a man not in good physical
health. Only this time the characterization that Cage has brought to
the screen is frenzied rather than sedated. His colleagues in the
paramedic business who travel with him from time to time are Larry
(John Goodman), Marcus (Ving Rhames) and Tom (Tom Sizemore). All are
men of different personalities. Larry is the straight shooter, Marcus
envisions himself as sort of an evangelical saviour of those requiring
his services and Tom is the foul and nasty individual who hates his job
and acts like a jerk every step of the way. Director Martin Scorsese
has made a relentless and lacerating film and this film is vintage
Scorsese. It reaps with scenes of hollow urban destitution like 'Mean
Streets', and 'Taxi Driver'. When Scorsese is on target with his
visuals, he photographs and cuts his films with mesmerizing accuracy.
Scorsese keeps 'Bringing Out the Dead' from being just another NYC
story of grit and keeps a re-occurring theme elevated for the film's
entire running time. Frank Pierce (Cage) is seen at the beginning of
the film responding to a call where an elderly man has had a heart
attack. Frank befriends his daughter (Patricia Arquette) and keeps
checking on her father's progress throughout the course of the film.
The film is also like a big screen version of television's 'ER'. The
emergency room at the hospital has all the characters you would expect
to find in a big city hospital. There is the stern security guard
wearing sunglasses who is determined to keep order, the head nurse who
questions people as to why the hospital should help people like drug
addicts when they brought these problems on themselves, the head
physician who complains that there is a constant need for space and the
repeat patient who is strapped to a table on wheels in the hallway,
going out of his mind because he can't get his drug fix. 'Bringing Out
the Dead' is anything but conventional film making. Believe it or not,
from all of the problems its characters face as true examples of human
beings, the film has a surprising sense of humour. Writer Paul
Schrader, whom I have always disliked in most cases and who made the
most depressing film I've ever seen as both writer and director of
1998's 'Affliction', does an excellent job as author of the 'Bringing
Out the Dead' screenplay. He constructs the film in a manner that grabs
your attention right away from the opening scene and never lets up.
However, a lot of the credit for this belongs to Joe Connelly, who
wrote the novel on which this film is based. The only thing that
prevents this movie from being a five star accomplishment is that it is
not an entirely new version of events from either Scorsese, Cage of
Schrader. As good as the film is, it is the definition of re-invention.
You can see that all involved are doing a variation on past work and
consequently, it just misses being a great film but is excellent film
making but won't bring Scorsese the long awaited Oscar he deserves and
may some day win. Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
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