Themes: Redemption, Existential Crisis, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This tense urban drama stars Nicolas Cage as Frank Pierce, a paramedic on the brink of physical and emotional collapse. Frank has worked for years in one of New York's most brutal neighborhoods, and the pressure of his job has taken its toll; plagued with self-doubt, he is haunted by the spirits of the people he couldn't save, and while he desperately wants to quit his job, outside forces won't let him walk away. Bringing Out the Dead brought director Martin Scorsese back to the streets of contemporary New York, one of his favorite locations, after three films set elsewhere: Kundun, Casino, and The Age of Innocence. The film also reunited Scorsese with screenwriter Paul Schrader, who scripted Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ. The supporting cast includes Patricia Arquette as the daughter of a heart attack victim that Frank has fallen in love with, and John Goodman and Ving Rhames as two of Frank's fellow drivers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Set in the recently departed past of pre-Rudy Giuliani New York, Bringing Out the Dead (1999) reunites Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader for another, different night crawl through a yet to be sanitized Hell's Kitchen. The manholes still belch Stygian steam and the protagonist still exists on the edge of sanity, but this time Nicolas Cage's ambulance driver makes a rocky ascent toward a tentative salvation rather than repeating Taxi Driver's (1976) descent into an ultra-violent inferno. Scorsese's customary visual brio and musical panache are amply displayed in such set pieces as a visit to a drug dealer's lair that climaxes with a victim enjoying a burst of "fireworks," while John Goodman, radio dispatchers Queen Latifah and Scorsese, and especially Ving Rhames add mordant humor to Cage's waking nightmare. Though Bringing Out the Dead pulsates with energy, chaos, and very brief rests, the ceaseless nature of the paramedic's job became a narrative frustration for critics and viewers who expected such a motion-filled picture to actually go somewhere. Even so, Bringing Out the Dead has enough moments of moviemaking courage and beauty to confirm Scorsese's place as an extraordinary teller of New York stories. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Robert Guerra - Art Director, Jeff Levine - Associate Producer, Mark Roybal - Associate Producer, Ellen Lewis - Casting, Joseph P. Reidy - Co-producer, Eric Steel - Co-producer, Rita Ryack - Costume Designer, Joseph P. Reidy - First Assistant Director, Martin Scorsese - Director, Thelma Schoonmaker - Editor, Bruce S. Pustin - Executive Producer, Adam Schroeder - Executive Producer, Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Dante Ferretti - Production Designer, Robert Richardson - Cinematographer, Barbara de Fina - Producer, Scott Rudin - Producer, Billy Reynolds - Set Designer, Industrial Light & Magic - Special Effects, James J. Sabat - Sound/Sound Designer, Philip Stockton - Sound Editor, Paul Schrader - Screenwriter, Victor Huey - Grip, Howard Davidson - Grip, E. James Scutakes - Grip, Kevin Lowery - Grip, Nicolas Cheruet - Grip, Richard Guinness - Key Grip, Glen Engles - Best Boy Grip, Joseph Connolly - Book Author
Martin Scorsese's hallucinatory adaptation of Joe Connelly's Bringing Out the Dead is driven by a weird mix of rock, R&B, and reggae -- all of which are heard here, on the concise 12-song soundtrack. Not every song from the film is included, but the ones that are indicate what an intense experience it is, as it moves from Van Morrison ("T.B. Sheets") to the Clash ("Janie Jones," "I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.") to Johnny Thunders ("You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory") to UB40 ("Red Red Wine") to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas ("Nowhere to Run") to the Cellos ("Rang Tang Ding Dong [I Am a Japanese Sandman]") to the Melodians ("Rivers of Babylon") to the Who's novelty "Bell Boy" at breakneck speed. As an album, it might not be completely coherent, but it's exciting and enjoyable, without a weak song. And it brings back memories of the film quite well, too. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Frank Pierce (Cage), is a paramedic working the graveyard shift in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, a neighborhood in New York City, during the early-90s. It takes place over the course of three nights, each night pairing Pierce with a different partner (Goodman, Rhames, and Sizemore).
Complaining of burn out, Pierce suffers from insomnia and begins having visions of a young girl named Rose who died while under his care. Once called Father Frank for his ability to save lives, Pierce starts to fear that he will soon face another life he cannot save, and begins attempting to get fired as his visions of Rose become more frequent.
Soon, Pierce bonds with Mary (Arquette), the daughter of a heart attack victim whom he had previously saved, and who visits her father regularly at the hospital. Mary talks to Frank about her compassion toward helping others, which is shown contrasting Frank's feelings of burnout. It is through Mary that Frank is able to reconcile his feelings about Rose, and in the end, sleep, after sleeping with Mary and carrying out a mercy killing of her father.
The opening song on the movie is "T.B. Sheets" a lengthly blues-influenced song about a young girl who lies dying in a hospital bed, surrounded by the heavy smell of death and disease. It was written by Van Morrison and included on his 1967 album, Blowin' Your Mind!.
Director Martin Scorsese provides the voice of one of the ambulance dispatchers.
Laserdisc release
This motion picture, along with Sleepy Hollow, was the final feature film released on Laserdisc.
