Scorsese Triumphs in `Bringing Out the Dead' by Homer Yen (c) 1999
Of the most chaotic times and places to be, I would give my vote to the early 1990s in the Hell's Kitchen district of New York City. It is a time period when drug use and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic were on the rise. And it is a place where, at night, the streets seem like a swamp of despair and hopelessness where even the neighborhood citizens scurry around like rats. It is this setting where `Bringing Out the Dead' takes place. We are introduced to Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) who is a paramedic, and it is through his eyes that we see the gloomy world in which he exists.
Frank works the graveyard shift and every night seems like a full moon. All the city's craziness that has been bottled up is about to erupt. On top of that, Frank hasn't had a good night's sleep for days and he hasn't been able to save any lives in over a month. Frank's hands are gifted and his heart is giving. But there is only so much that he can do in this time and place. The ghosts of those that he could not save haunt him. He drifts in and out of a state of bewildered consciousness. This is not an easy life.
`Bringing Out the Dead' shows us three long nights in the life of Frank as the burned out paramedic. In the first night, he's paired up with Larry (John Goodman) who sees his job as simply a meal ticket. Save lives, get paid, and eat. He's almost too relaxed given the nature of his job. On the second night, he is paired up with the ultra-religious Marcus (Ving Rhames). He uses their emergency visits as a way to promote their healing techniques as miracles. Finally, his third partner is Walls (Tom Sizemore), a sadistic person who feels that it is better to beat up frequent visitors to the emergency room rather than to transport them there again and again and again. Two other characters factor into Frank's life. One is Noel (pop star Marc Anthony), who is one of those frequent visitors. He represents every hollowed soul whose life is consumed with misery and drugs. The other is the reformed addict Mary (Patricia Arquette). In trying to save Mary from her state of turmoil, Frank may rid himself of his inner demons.
`Dead' is truly a Director's film. That is, it does not succumb to Hollywood's familiar formula of storytelling. Scorsese has free reign to make his kind of picture, and it is a work of directorial excellence, uncompromising in detail and atmosphere. Perhaps its only weakness could be that it lacks the dramatic arc and the climax that most moviegoers expect from today's films. In fact, there is no real plot, as it relies on individual events. But this film is a wonderful exercise in bringing to fruition the extended limbo in which Frank exists. Cage does all the right things that bring out Frank's pain and despondence. And all of the supporting characters and the excellent camera work add vivid color to a world that many would probably rather be lost and forgotten. This is definitely not a feel-good film like `Happy Texas.' And this film probably won't gross huge box office dollars. But a few Oscar bids are probably in order, including Best Director for Scorcese. `Bringing Out the Dead' is terrific filmmaking from one of Hollywood's greats.
Grade: A-
=====
Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews