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BRINGING OUT THE DEAD Send This Review to a Friend
One thing you can be sure of with a Martin Scorsese film. It is going to have energy and creativity. "Bringing Out the Dead," Scorsese's plunge into depicting the grim, demanding world of emergency paramedics cruising the streets of New York in their ambulances, is loaded with nervous energy and visual dexterity. He prowls the underside of New York with a vengeance, and films his brooding story in a jangling, eye-catching, gut-wrenching style all his own. What it all amounts to at the end is questionable.
Nicolas Cage plays Frank Pierce, a medic who is under mounting emotional pressure and headed for a possible breakdown. Frank is wracked with psychological pain over victims he has been unable to save. His mind is being invaded by their ghosts, particularly the image of one pathetic young women whose face appears again and again. He is also physically and mentally worn out. He desperately needs a break, yet each shift is marked by the hopeless parade of people to be scooped from the streets
Frank's life takes a turn when he is smitten by the daughter of a heart-attack victim whom he delivers to a hospital. The patient is being kept barely alive, but the daughter, played with almost deadpan solemnity and sadness by Patricia Arquette, teeters between lapsing into her old drug habits and getting a fresh start from the kindness of this stranger. They have the potential to save each other.
Scorsese has long been fascinated with themes involving religion. The concept of saving people in this story, written by Paul Schrader from the novel by Joe Connelly, takes on religious significance. Frank is aspiring to some higher plane, seeking a kind of epiphany in his grueling, thankless work. This is also evident in the character of Marcus, one of Frank's co-workers on the ambulance runs, exuberantly played by Ving Rhames. Both cynical and spiritual, Marcus is in his element when, assured by Frank that the patient is recovering, he can appear to bring a "dead" junkie back to life by getting the junkie's spaced-out pals to hold hands and unite in prayer. The scene is very funny, and the humor sprinkled throughout is a welcome alleviator of the rampant wretchedness.
Cage is very good at conveying Frank's tortured existence as well as communicating the beat of misery that goes with the situation of overworked, understaffed people with jobs few would want. It is tempting to cite "Taxi Driver" as a reference point for this streets-of-New York drama, but love of humanity rather than explosive rage and disaffection is the driving force here.
How much you will feel at the end is, I suppose, a very personal matter. You may only feel that you have taken a hectic trip through a nightly hell minus any emotional bonding with the characters. That's something of the way I felt. But Scorsese and his excellent cast and production team give you a lively ride. A Paramount release.
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