A frankly disturbing experience since Cage is at his most manic, the images are brutal, the documentary-style background intense and the (inevitable) theme of redemption a long time emerging.
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 103
Fresh: 74
Rotten:29
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Consensus: Stunning and compelling, Scorsese and Cage succeed at satisfying the audience.
Runtime: 2 hrs 1 min
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Martin Scorsese exhilaratingly adapts Joe Connelly's novel about Frank (Nicolas Cage), a paramedic working among the filth and mental desolation of New York City's Hell's Kitchen in the early... Martin Scorsese exhilaratingly adapts Joe Connelly's novel about Frank (Nicolas Cage), a paramedic working among the filth and mental desolation of New York City's Hell's Kitchen in the early 1990s. Lately he has been haunted by the visions of a beautiful 18 year-old girl whom he was unable to resuscitate. Soon after, another image begins to torment him, that of Mary (Patricia Arquette), a recovering drug addict who enters Frank's life when he attempts to save her father. His spiral into even further confusion is paralleled with his three driving partners: Larry (a boisterous John Goodman), whose advice to Frank is not to think about all the death and violence; Marcus (a scene-stealing Ving Rhames), a religious fanatic who uses his medical skills as propaganda for the Lord; and Walls (a maniacal Tom Sizemore), a loose cannon who has no sensible grounding whatsoever. In order to escape the madness that is consuming him, Frank asks, unsuccessfully, to be fired. He must ride out the nightmare, trying to redeem the lives of Rose, Mary, and himself in the process. Scorsese uses his camera to capture Frank's wavering mental state with tilted angles and fast-speed photography. In portraying the tormented Frank, Cage dives wholeheartedly into character, delivering another fiery performance. [More]
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, John Goodman
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, Marc Anthony, Mary Beth Hurt, Cliff Curtis, Nestor Serrano, Aida Turturro, Cynthia Roman, Larry Fessenden, Afemo Omilami, Queen Latifah, Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Paul Schrader
Producer: Barbara De Fina, Scott Rudin
Composer: Elmer Bernstein
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Reviews for Bringing Out the Dead
Its hard-to-pin-down tone is frighteningly original -- simultaneously world-weary and adolescent with an aura of perpetual anxiety, as if the characters and filmmakers were in pursuit of a catharsis everyone knows will never come.
Scorsese is married to a script that drags him down, keeps him from taking wing as a pure artist.
Martin Scorsese is a wonderful filmmaker. And he loves New York. He is at his best, though, when he has an interesting story to tell.
An exciting, invigorating return to old preoccupations. Welcome home, Marty.
Of course, it's immaculately crafted and exhilaratingly paced, but in the end it's never as emotionally involving as it could and should be.
However muddled the story gets, Scorsese guarantees Bringing Out the Dead remains a pulsating trip.
It's another burnout role for Nicolas Cage, to which he brings his vast repertoire of grimaces and shuffles, as if he were variously impersonating a gargoyle on amphetamines and late Elvis on downers.
I don't recommend it, unless you care to see the best Nicolas Cage performance in several years, or some more of Scorcese's brilliant camera work.
Everyone looks dead and they speak as if they live in a nightmarish dreamworld. Well, they do.
Give it to Martin Scorsese to keep coming back and hitting one out of the park.
Bringing Out the Dead fails on almost every level at which Taxi Driver succeeded.
Um filme sobre solidão, medo e angústia que jamais fornece respostas fáceis para os dolorosos dilemas de seus personagens.
The auteur has definitely left his distinctive mark, but too seldom and too narrowly.
A riveting drama about a New York City paramedic who is experiencing a harrowing spiritual emergency.
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