CCC Reviews
Bringing Out the Dead
Reviewed By: RyoKazama534
Martin Scorsese is a movie making genius. He has created classics that hit the silver screen with such an impact, that people remeber the films not only as a enjoyable movie, but a substational movie. Films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and many others highlight Scorsese's impressive directorial career. His latest creation, Bringing Out the Dead, is no acception.
Bringing Out the Dead is not the type of movie one would expect it to be. First impressions are a film that consists of the horrors associated with death. Or a movie that simply reeks of death everywhere you turn. There are even some that expected to see a movie with a guard clanging pots and pans screaming, "Bring out yer dead!" Hence, Monty Python & The Quest for the Holy Grail. Bringing Out the Dead is a movie about a man that has to deal with the deaths of strangers day by day. He is in a profession that drives everybody crazy, a paramedic. He has to learn to accept the death of a homeless girl that he could have prevented, he has to learn that things happen for a reason and to come at peace with his conflict.
Nicholas Cage stars in this film as Frank Pierce a paramedic in the slums of Manhattan. His many different ambulance partners all have one thing in common; they all lose their sanity. The ambulance crews run into situations with hookers, bad driving taxis, homeless hospital escapees, shootings, drug over-doses, heart attack victims and crusty old men. At one of the responses, he meets Mary Burke (Patricia Arquette) the daughter of a heart attack victim. She seems like a nice young lady who cares about her father deeply, but turns out to be more than just surface appearance.
Frank Pierce is haunted constantly by images of the homeless girl, Rose. Her face appears on the faces of victims. Her ghost appears in his dreams. She even takes the form of Mary Burke. Frank becomes more and more driven to get red of the visions of the poor homeless girl. Rose, and another homeless man, Noel play key roles in this film.
What Scorsese does best in this film is his cinematography. Specifically in the ambulance shots. On a normal follow shot of a car coming straight at you, the camera would shoot it coming straight forward, stop, turn the camera, 180 degrees, then shoot the car driving away from the camera. Now, what Scorsese does is he shows the ambulance coming straight at you, it drives beneath the camera, the camera flips 180 degrees, showing a quick shot of the city lights and the stars, and you see the ambulance driving away from the camera upside-down! He uses the camera to his advantage to make the most creative of shots. When Marcus flips the ambulance, you first see a shot of Frank and Marcus in an ambulance head on, then the camera turns right side up. What we actually saw was a sideways shot of the ambulance lying on it's side. Scorsese continues these shots by adding stranger angles and time lapse photography.
Bringing Out the Dead, despite bad reviews from other people my age, this film was genius. The story line was just amazing and the directors decisions, specifically in cinematography were the best I've seen in ages. A story of acceptance, love and crazy people. Scorsese is a genius.
Scores for Bringing Out the Dead
RyoKazama534 -- 
-- "Damn that was a cool movie, just genius!"
Ravnos -- -- "Arise I.B. Bangin'! Arise!!!"
Zul the Conqueror -- -- "I'm not going to go that far, but it was a great movie."
Grey_Wulfe -- -- "Yeheehee!!!"
Cast
Frank Pierce -- Nicholas Cage
Mary Burke -- Patricia Arquette
Larry -- John Goodman
Marcus -- Ving Rhames
Tom Walls - Tom Sizemore
Noel -- Marc Anthony (I)
Rose -- Cynthia Roman
Cy Coates -- Cliff Curtis
I.B. Bangin' -- Larry Fessenden
Dispatcher -- Martin Scorsese
Female Dispatcher -- Queen Latifah
Crew
Director -- Martin Scorsese
Writer -- Joe Connelly Jr.
Screenplay -- Paul Schrader
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