Brilliant and touching

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

It's as if someone (and that person is Scorsese himself) threw Taxi Driver into an all-purpose blender, cranked it up to high speed and mushed it all up, splattering and eradicating its hard edge, and spitting out this film. It see the existential and emotional limbo of Nicholas Cage, who is the only actor who could even attempt to approach a line such as "I wash my face with three types of soap, each smelling like a different season" and not burst into giggles halfway through. He works the graveyard city shift in the dead of the night, patrolling the streaky neon-lit streets in a shoddy ambulance and partners who never understand his woes. He might as well be commandeering Charon's ferry through the River Styx; the Manhattan that Scorsese envisions is not glitzy or grand, and the chaos of the streets is extended to the emergency rooms, a nightmare straight out of the frenetic style of ER, less a place of healing and more a war-zone. Frank's uniquely special dilemma is that no one else seems to hoard all the pain and suffering around them like he does, and the ability to see dead people as an afterthought. Larry (an ever jovial John Goodman) treats the work like a temporary job to boost the finances before he starts his own business; it's dirty work that has to be done, never mind the lives ripped apart. Marcus is Ving Rhames straight out of a sitcom - an overzealous preacher type who flirts through the radio dispatch and comically attributes their work to religious miracle. And Tom Wolls seems to be a vampire in disguise, much too bloodthirsty to be in this particular line of work. These partners are more or less played for laughs against the mortal whispers of Frank. In fact, not even the various victims on the murky streets seem to be taking the whole ordeal seriously. In between his girlfriend's cries of agony one man tries unsuccessfully to assert that they are both virgins (even as three baby feet poke out from one end), a group of drugged-up stragglers attempts a prayer circle to will their friend I.B. Bangin back to the cruel life, and the wild-haired Noel has a recurring bit as a hallucinating patient smashing car windows (predictably, these visions are not nearly as heart-stopping as Frank's).All this seems at odds with Frank's worldview, who treats the act of saving lives as a some sort of hedonistic drug and floats along the streets like an angel that can't help but get involved. Cage played a similarly mopey, self-serious character in the abysmal City of Angels, and his voice-over is rife with the same mournful tone and clumsy symbolisms. The cinematography adds a hazy, bloom effect that lights his body up with an angelic glow and has the added effect of well and truly dating this movie as part of the late 90s. Thankfully, it hasn't descended into entire cheese, but there might as well be the dotted outline of a halo hovering above his head. As always, the angel falls to earth and is corrupted by all he sees. The haze lifts and every hallucinogenic and chaotic phenomena is hurtled at Frank and therefore us. Arquette, monotonous and stripped of all emotion in the mourning period, sheds her wool cardigan for...well whatever the drug den whores are all wearing. Frank himself indulges in shots of adrenaline and the devilish riffs of *gasp*, rock and roll. This is classic Scorsese, of course. He can't help but inject a bit of energy into it all, forgetting that he has Nicholas Cage, the king of externalising loneliness (see Leaving Las Vegas) and losing his sensitivity for irony in the midst of all the darkness and terror. We don't really know why the departed want to just be left alone to die and depart for the afterlife except because the plot demands it to strain Frank, and so we can't really empathise with the peace he finds at the end of it all. He seems to be fated to stroll the earth unable to entirely rid it of suffering (see Marcus holding a spotless, healthy baby as if he was in a fertility commercial, then pan to Frank's bloody fetus, which dies at hospital's door) until he isn't.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999): Dir: Martin Scorsese / Cast: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, John Goodman: About the weariness of a soul that needs rest. Nicolas Cage plays a paramedic haunted by the images of a young woman he failed to save. He sees all sorts of people arrive through the medical room doors, many who deliberately cause their own pain. He feels trapped and needs a moment of refuge. An emergency call results in the image of a family that watch in horror as their father lay unconscious. Insightful film about our decaying society. Another New York based masterpiece by Martin Scorsese whose street sense films include Taxi Driver and After Hours. Wonderful performance by Cage with Patricia Arquette as the daughter of a victim whom he connects with through her need of rest from drugs and relationships. Hilarious performances by John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore as three paramedic that accompany Cage through three long nights of turmoil. Goodman is totally about where to eat, while Cage attempts to drown it out with sleep. Rhames bursts with religious enthusiasm in hopes of making his mark on one's soul. Sizemore tends to be abusive particularly with those whom he sees as lost causes. Then there is Arquette, which is where Cage finds refuge. Theme regards exhaustion of life itself and our desire for peace and rest. Score: 10 / 10

Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) is a NY paramedic haunted by the people he can't save. It's a grimy downtrodden portrayal of the underbelly of an ignored society. It's the early 90s from director Martin Scorsese but it is reminiscent of the 70s of Scorsese's past.Nicolas Cage puts up an impressive performance as the haunted man. The series of co-stars does divide the mood of the movie. I rather let him have just one partner. The changes cause disruptions in the flow of the movie.Disruptions may be what Scorsese is looking for. The bluesy meandering feel of the movie is highlighted by the Nicolas Cage narration. We're looking at a maestro conductor in Scorsese. The movie has the feel of a composition.

I've seen every movie pictures this man had made since "Mean streets", except for two of them: this one, which I've just watched, and "Kundun", the other movie he made just before "Bringing out the dead". After "The age of innocence" and "Casino", this director should have been allowed to make a film every year for the rest of his life. But the 1990's were not a good period for him, because for the exception of "Casino" and "Goodfellas", his films made not enough money. And that's the way this industry is going now. This movie is not nice. It'll give a blow if you accept the challenge: it's a nightmare, an hallucinate journey by a man who's falling in pieces. Paul Schrader screenplay is a tormented one, not easy to hear or watch. Nicolas Cage have made a lot of crappy performances after winning an Oscar for "Leaving Las Vegas" four years before this one, but not here. He's very good, even rather calm in a film where everybody else is overacting. Cliff Curtis, Tom Sizemore, John Goodman, Marc Anthony and Ving Rhames are good also, even if they're playing very strange people who are easier to perform. I've fallen for Patricia Arquette. Scorsese has gotten better during those years to direct beautiful women (Pfeiffer, Stone, Diaz) and getting the best from them.