Bringing Out the Dead | 
| Actors: Marc Anthony, Patricia Arquette, Marylouise Burke, Nicolas Cage, Cliff Curtis
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $0.88
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Rating:  177 reviews
Sales Rank: 25886
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 6305816166
UPC: 097363356479
EAN: 9786305816164
ASIN: 6305816166
Theatrical Release Date: October 22, 1999
Release Date: May 9, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Martin Scorsese comes home to the mean streets of New York with Bringing Out the Dead, the hyperkinetic tale of an ambulance driver (Nicolas Cage) on three sleep-deprived, adrenaline-fueled nights amongst the dead and dying of the city. Less a coherent narrative than a mood piece, the film is a welcome return to form for Scorsese, who takes Joe Connelly's memoir and spins it into a slightly surreal, darkly comic tale of one man's redemption. Frank Pierce (Cage) is a man who feels impotent in his job as an EMT--less a lifesaver, he's more of a grief mop as he sardonically puts it, bearing witness to the pain and suffering of others. Haunted by the specter of a young homeless girl, something stirs in Frank when he meets Mary (Patricia Arquette), the daughter of a heart attack victim Frank attends to. In a world where human interaction usually means putting someone on a stretcher, or bantering frenetically with his coworkers, Frank seems headed for certain physical and nervous collapse. Scorsese, screenwriter Paul Schrader (of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), and cinematographer Robert Richardson put a vivid spin on the New York of the early 90s with amazing visual flair and keen, economical storytelling. The film practically pulses with life, and hits the perfect note of ragged exhaustion. Cage, after a recent career slump, turns in an exceptional performance, by turns manic and weary. In fact, this is one of the best casts ever assembled for a Scorsese film: in addition to the quietly effective Arquette, there are great performances by John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore as Cage's ambulance partners, as well as Mary Beth Hurt (as an ER doctor), pop star Marc Anthony (as a drug addict), and especially Cliff Curtis (as a drug dealer who winds up in an unusual scrape). It's not a masterpiece in the vein of Taxi Driver, but Bringing Out the Dead ranks as a stunning Scorsese joyride. --Mark Englehart
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| Customer Reviews: Read 172 more reviews...
 I liked it, most don't. May 27, 2009
CocoBeware (USA)
This movie pretty much killed Laser Disc (for those of you that remember those). It is that bad. However, I am a fan of Cage so I had to own it.
 A Lost Masterpiece April 29, 2009
Quiero Cafe (South Texas)
Seems like if Scorsese isn't making a film about criminals waving guns then nobody wants to notice. But this is definitely one of his best movies, and one of the best films of the last 10 years. Nick Cage is a paramedic and we follow him around for two hours, over a few days. But it's so much more than that. The movie goes inside his head, outside his soul, over the top, and under the sewer. You see characters who are unclassifiable as good or bad, crazy or sane, provider or thief, on all sides. People say Scorsese stopped making personal movies, but the only more personal movie I can think of that he made is "Mean Streets", which is practically auto-biographical (and great). But what the two movies have in common is Scorsese's unique relationship with New York Gritty, something that usually gets shown only as white knight cops confront worthless scum in back alleys. But in both movies Scorsese goes beyond the facade and into the humanity underneath the hoods and dope peddlers, exposing pain and its treatment as the chief motivator for unpleasant human behavior. So, in some respects, this movie is a response to "Mean Streets", as we see a man coming to those streets not as judge or participant, but as healer - a healer overwhelmed with pain, from within and without. And yet Scorsese isn't afraid to still be messy and heavily stylized, merging the real and the unreal - my favorite moment is when the skewered drug dealer turns sparks into fireworks. It's completely unnecessary and absolutely essential at the same time. Sums it up really.
Just beautiful November 26, 2008
GamePlayer30 (Baltimore, MD)
Great dark comedy. Great characters. Other reviewers have already said it better than I could.
YES and NO - It's a Think Piece! November 23, 2008
K. Kapalko
For the EMT people who see this..they say..it hits home on the sou!l It reflects when one works in this environment over many years and going through burnout..the emotion or thoughts in this movie by the EMT is accurate.. as it may be through other lines of industry..apathy or desensitization...but probably over dramatized. What you see on the screen is most likely representative of their thought processes or wishes they could do or say on the job. I find it maybe insulting to rookie EMTs who hold their jobs and behavior in the highest respects. But it still doesn't make the film good or completely accurate for EMTs.
Ok..so for the masses. Yes..it is not scriptwise "entertaining". It is really a character study of a man apathetic yet still sensitive to what got him into it in the first place. Photography and quality it is done very welll. I'm not keen on the first 20 minutes of the style. It feels too much like a 1940s detective narrative film with 60s rock..and it just doesn't fit or setup the city very well when it's announced in the begining "New York City - The early 90s". Also, the music choices somehow just don't work for this film. It seems like the film doesn't know what it wants to be. I was not drawn into it..but kept thinking how "set up" and executed each scene is during the whole movie..and thus frequently thinking outside the movie..rather than being a part of it and enjoying the experience of what films should deliver (moods, drama, happy, horrror, mystery, comedy or suspense).
It does pickup to a more interesting conflict storyline about 45 minutes into it. Patricia Arquette always enhances a film's storyline and the "love" interest in her character starts to add more grip to the film.
I've lived in New York since 1990 and I remember a lot of these activities were more prevalent. It seems to have gotten much better...but now the economic downturn..I wonder if a lot of this crap is going to come back to the city.
 Different vibe... Struck a cord with me March 5, 2008
R. Buley (Seattle, WA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie had a fantastically different vibe that struck or cord with me, though I wouldn't recommend this to my mother. Definitely a certain type of feel that a certain kind of film watchers will enjoy. It's dark, gritty, wierd, off-beat, graphic...
Scorsese really gets the best out of his actors (in most any movie he directs), and Nicolas Cage delivers an excellent performance. His ambulance driver is frazzled, frantic, frustrated, half-way insane, and not sure if he is dreaming or awake. Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, and John Goodman are wonderfully alive and vibrant supporting characters. Patricia Arquette really nails her role as the central female character.
This was a movie that for me, the sum was greater than it's parts (which were great already!). The cinematography is unbelievable. It is beautifully shot. And it has that intangible, that something extra that made it stay with me.
So I really enjoyed it. It's dark and off-beat and quirky. Saying that, I'm really not sure who I would recommend this to. Some will love it (probably the minority) and most of you not so much.
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