# Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

### reviewed by
Oystein Brekke

    BRINGING OUT THE DEAD (1999)

    >From a novel by Joe Connelly.
    Director: Martin Scorsese
    With: Nicholas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom
    Sizemore

Nicholas Cage is Frank Pierce, an ambulance driver in a rough area of New York City. We follow him during three nights at work. For five years he has been an ambulance driver, working the night shift, and it is starting to get to him. Every night he sees the worst of human suffering and depredation, trying to save the lives of assorted slum-dwellers, drug-addicts and victims of gang-shootings. Professional detachment is getting harder and harder to maintain. What makes the job worthwile is the feeling he gets after saving a life. It makes him feel like God. But now, he hasn't saved anyone in months, and he's getting to the point where he tries to avoid calls, so he won't have to face losing another patient. He is also haunted by the memory of one particular girl that he couldn't save, and has started to see her face in people around him. A nervous breakdown seems imminent, and Frank knows it, but he can't seem to get away from the job.

Onto the scene comes Mary Burke (Patricia Arquette), whose father is being kept artificially alive in hospital after being initially kept alive by Frank. Frank is attracted to her, but he is also troubled as to her father, who goes into cardiac arrest several times a day - is it right to keep him artificially alive?

Every night he is partnered with a different co-worker (John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore). They can tell he is on the edge, but they themselves range from the wildly eccentric to the barking mad. If only he could save a life again, maybe the ghosts would go away...

The New York of this movie is a bleak place. The streets are lined with prostitutes and homeless people, the buildings are sometimes practically ruins and the hospital is overcrowded, underequipped and understaffed. The gloom is not alleviated by the fact that practically all the scenes take place at night. It is not a pleasant movie to watch. But, of course, it's not supposed to be. Nicholas Cage is well suited for the part of the burnt-out ambulance driver. He is good at displaying Frank's caring for his patients, and at the same time his general exhaustedness. Other members of the cast are also good, special mention goes to Cliff Curtis in the role of a super-cool drug-dealer.

A possible minus about the film is a certain lack of purpose - there is not really a clear cut storyline, the whole thing comes across more like a series of snapshots. Obviously this could be a completely valid way of making a film - not all films need clear cut storylines - but I think this films ends up as something a bit undecided. There is a storyline in there, among all the snapshots, but it can be difficult to see among all the other things that are going on, and so it can be difficult to find out what exactly the movie wants to bring across. All in all though, I would say the end-result is quite good. It is certainly difficult to remain unaffected - and that is always a good sign in a film.

Who should see this film: People who want to see a good film, and are prepared not to come out of the cinema smiling. Europeans who want confirmation of their belief that the USA is, socially, a third-world country.

    My verdict: 4+ (out of 6)

    By Øystein Brekke

    --
    oysteib@stud.ntnu.no

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