Bringing Out the Dead

Summary

“The first step is love. The second is mercy.”

For years, I have seen requests in the forums for Paramount to release Martin Scorsese’s 1999 picture Bringing Out the Dead on Blu-ray. Paramount surprised everyone when they not only finally listened, but brought the film to 4K UHD on their Paramount Presents line with a bevy of new special features and Dolby Atmos sound. Bringing Out the Dead was critically well received but was a financial flop at the time of its release, only netting $16.7 million at the box office against a $32 million dollar budget. This is a shame because it’s a terrific film that deserved a much better reception. From what I have read, the picture was mismarketed at the time and 1999 was such an amazing year for movies that I think it just slipped through the cracks. It opened on October 22nd. To put things in perspective, at the time American Beauty, Three Kings, and The Sixth Sense were all still in the theaters. Bringing Out The Dead debuted at number four in the box office with Double Jeopardy and The Best Man taking the first and second place. Fight Club was number three that weekend during its second week theatrically (facing a steep drop off from its opening weekend.) I remember seeing advertisements for Bringing Out the Dead, but I don’t remember it being talked about nearly as much as some of those other films. I had not seen the picture despite my great admiration for Scorsese’s work, largely because it had not been released on any digital format since its DVD release. I am happy to report that the film is, at least in my eyes, a masterpiece.

There is text to start off the film:

“This film takes place in New York in the early 90s.”

Paramedic Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) has not saved anyone in months. He just needs a couple saved lives and a few days off and all will be well, but seemingly both of those desires are out of his reach. The area of New York in which Frank works is completely overrun by drugs, crime, and violence. After receiving a dispatch, Frank arrives with his partner Larry (John Goodman) at a house where an old man is flatlining. Larry attempts to resuscitate the old man unsuccessfully. Frank takes over and asks the daughter of the man, Mary (Patricia Arquette), to play some of the dying man’s favorite music because it might help. They put on some Sinatra, and the man’s heartbeat comes back. Frank brings the dying man to the overrun ER. The doctors, nurses, and security guards are completely swamped with serious cases. A dangerous heroin has hit the street called “the Red Death” and it is causing overdoses and heating up street gang violence. As the next few days unfold in Frank’s life, he starts seeing the face of a dead homeless girl he failed to save on the faces of the people he drives past in the ambulance. Frank is unable to get time off, or even to get fired, because his company is staffed so thinly. After Larry takes a needed break, Frank rides with and works with Marcus (Ving Rhames) who uses the job to try to save souls via Christian rhetoric. Frank also works with his old partner Tom Wolls (Tom Sizemore) who has a knack towards taking violent action towards the criminal element that they persistently pick up off the street, including a mentally ill drug addict named Noel (Marc Antony) who repeatedly find his way back out on the streets. Over the course of those few days, Frank finds himself connecting with Mary, but also feeling like he can hear her dying father talk to him telepathically.

I was completely blown away by Bringing Out the Dead. Within the first thirty minutes after starting the film, I paused it, hopped on eBay and purchased a paperback copy of the novel by Joe Connelly. Certain films just speak to me as a viewer and from the very first frames of Bringing Out the Dead, I knew it was going to be a ride that I wanted to take. Like Scorsese’s mid-Eighties classic After Hours this film is a wild ride through New York at nighttime with elements of alcohol, drugs, and danger. Unlike that picture, Bring Out the Dead spans a few days, but the main character’s life mostly takes place during the night shifts he works. Scorsese spoke in interviews about how this film appealed to him because he had just spent a lot of time at hospitals as his parents’ health declined. He wanted to make a film about the selfless people that take care of the dying and nearly dead, calling paramedics “saints.” This is a fitting term because Scorsese’s film is filled with religious imagery. Scorsese has been open about his Catholic faith for the duration of his career and has never shied from religious projects such as The Last Temptation of Christ or Silence. Bringing Out the Dead even features a cross in its marketing materials, so the religious subtext is intentional. This makes sense given that Scorsese had teamed up with frequent collaborator Paul Schrader for the adaptation of the novel. Schrader himself was raised as a Calvinist and has publicly grappled with his faith and what it means over the course of his career. This is easily observed in his more recent film First Reformed for example. The novel on which the film was based was written by Joe Connelly whom had served as a paramedic in New York for nine years before the publication of the novel. He also served as a consultant on the set of the film to make sure that the picture captured the real procedures that he and his associates performed on a daily basis. The novel has a truly lived in quality that comes across beautifully in the film. When I watched the picture, I immediately recommended it to my best friend Jeff, and I was taken aback when he said that he found the film relentlessly depressing. This makes perfect sense given the heavy atmosphere that surrounds emergency rooms in hospitals, but I had not felt depressed while watching the picture due to the amount of time I had spent in hospitals nearly fifteen years ago. My youngest son was in a coma for a few months when he was a baby, and I spent a lot of time in a hospital. It had desensitized me to the horrors of those surroundings. Bringing Out The Dead might be the best depiction that I have seen of that atmosphere on film. 

The cast of the film is a terrific ensemble. Nicolas Cage has over time gained acceptance and admiration for his approach to eccentric roles. Despite his turns in films such as Vampire’s Kiss or Raising Arizona, critics still had difficulty accepting Nicolas Cage’s more electric performances at that time. The performance has aged like a fine wine. Whatever worries critics had with his performance back then will be shrugged away by those that view the picture now. He is very good in the role – looking throughly exhausted and beaten down. Tom Sizemore is perfectly cast as the burnt out and violent Tom Wolls. It’s a shame that Sizemore wrecked his life with addictions, because he definitely had screen presence. Ving Rhames is lightning-in-a-bottle as Marcus. His character brings a few moments of solid comedy to the proceedings and he steals every scene he is in. Singer/actor Marc Antony plays a crazed drug addict in teh film believably, and with his character’s dreadlocks he is almost unrecognizable. Patricia Arquette is similarly well cast as Frank’s potential love interest Mary. At the time she was separated from Nicolas Cage, but they were still married, lending the picture an interesting dynamic. I like Patricia Arquette and thought she did well here.

Robert Richardson’s cinematography for the film is brilliant. They spared no expense to light a number of city blocks for the picture, and Robert Richardson worked with Scorsese to experiment with frame speeds, slow motion, and coloring to craft a unique look for the picture. Bringing Out the Dead is a wonderfully exhilarating film. It is a kaleidoscopic journey into the land of suffering at night time in a violent city. The music is eccentric and relies on tracks by R.E.M. (“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?,”) lots of Rolling Stones, Natalie Merchant (that was unexpected!), The Clash, UB40 (also unexpected) and many more. The soundtrack serves to help sell the time when the picture takes place, but is also very visceral and exciting. The film served as a great reminder of how punk rock the Rolling Stones sounded at certain points.

Martin Scorsese is an incredibly accomplished and extremely consistent filmmaker. How many films that qualify as a masterpiece has he made? In my eyes, Bringing Out the Dead definitely would land on that list. 

Video

Bringing Out the Dead is a great showcase for the brilliant cinematography of Robert Richardson. In my eyes, Richardson is one of the top five best living cinematographers. In this collaboration with Scorsese, Richardson brings to life the streets of New York in the early Nineties at night time through a number of experimental techniques including sped-up and slowed-down motion, interesting lighting choices, all shot using anamorphic lenses. Richardson attributed much of the film’s look to the excellent choices made in colors and set design by production designer Dante Ferretti. This is a great case of collaboration creating something remarkable. The 4K UHD looks amazing. Grain is extremely well resolved and the original intent of the filmmakers is realized on the format. The HDR and Dolby Vision bring out the best elements of the color timing. Fans are going to be pleased that Paramount did not mishandle a frame of the film after the long wait since the film was last released on DVD.

Audio

Similar to the huge leap forward on the visual front, the 4K UHD features an awesome Dolby Atmos track. This is an extremely immersive track that will transport the audience into the chaos of overrun emergency rooms and ambulances flying through the streets at night. As I mentioned above, the soundtrack is fantastic with great songs by The Rolling Stones and more. I am so glad that this received the Atmos treatment!

Supplements:

The supplements featured are found on the Blu-Ray included in the set. 

• Filmmaker Focus – Martin Scorsese is briefly interviewed and sheds light on what drew him to the picture and how it all came together.
• A Rumination on Salvation – Nicolas Cage has the longest interview on the disc and provides a solid discussion of his memories from working on the picture. 
• Cemetary Streets – Screenwriter Paul Schrader is always a great interviewee and he gives a lot of great information about the process of adapting the novel in a short runtime.
• City of Ghosts – Cinematographer Robert Richardson discusses his work on the film.
• On Set Interviews – Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, and Marc Antony
• Exclusive Cast and Crew Interviews 
• Original Theatrical Trailers

Overall Scores:

Video – 5/5

Audio – 5/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4.75/5

Bringing Out the Dead is an exceptional film. I can completely see how this film would be somewhat divisive even for diehard fans of Scorsese’s work. It is definitely a depressing and bleak picture for most of its duration. That said, for those of us who have spent extended amounts of time living through the despair and angst of emergency rooms and intensive care units, this film absolutely captures those surroundings. It is amusing to me that I read a review yesterday which basically made a point that this film is no masterpiece, whereas I would argue the opposite. Bringing Out the Dead is an exhilarating ambulance ride into the hellish depths of the night in a city bursting with drugs and violence. The acting is superb on all fronts, and I am happy to see that Nicolas Cage’s performance is being reevaluated twenty five years later. Bringing Out the Dead had not even been released on Blu-ray prior to this 4K release, so this is a huge leap forward for fans that still held onto their DVD copy. The 4K release features reference quality video and Dolby Atmos audio which shines on the format alongside some excellent (albeit fairly short) interviews conducted by Justin Beahm’s Reverend Entertainment. This release earns our highest recommendation with close to perfect scores all around. Buy it!