"Saving a person's life is like falling in love. It's the perfect
drug."
These are the words of Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage), a New York City
paramedic who, with these words, sums up the very essence of his occupation.
It is in this essence that Director Martin Scorsese allows the viewer
to languish for three days in Frank's life. In doing so he shows us
a world many of us would like to think doesn't exist. That is why
there are director's like Scorsese in the world. They are here to
tell the tough stories. The sort of a story that is analagous to a
car wreck: We don't want to look, but we do anyway to satisfy our
primal curiosity.
We meet Frank at the outset of the film. He is a man who is at the
end of his rope. It has been six months, since he last saved a life.
That sad fact has begun to take it's toll on Frank's entire being.
Much like Haley Joel Osment, Frank sees dead people. In particular,
he sees a teenaged girl that he was unable to save some months ago.
He sees her face everywhere he looks. She appears as a prostitute,
a pregnant woman, and even a drunken old man. He cannot escape her.
It is this image, along with all of the others he has been unable
to save, that haunts his every waking moment. This is Frank when we
meet him the first night.
It is a Thursday, and he is teamed up with Larry (John Goodman) for
the night. Larry aspires to get off the streets and become a Captain.
He plans on taking the exams a few months down the road. In the meantime,
he keeps himself on track by knowing exactly what he is going to eat
that night, long before his shift ever begins. During the night they
are called to a home where a cardiac arrest has taken place. While
trying to revive the man, Frank meets the man's daughter, Mary (Patricia
Arquette). Mary soon becomes Frank's link to reality. He knows nothing
of life anymore, so he clings to what he can to hang on. They don't
exactly form a relationship in the typical sense. Theirs is more of
a give and take relationship that revolves around them keeping each
other sane than becoming an item so to speak. After this call, Larry
and Frank have an assortment of other stops during the night. Including
a "regular" and a suicide attempt. To Frank this is normal.
He has come to know this as routine.
On the second night he is hooked up with Marcus (Ving Rhames). Marcus
chooses to make it through his nights by relying on the world. He
also enjoys looking at hookers and flashing his cash at them. There
are many more calls on this night. It gets to the point that Frank
fears hearing the dispatcher's voice. He has to turn to alcohol to
get through this night. It is all he can think of that will keep him
sane.
On the third night, Frank is paired with Tom Walls (Tom Sizemore).
Tom has gone over the edge. He has taken to beating some of his patients
due to his frustration with them. At one point this goes to far and
Frank feels compelled to save this patient. It is something of a breakthrough
for Frank, because he has finally "saved" someone. It is
on this night that Frank finds that feeling of "the perfect drug"
that is saving a person's life.
What happens from there is what takes this movie from being an "A"
to a "B+" in my book. The ending was a total letdown. I
guess I can see what Scorsese was trying to do, but it just doesn't
work for me. It's one of those endings where you are left there, when
the screen goes black, thinking, "Okay, that's not the end. That
couldn't be the end." Unfortunately it is the end. In all fairness
to Scorsese, this is a difficult movie to end, but he IS Martin Scorsese.
What that means is that the viewer expects a little more. Instead
we get a lot less.
On the positive side the performances are all upper tier. Cage is
perfect as Frank. There are times when it feels like Cage is about
to go into overact mode, but he rides the fine line between overacting
and brilliance with great precision. Ving Rhames is his usual delightful
self. What is it with him and these religious centered characters?
First "Out of Sight" and now "Bringing Out The Dead."
Whatever the case may be. He is perfect as Marcus. Even Patricia Arquette
does a fine job as Mary. I haven't seen her in much, other than "True
Romance," but she does a fine job here. She balances her hatred
for her father with her shaky past, while finding some form of innocence
in Frank.
"Bringing Out The Dead" is not without a lighter side, but
it only creeps up in a few instances such as the scenes with Frank
and his Captain. Frank wants to be fired, but his boss won't do it,
because he doesn't like to take orders. These are about the only lighter
moments in the film. There are others where the humor is more subjective.
Otherwise the film presses down upon your being with the weight of
the world on your chest.
"Bringing Out The Dead" is a masterfully shot film. It feels
as if Scorsese has taken us back to the world he created in "Taxi
Driver." The night driving scenes harken back to Travis Bickle's
cab making it's way through these very same streets some twenty-plus
years earlier.
If you are a fan of Scorsese, or enjoy gritty real life drama, you
will not want to miss "Bringing Out The Dead." It is a brutally
honest visual feast that is a joy to the eyes, while bringing great
sadness to your soul.
