Bringing Out the Dead (Summer of Scorsese)

Sadly, this will be the final "Summer of Scorsese" post. There's just too much going on right now, move-wise and personally. Classes start again for me soon, and my posting frequency might dip off a bit once that hits. I will still post as much I can, particularly new movie reviews, but as far as "Summer of Scorsese" goes I'm afraid this will have to be all. I realize I have skipped over many major films in his career (The Aviator and The Last Temptation of Christ come to mind) but I feel continuing would be ill-advised. My posts for this feature have already been few and far between, and in my opinion declining in quality because they've been forced, so it ends now. Hope you enjoyed, I know I did.

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Unmistakably a product of Martin Scorsese, Bringing Out the Dead plays like the child of Taxi Driver and After Hours in the midst of a drug overdose. As pure visual filmmaking it is a complete triumph, and even though there isn’t one overriding plot I got caught up in the energy and brutal honesty presented through Scorsese’s direction, Nicolas Cage’s certifiably insane performance, and the screenplay by Taxi Driver and Raging Bull writer Paul Schraeder.

Nicolas Cage plays Frank Pierce, a paramedic working nights in New York City, a city presented here as the natural evolution (or devolution) of Schrader’s New York City presented in Taxi Driver from the 70’s to the 90’s. To Frank it is but a maze of misery he is forced to inhabit every night, and when the film begins he hasn’t saved anyone in months. The ghosts of those he has lost haunt him, including Rose, a young girl he could not save. Frank is continually tired, stressed and lonely, and he lives his life of routine despondency until he meets Mary (Patricia Arquette). Frank is able to revive her father from death, and Mary spends a lot of time in the hospital waiting for her father to get better. She provides an example of the naiveté that exists outside Frank’s world. However, Frank is still trapped inside.

Whatever you do, don’t watch this movie expecting a realistic portrait of a New York City paramedic. Schraeder and Scorsese are not much for verisimilitude here, focusing instead on penetrating Frank’s mind and the hallucinations within. At one point fireworks fill the New York skyline for no real reason except to communicate a state of mind. The camera zooms quickly and drastically with energy only Scorsese can muster. This is one of Scorsese’s more surrealist films, and here it works perfectly to match Nicolas Cage’s energy. By midway through the film Cage is about ready to go crazy, and when he loses it he does it in the normal Nicolas Cage way. Sometimes he can come off as abrasive, but I absolutely love his work here.

Over the course of the three days presented in the film Frank works with three different partners. The first is Larry, played by John Goodman. Of the partners Frank will work with he is most aware of the horrors of the job, ending their night throwing his hands in the air and essentially giving up. He represses most of the pain and stress, focusing instead on his next meal. Eventually he explodes. His second partner is Marcus, (Ving Rhames) a devout Christian who attempts to spread his religious beliefs across the city while on the job. While treating an overdose Marcus distracts the crowd by having them praise Jesus, making Frank’s more medical solution seem like a divine miracle. He does not see his job as dehumanizing but instead invigorating and a chance to observe his beloved Lord at work.

Frank’s third partner is Tom (Tom Sizemore, whose career is sadly coming apart), who takes his anxiety and turns it into a violent rage that abuses patients. There is one patient he beats and/or kicks multiple times. He always needs to be hitting something, and the moment he comes apart is seen in the background of a brilliant shot near the end of the film.

Frank himself has been beaten down into a fraction of a human being. To him there is no greater thrill than saving someone’s life, which he describes as “the best drug in the world”. That’s why he became a paramedic, besides the fact that his mother was a nurse and his father was a bus driver. Now that he works the job he has become disillusioned with the lifestyle that was advertised to him as rife with heroes waiting to leap to rescue when called upon. Instead he is surrounded by insanity and death. He’s not there to save people, but instead to sit there and be there for those around the dying. As he puts it, he is merely a “grief mop”.

Bringing Out the Dead is also one of Scorsese’s funnier films, in the darkest way imaginable. It’s even able to slip in a few Monty Python references (look at the title). In a way Frank is that man walking amongst the plagued villagers, asking to collect the bodies. He can’t save them, but he can be there to watch them die. This is an oppressively unbearable job, and the characters whip out defense mechanisms left and right, refusing to submit themselves to the misery. This film is the exact opposite of the glorified medical dramas that exist on TV. It’s not always a glorious job. It’s a grim job, a bloody job, and Scorsese and Cage put themselves right in the middle of it. The universe here might be a little too stark, (I’m sure reality exists somewhere in the middle) but it reaches you and shakes you like few films can.

Amazingly, not many people are on board with me here. Many see Bringing Out the Dead as one of Scorsese’s worst. I could not disagree more. Is there a bit of style over substance? Of course, and this is something that could be (and has been) said about Shutter Island as well. However, I think there’s more meat on the bone here than people give it credit for. It’s intentionally abrasive, showing you a side of life many people refuse to acknowledge. Each character has been disillusioned with their professions, and in a way the film does that to you as well. This is not an optimistic film, but this is not a vice. Scorsese directs every film with equal tenacity and energy, and he sees nothing as a minor project. Bringing Out the Dead is not the best film he's ever done, but it’s still better and more memorable than what most people could pull off when they give everything they’ve got.

Summer of Scorsese
Original Post
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
After Hours
Gangs of New York
Mean Streets
Casino
Raging Bull
Bringing Out the Dead
The Departed (My Favorite Movies)
Shutter Island (Review)

Thanks again! I wish I could have done more, but it's likely I'm not COMPLETELY finished with the work of Martin Scorsese.