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Bringing Out The Dead

1999, Movie, R, 123 mins

Bringing Out The Dead: Review

BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
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Touted as the successor to TAXI DRIVER and based on the acclaimed first novel by former NYC paramedic Joe Connelly, Martin Scorsese's nightmarish vision of New York as the city of the walking dead falls far short of its grim potential. EMT Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) has been riding the nighttime streets for too long. He's emotionally numbed by dealing with chaotic, overcrowded emergency rooms staffed by harried, heedless doctors; sick of the self-destructive drunks and junkies who eat up his time; and haunted by the people he failed to save. Over the course of three dismal shifts, Frank is teamed with three different partners — stolid Larry (John Goodman), mellow ladies' man Marcus (Ving Rhames) and sociopathic Tom (Tom Sizemore) — but the routine remains the same; Frank is drowning in the dead and the dying, praying he'll save someone and break what feels like a cosmic losing streak. There's a little bit of plot: Frank falls tentatively in love with the ex-junkie daughter (Patricia Arquette) of a heart attack victim, crosses paths with homeless lunatic Noel (Marc Anthony) and has increasingly frequent visions of a young asthmatic (Cynthia Roman) who died because he screwed up under pressure. But the movie is essentially one long howl of despair that starts in the gutter and never really goes anywhere, up or down. Maybe it's Cage, baring his teeth like a cornered rat from the first shot; maybe it's the supporting players who treat their roles like show-offy audition monologues; or maybe it's just the monotonous sameness of Frank's jaundiced, desperate experiences (a complaint sometimes leveled against Connelly's book). But hard though it is to imagine, given Scorsese's vision and affinity for mean streets, first-time filmmaker Scott Ziehl actually examines very similar material more effectively in his low-budget BROKEN VESSELS. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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