Bringing Out the Dead

Director: Martin Scorsese

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Marc Anthony

Year: 1999 Running Time: 120 mins Rating:

Nicolas Cage plays Frank, a burnt-out paramedic working in New York's notorious Hell's Kitchen. We follow the reluctant hero during 48 hours of his stressed-out life treating victims...and being haunted by the ghosts of those he failed to save. Not easy viewing but director Martin Scorsese's snapshot of a reluctant good Samaritan's life is rivetting stuff and Cage's best role in an age. Trivia: screenwriter Paul Schrader was brought on board because Scorsese felt he was the best at "writing about New York in the middle of the night."

Review

Squalor in the streets is the keynote of Martin Scorsese's gruelling, blood-soaked portrait of the work of a paramedic (Nicolas Cage), driven to the edge by his experiences with the hookers, junkies and derelicts in New York's ghettos.

Although it makes ER look tame, that's not a good thing, as Cage drinks to try to forget those he has failed to save.

The black comedy is overwhelmed by the despair that blankets the film.

Cage looks understandably haggard, as this is hardly an advert for the paramedic profession or the streets of America.