Bringing Out the Dead (Paramount, R)
Starring Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames and Patricia Arquette
Rating:
Three stars - I have seen months-old boxes of graham crackers that are less gritty than this movie.
"Bringing Out the Dead" is a movie that leaves no shot wasted in its depiction of a grim and gritty version of "ER" that NBC probably won't be showing any time soon.
It's hard to decide what the star attraction is in this movie. Nicolas Cage is amazing as hallucinogenic ambulance driver, Frank Pierce. Out of the quality supporting actors, Ving Rhames is hilariously odd as Pierce's partner Marcus. But the real star is director Martin Scorsese, with a fantastic visually stimulating movie in the worst of New York City nights.
Frank Pierce is a medical emergency specialist on the end of his rope. Five years of working stressful nights trying to save lives has caught up with him. His nights on the streets provoke needs for alcoholic beverages to ease the pain and visions from the 18-year-old girl from the past whom Frank could not save.
Overall, there is no nice little package of a story. The time span is three days in the life of Frank, and the only significant difference between these days and any other is Mary Burke (Arquette).
Mary is the daughter of an old man whom Frank brings in with his partner Larry (John Goodman) the first night. The father is revived only after hearing the sweet sounds of an old Frank Sinatra record. That revival does not last long, as he needs to be revived over 15 times every day in the scummy emergency room filled with druggies and drunks.
Frank and Mary begin an anti-romance in between his calls to duty. Both of them are in need of someone, anyone to talk to, and they just happen upon each other.
Day Two is when Rhames makes his appearance. Marcus is a zealous ladies' man who sweet-talks the dispatcher on the way to different emergencies. When Frank and Marcus are called to an underground nightclub for a drug overdose, Marcus organizes the theatrics of a "saving of the soul" as Frank administers the very physical medicine.
Cage is given a look that makes you feel like he hasn't seen the rays of the sun in a decade. With perpetual bags under the eyes and the madness he has been driven to, the audience feels so sorry for him by the end of the film that his efforts to get fired from his job are both funny and sad.
The simple tale is completely overshadowed by the prodigious visual pyrotechnics that Scorsese throws at the audience. A run-of-the-mill ambulance ride turns into a freakish "Speed Racer on acid" trip that is amazing to watch.
"Bringing Out the Dead had more than a good chance at being a real bore, but with paradoxical exciting depression around every turn, no one should leave the theater dead on arrival.
Originally published in the 10/28/00 edition of the Northern Star.
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