Bringing Out the Dead

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Bringing Out the Dead
original film poster
Directed by	Martin Scorsese
Produced by	Barbara De Fina, Scott Rudin
Written by	Novel: Joe Connelly Screenplay: Paul Schrader
Starring	Nicolas Cage John Goodman Ving Rhames Tom Sizemore Patricia Arquette
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (USA) Touchstone Pictures (non-USA)
Release date(s)	October 22, 1999
Running time	121 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$32,000,000

Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 film directed by Martin Scorsese, and based on the novel by Joe Connelly with the screenplay by Paul Schrader. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore and Patricia Arquette.

[edit] Plot

Frank Pierce (Cage), is a paramedic working the graveyard shift in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, a neighborhood in New York City, during the early-90s. It takes place over the course of three nights, each night pairing Pierce with a different partner (Goodman, Rhames, and Sizemore).

Complaining of burn out, Pierce suffers from insomnia and begins having visions of a young girl named Rose who died while under his care. Once called Father Frank for his ability to save lives, Pierce starts to fear that he will soon face another life he cannot save, and begins attempting to get fired as his visions of Rose become more frequent.

Soon, Pierce bonds with Mary (Arquette), the daughter of a heart attack victim whom he had previously saved, and who visits her father regularly at the hospital. Mary talks to Frank about her compassion toward helping others, which is shown contrasting Frank's feelings of burnout. It is through Mary that Frank is able to reconcile his feelings about Rose, and in the end, sleep, after sleeping with Mary and carrying out a mercy killing of her father.

[edit] Soundtrack

[edit] Track listing

1. "T.B. Sheets" - Van Morrison
2. "Janie Jones" - The Clash
3. "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" - Johnny Thunders
4. "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" - R.E.M.
5. "I'm So Bored with the USA" - The Clash
6. "Red Red Wine" - UB40
7. "Nowhere to Run" - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
8. "Too Many Fish in the Sea" - The Marvelettes
9. "Rang Tang Ding Dong (I Am a Japanese Sandman)" - The Cellos
10. "Rivers of Babylon" - The Melodians
11. "Combination of the Two" - Big Brother & The Holding Company
12. "Bell Boy" - The Who

[edit] Notes

• The opening song on the movie is "T.B. Sheets" a lengthly blues-influenced song about a young girl who lies dying in a hospital bed, surrounded by the heavy smell of death and disease. It was written by Van Morrison and included on his 1967 album, Blowin' Your Mind!.
• Director Martin Scorsese provides the voice of one of the ambulance dispatchers.

[edit] Laserdisc release

This motion picture, along with Sleepy Hollow, was the final feature film released on Laserdisc.

[edit] External links

• Bringing Out the Dead at the Internet Movie Database
• Bringing Out the Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
• Roger Ebert's review of the film