Bringing Out the Dead

Bringing Out the Dead
Original film poster
Directed by	Martin Scorsese
Produced by	Barbara De Fina Scott Rudin
Screenplay by	Paul Schrader
Based on	Bringing Out the Dead  by Joe Connelly
Starring	Nicolas Cage John Goodman Ving Rhames Tom Sizemore Patricia Arquette Marc Anthony
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by	United States/Canada Paramount Pictures United Kingdom/International Touchstone Pictures Buena Vista International
Release date(s)	October 22, 1999
Running time	121 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$55,000,000
Box office	$16,797,191

Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 American neo-noir drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the homonymous novel by Joe Connelly. It stars Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore and Patricia Arquette. The film was a flop at the box office but received very positive reviews from critics. It was also the last North American title to be released on Laserdisc.

Plot

Frank Pierce (Cage), is a burnt-out paramedic, in the early 1990s. Frank is a Manhattan medic working the graveyard shift in a two-man ambulance team. Usually exhausted and depressed, Frank sees ghosts walking the streets, particularly that of a young woman he failed to save six months before. Over three days, he is assigned a shift per day, each with a different partner: Larry (Goodman), Marcus (Rhames), and Tom (Sizemore). While working with them, he befriends the daughter of a cardiac arrest patient he brought in, Mary (Arquette), an ex-junkie. Between rounds, Frank battles against the massive effects of a new form of heroin that is hitting the streets, as well as his own psychological demons.

Cast

• Nicolas Cage as Frank Pierce
• Patricia Arquette as Mary Burke
• John Goodman as Larry
• Ving Rhames as Marcus
• Tom Sizemore as Tom Wolls
• Marc Anthony as Noel
• Cliff Curtis as Cy Coates
• Mary Beth Hurt as Nurse Constance
• Aida Turturro as Nurse Crupp
• Phyllis Somerville as Mrs. Burke
• Queen Latifah as Dispatcher Love (Voice Only)
• Martin Scorsese as Dispatcher (Voice Only)

Soundtrack

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 and 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

Production

The film was part of a trio of films in the late 1990s starring Nicolas Cage that were co-productions of Paramount Pictures and Touchstone Pictures, with Face/Off (1997) with John Travolta and Snake Eyes (1998) with Gary Sinise. Bringing Out the Dead was one of the last titles to be released on the Laserdisc format.

The opening song on the movie is "T.B. Sheets", a lengthy 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!. The song was originally going to be used in Taxi Driver.

Both the director Martin Scorsese and Queen Latifah provided the voice of the ambulance dispatchers.

Reception

Critical response

The film was well received by critics and holds a 71% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 104 reviews. Roger Ebert gave it a perfect four star rating, writing, "To look at Bringing Out the Dead--to look, indeed, at almost any Scorsese film--is to be reminded that film can touch us urgently and deeply".

Box office

Bringing Out the Dead debuted at No. 4 in 1,936 theaters with a weekend gross of only $6,193,052. Produced at a budget of $55 million but generated a revenue of just $16.7 million, the film was a box office bomb.

Notes

• Siegel, Ashely (January 1, 2000). "Bringing Out The Dead (R) (film review)". Mountain Xpress (Asheville, North Carolina, United States). Retrieved January 25, 2010. 

External links

• Bringing Out the Dead at the Internet Movie Database
• Bringing Out the Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bringing Out the Dead at AllRovi