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BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
Director: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Paul Schrader
Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Goodman,
Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, Mary Beth Hurt
My advice: Don't miss it.
Rating:  out of
Nicolas Cage is EMS paramedic Frank Pierce in the early 1990's
of New York. Dwelling in an urban night-world, Frank is surrounded by the injured and the dying, and he's crumbling
under the accumulated weight of too many years of saving and losing lives.
Surrounded by both ghosts he can see and can not see, he is
tortured by whispering voices and the image of one young girl whose life he lost. During the fifty-six hours you
follow him, he is tormented to the brink of spiritual redemption.
I'm thinking Nic needs to clear some room off of his Oscar mantle
for this one. If there is a better actor alive today, I can't think of him. His ability to stretch any character,
no matter how benign or perverse, so excellently around his own form astounds me. The life he breaths into this
desperate man reminds me much of Leaving Las Vegas. He is slowly dying on the inside, looks already dead on the
outside...but you like him just the same.
Supported by an astoundingly well-rounded cast, this movie is
a must see. It is poetic and humerous, taut and exciting. All of the things a trip to the movies should be these
days. Go see it.
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