On B List of Movie Reviews

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Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 3/20

3/20: At the hands of Martin Scorsese, the 90's has been littered with many stinkers, and Bringing Out the Dead is among them.

The best part is the insight into the work of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. I have a lot of respect for the workers, and it's a tough job that's plagued with high turnover and suicide rates. Understaffing is a chronic issue. Stress, fatigue, and lack of sleep are what EMS workers deal with, leading to burnout and causing them to leave the profession in droves within five years. They work in 24-hour shifts and sometimes longer if you can believe that.

Unfortunately, for Bringing Out the Dead, Martin Scorsese wants to dwell on the relationship between Nicolas Cage's and Patricia Arquette's characters, effectively killing the momentum. The last hour is a drag to sit through with Noel often coming in and out for pointless reasons.

Nicolas Cage gives a decent performance and is thus watchable. Of the three partners that he rides with, Ving Rhames is the best; he's funny and crazy at the same time. John Goodman is fair, but Tom Sizemore is clearly nutso which explains why he ended up having drug problems.

Another nice thing is the cinematography. Many films have a tough time of making the sirens to be less visibly annoying, but not in this: it has a nice amount of intensity that doesn't get in the way of what's happening. Plus, the constant use of dark ambience in New York City is well done.

All in all, Bringing Out the Dead has a lot of potential, but it wastes too much time on unimportant characters.

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