- Actors: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore
- Directors: Martin Scorsese
- Writers: Joe Connelly, Paul Schrader
- Producers: Adam Schroeder, Barbara De Fina, Bruce S. Pustin, Eric Steel, Jeff Levine
- Format: PAL
- Language English, French
- Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Dutch, Finnish
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: 18
- Studio: Walt Disney Studios HE
- DVD Release Date: 8 Jan 2001
- Run Time: 121 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004TXHE
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 25,787 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details |
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Reuniting the "dream team" of director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter (and esteemed director in his own right) Paul Schrader--the men who brought you Taxi Driver and Raging Bull--Bringing Out the Dead provoked outrageously high expectations on its theatrical release. But when this brown-paper parcel of a film was unwrapped by critics and film-goers, the collective Christmas-morning sigh of disappointment was all but audible. Sure, there's lots of blood but where are all the guns, the wise guys cracking wise, the filmic fireworks most people expect from a Scorsese movie? But shake the wrapping a bit and out rolls a tiny, perfect parable about New York City ambulance driver Frank (Nicolas Cage) who finds grace just when he seems to have hit rock bottom.
Deprived of sleep, wired on speed of kinds, haunted by visions of a homeless girl he couldn't save, like Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle, Frank roams the neon-spackled streets despairing at the decay around him. He's as war-torn by the ravages of the 1980s (the film is set in the early 1990s, before Mayor Giuliani got tough on crime) as Travis was by Vietnam's after effects. But Frank's problem is too much empathy, not alienation, and at least he's not as crazy as his co-drivers--one addicted to food (John Goodman), one to religion (Ving Rhames) and one to drugs and violence (Tom Sizemore)--each colleague more hilarious and frightening than the last. This is a story of a man who thought he could not take it anymore, one wracked by guilt and regret, who ends up being redeemed by--it's a movie cliché, and yet it just about works here--the love of a good woman (Patricia Arquette).
Bringing Out the Dead may lack the glamorous, adolescent angst of Taxi Driver and eschew the rigorous dissection of masculinity that distinguished Raging Bull but it has its own quieter virtues and just as much visual bravura. Watching it on the small screen gives you more time to absorb its moral subtleties, its spectacular time-lapse photography and, like all great Scorsese movies, its hysterical stretches of black humour (Rhames' character's attempt to raise a seemingly dead clubber is a particular highlight). It may not be one of the director's, or even the screenwriter's, best films, but it still towers above most of the dross churned out by Hollywood every year and remains indispensable viewing for anyone serious about cinema. --Leslie Felperin
Special Features
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Scene Access
Location Featurette
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\Icelandic\Norwegian\Swedish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Scene Access
Location Featurette
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\Icelandic\Norwegian\Swedish
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
With uncanny echoes of Travis Bickle's escapades in Taxi Driver, Scorcese gives us another tale of the mean streets of New York, and some of the lowlife who inhabit them. The characters are just as colourful, if a little undeveloped, as they were in Taxi Driver, and the storylines meander a little, reflecting the different themes at play in a film with such a setting.
Cage's character is someone we empathise with, or at least anyone who has a love-hate relationship with their job does. He begs is boss to give him the sack, but alas, they are so short-staffed it's impossible! Not a lot of funny moments abound though, it's mostly heavy social observation stuff. Punctuated as it is by the odd genuine-looking bit of violence and gore.
The music sets the scene brilliantly, with offerings from REM and the Clash among others, as the ambulance speeds through the city, racing to save the hapless citizens of New York. In parts it is haunting, like when Sinatra comes on the speakers, and helps to bring a dead guy back to life. Not a bad morning's work!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bringing out the dead is a scorcese film that deals with the world of paramedics and how difficult their lives can be,nic cage stars as frank who is a neurotic,insomniac who starts to get haunted by the images of those people he couldnt save.The film is set over 3 nights and shows cage with three very different partners all of whom bring the worst and best out of cage.
The movie is based on the dirty streets of new york as originally portrayed by scorceses taxi driver and the movie is dark and frantic and certainly edgy,but at times it loses focus and tries to hard to find a moral that never quite reveals itself,but its good stuff for what it is.
The movie is based on the dirty streets of new york as originally portrayed by scorceses taxi driver and the movie is dark and frantic and certainly edgy,but at times it loses focus and tries to hard to find a moral that never quite reveals itself,but its good stuff for what it is.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I loved this film and it woke me up to Nicholas Cage. I have wanted to see everything he has done because of this film. It is so atmospheric and I physically felt the heat and dirt of the city, as well as the despair of the job. One of the best examples of the director's skills.
will watch it again and again therefore it must be good.
will watch it again and again therefore it must be good.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Paramedic
The most accurate media portrayal of paramedics. I am one. It may be set in the states but the screen writer clearly did their homework.
Published 14 months ago by G
Not very good, really
This film is kind of ok, but it's very pretentious and quite predictable. It is deliberately quite unstructured, and there is not really an obvious plot to follow. Read more
Published 21 months ago by L. McCann
Strange, but in a good way, quirky and dark
We follow ambulanceman Frank (Nicholas Cage) over the course of 3 nights who's suffering from a touch of insomnia, each night he has a different partner, first Larry (John Goodman)... Read more
Published on 12 May 2008 by Dazman
Dark and relentless with little relief
This Martin Scorsese film is another masterpiece of film making, but it's oh so bleak! Having read the novel by Joe Connelly, I knew what to expect, but it was clear that the... Read more
Published on 11 April 2008 by Annabel Gaskell
Don't make me take my glasses off !!
This movie was excellent!! As mentioned by the other reviewers, New York City has the same grimey, dirty, dark resemblance as 'Taxi Driver', which sets the scene for the story of a... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2005 by Jekyll
Good film, excellent storyline
Director martin scorsese has yet again delivered another emotionally charged masterpiece to add to your DVD collection. Read more
Published on 9 May 2004 by Dom Taylor
"...God has passed through you."
The shadow of those more familiar modern classics (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) will always hang over this film, but I found the critical cold shoulder it received quite impossible to... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2004
works of mercy in new york
At the metaphorical level, this is a film about the works of mercy. If you weren't brought up a catholic, you might not know them: there are seven corporal works of mercy: feed the... Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2002 by paul jones
This film is dull
Im not a stupid person who just couldn't see what the film was really about, but believe me this film is simply boring. Read more
Published on 13 May 2002
A must for all paramedics and emt's
If you are a paramedic or emt, some phrases should be most familiar, definitly a good laugh for those with a rather morbid sense of humour. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2001
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
