Bringing Out the Dead

viewed October 26, 1999 at Century Plaza 8

For full information about this film click here.

What better way to follow up my first afternoon as a movie director than to go see the latest effort from my favorite modern master, Martin Scorsese. Maybe I can't be very critical of him because I'm so familiar with his themes that I take pleasure at seeing them played out in whatever new form he has chosen.  It's not that I have a bias for him, but that I pick up on what he's trying to get at better than any director whose films I've followed, because he speaks to me both idealogically and visually.  Anyone can appreciate his craftsmanship, but the religious self-flagellation and feelings of helplessness towards a troubled world are not for those who simply think Travis Bickle's mohawk and arsenal are cool.  I'm not saying that Scorsese is great because he's serious -- in fact, what's great about Bringing Out the Dead are the moments when it is light on its feet and rushing from one emergency to the next.  Such moments are refreshing after the heavy-going self-importance of Kundun, Scorsese's previous feature, and needed among the ponderous voice-overs of this crisis-stricken ambulance driver.

It seems like the actors in this movie have been living in this neighborhood for years: they know each other, or each other's type, and they speak in the familiar - though at times coarse - tones of members of a closed community.  It just happens that their neighborhood is a slum; in Frank's case, he's too tied to the fates of these people, not to mention those he couldn't save, and can't leave.  The familiarity comes through in conversations Frank has with Mary and with his three successive partners, especially the one played by Ving Rhames.  Each one is a springboard for Frank to bounce different reactions to what horrors he witnesses.

The technical merits of the film alone recommend it.  The songs are great, often surprising, and not overbearing.  The camerawork is particularly amazing in its range judicious use of speeds, and though it often goes over the top, such an approach seems right in this crazy setting.  It's a perfect film for a film student to sink his teeth into and just marvel at how a master can make it all look so easy.

Read Roger Ebert (he seems similarly incapable of picking on Marty)

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