Bringing Out The Dead


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Drama Featurette - Production Featurette
Rating
Year Released 1999
Running Time 116:03 minutes
RSDL/Flipper RSDL (58:35)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,4 Director Martin Scorsese
Studio
Distributor
Touchstone Pictures
Warner Home Video
Starring Nicolas Cage
Patricia Arquette 
John Goodman
Ving Rhames 
Tom Sizemore
Case Transparent Amaray
RPI $36.95 Music Elmer Bernstein

 
 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision ?Yes Smoking Yes
Subtitles French
Italian
Swedish
Norwegian
Danish
Finnish
Dutch
Icelandic
English for the Hearing Impaired
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

Plot Synopsis

    Let's see - Martin Scorsese, New York, ambulance...got to be a remake of Taxi Driver! It never ceases to amaze me how some critics clutch the most non-existent of connections in order to sensationalize their reviews of films. Just to clear this up before w go any further, and what will be the last mention of the classic film from Martin Scorsese, this is no remake of Taxi Driver and besides being from the same director and set in the same city, has absolutely no connection whatsoever with the aforementioned classic. So, do not come to this film expecting anything to do with Taxi Driver.

    What Bringing Out The Dead actually is is another great film from perhaps the greatest American director at the current time. I know that statement is going to raise the hackles of a lot of people, both for and against, but so be it. Having only watched this film twice, courtesy of Region 1 and Region 4 DVDs, I certainly hold it in the highest regard, but I do not believe that it can be held in the same lofty company as his truly great films - those that are true masterpieces. It may not be great entertainment either but the one thing it definitely is is great film-making, the likes of which we rarely get to see from Hollywood. This is gritty, real life drama that pulls few punches for the sake of getting the vision to the big screen.

    The broad story here is not so much a story but a look at life through the eyes of Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage), a burned-out New York paramedic who is haunted by the ghosts of the people he could not save. In particular, he is haunted by the ghost of one young lady of 18 years of age by the name of Rose - a young lady who died whilst Frank was ministering to her. We take a three day journey through his life as he goes about his work. With his interesting collection of partners in Larry (John Goodman), Marcus (Ving Rhames) and Tom Walls (Tom Sizemore), we get to see life as it probably really is for a paramedic on the streets of New York. These partners provide an interestingly eclectic look at how people react to the stress of the job. Larry seems to be able to block everything out and is almost single-mindedly intent on getting out of the rat race by becoming a captain. Marcus is the God-fearing type who puts all faith and trust in the power of God. Tom is a borderline psycho who sees nothing wrong in beating up people for not much of a reason other than it is fun. The unifying thread to the film is a call to a heart attack victim. Having been pronounced dead by telephone, Mr Burke (Cullen O Johnson) is brought back to life by Frank and taken to the overcrowded emergency room of the hospital where he keeps dying and keeps getting revived by defibrillation. His family including daughter Mary (Patricia Arquette) are to some extent kept in the dark about the old man and the brooding attraction between Frank and Mary is an interesting sub-plot and a contrast as Frank battles the demons that are haunting him. The drama provides the canvas upon which a collection of characters is displayed that really does provide some clue as to the diversity of New York. These characters include the likes of Mr O., a habitual and very smelly drunk who is a regular passenger to the hospital where he has to be left outside because of the overpowering stench.

    The whole film is hung on a great screenplay from Paul Schrader which is full of darkly comedic dialogue and by-play. The cast does a superb job of bringing it to life. Nicolas Cage provides a brilliant performance as a man on the verge of breakdown, even by his great standards. There is a depth to his performance that I don't recall having seen even from him before, but even Nicolas Cage needs support and he gets it aplenty. John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore all capture the different partners with aplomb - indeed, Tom Sizemore is perhaps a little too convincing as the borderline psycho. Patricia Arquette is very convincing as the slightly confused, slightly weary and slightly wary Mary. The whole thing is pulled together with aplomb by Martin Scorsese. A lot of his trademarks are here and this leaves no doubt as to who made this film. The result is a visual feast that is going to certainly divide opinion as to its effectiveness.

    Whilst this is definitely not going to be to everyone's taste, I found this a fascinating experience blessed with some terrific acting. I would certainly recommend the film to all, but I suspect that unless you are a fan of Martin Scorsese or the cast, this may be best approached through a rental.

Transfer Quality

Video

    With all the visual trickery that is employed in this film, it needed a fine transfer to bring this to DVD without reducing it to a visual mishmash. This is just the sort of transfer the film got - a fine one.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which is very close to the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 (according to the generally authoritative Widescreen Review). The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    Of course, those expecting a sharp, detailed and clear transfer in the conventional sense are going to find this effort more than a little problematic. This is certainly an excellent transfer but what you see on screen does not reflect glorious sharpness or detail. Whilst the transfer is quite sharp, it reflects exactly what the director is intending to be seen. As for detail, this is blessed with exactly what it needs in order to convey what it wants to convey. At times, very detailed and at others just a little restrained in the detail. Shadow detail is variously great and average, but again is a reflection of how the film is supposed to look. It may not look like it but this is a very clear transfer and there is no problem with grain nor low level noise in the transfer.

    The colours come up very well indeed, again within the context of what is meant to be seen in the film. Having a slightly overexposed look at times, it is certainly not a film blessed with a lot of bright colours. But then again, the subject hardly requires bright colours, although the use of bright neon lights at times is extremely effective. There are, however, quite a vibrant collection of colours here, with some lovely feel to the grey and browns in particular. The odd instance of oversaturation was as intended by the director and the general tone here is to undersaturation more than anything else. There is no hint of colour bleed at all in the transfer.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There did not appear to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. There were little in the way of obvious film artefacts in the transfer.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 58:35. A decently well placed change that whilst just a little noticeable is by no means disruptive to the flow of the film.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks on the DVD, being Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in what seem to be the defaults for Buena Vista DVDs: English, French and Italian. I stuck with the default English as this is probably not a film to go experimenting with.

    The dialogue comes up well in the transfer and is generally easy to under understand, barring a few instances which seemed to be intentionally muted. There did not appear to be any problems with audio sync in the transfer.

    The musical score comes from Elmer Bernstein, and whilst it is a good effort and nicely supportive of the film, there is not much opportunity for it to shine in this heavily dialogue based film. A nice collection of popular songs get a run here too.

    This is a very good soundtrack that perhaps is only let down by some slightly restrained use of the surround channels. After all, this is New York, the city that lives twenty five hours a day and I would have expected more in the way of surround ambience here. I suppose the restraint here is to internalize the sound of the film to suit the mood of Frank Pierce, but I cannot help but feel a little more rear channel ambience in particular would not have gone astray during the street scenes. There is, for instance, decent surround channel support in the scenes inside the hospital that really help to convey the atmosphere. The overall soundscape is more than adequate for the style of film that we have here. The bass channel does not get much of a run, not even during the ambulance accident. There is little to be concerned about here and this is a good soundtrack overall, but certainly no audio demonstration.
 
 

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    Another Disney DVD through my player and surprisingly, for the third effort out of four, there is an extra on the disc. What are things coming to? Keep this up and we might just have to start expecting extras on Disney DVDs!

Menu

    A pity that there is no audio or animation enhancement here, for these are devoid of such niceties, but at least they are 16x9 enhanced.

Featurette - Production Featurette (10:59)

    An interesting interview based effort that is probably straight out of an electronic press kit. Perhaps a bit misnamed as a production featurette, but a decent inclusion anyway. Presented in Full Frame format with the film excerpts in their native ratio, this is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Whilst it is not quite the full blown effort that the film deserves, a decent start to bigger things we hope.

R4 vs R1

    This is a Paramount release in Region 1 and comes with the same featurette - under the guise of Cast and Crew Interviews - to accompany two theatrical trailers. There is also a separate Dolby Digital 2.0 English soundtrack. A direct comparison with the Region 1 release indicates a similar quality transfer, and the style of the film is one that perhaps does not highlight the differences between NTSC and PAL formatting. Given the relative difference in prices and the video formatting, I can see no compelling reason to really favour one version over the other. The theatrical trailers would however make the choice marginally in favour of Region 1 I suppose.

Summary

    Bringing Out The Dead is not a masterpiece, but is still a great film from one of the masters of modern film making. The highlights though are the great performances, especially from Nicolas Cage. I would not wish to call it great entertainment but it certainly is a film that rewards watching. However, perhaps a rental first rather than outright purchase unless you are a fan of the director or cast members.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
8th December 2000

Review Equipment
DVD Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Built in
Amplification Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL