Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13509 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-15
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish
• Dubbed in: Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

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

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 is a lot 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 is 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

Customer Reviews

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) who's pretty subdued in this role, Marcus (Ving Rhames) who shows a good comic side to himself and then finally Walls (Tom Sizemore) who ranges between a normal level headed guy to a lunatic and brings a nice bit of dark humour to the film)

It's hard to know what to call this film in a way it's a drama, but not full on, then it's a black comedy, but again not enough to refer to it as such, there's a bit of eveything here, from weirdness, to humour, ghosts to hearing voices from various people.

This film will not be to everyones liking I'm sure, but if you fancy seeing Nicholas Cage in a role which is different to any I've seen him in before (semi-serious and semi-comedic) and not always the hero then this is well worth checking out.

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 cinema audience I originally watched it with had no idea that it would be so dark & relentless. Yet there are a few moments of absolute comedy which give a few moments relief before diving back into more bleakness.
The film follows burned out paramedic Frank Pierce, brilliantly played by Nicholas Cage, over the course of three night shifts in Hells Kitchen, New York. Everyone they pick up is dead or dying, drunk, a junkie, homeless, or just plain mad. Frank hasn't saved a life in months, and it haunts him. Cage's co-stars John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore all give good performances as his three partners on his shifts in the ambulance. Add in the gritty reality of the hospital - ER it certainly ain't!
Nicholas Cage's now ex-wife, Patricia Arquette, plays Mary, the daughter of a heart attack victim Frank saves only for him to become a vegetable. As she comes to terms with that, she and Frank become closer, and the film ends with a faint glimmer of hope for them. If you can survive your emotions being put through the wringer, you might just come out at the end of this feel feeling that your own life is beautiful. Don't let that stop you seeing this though - it's a gem of a film, but not an enjoyable one; watch it to for excellent performances and Scorsese trademarks.

artistic, gritty, interesting
Bringing Out The Dead is always treated as the redheaded stepchild of Martin Scorsese films... the one to forget. Why, I'm not sure.

Personally I found it to be artistic, gritty, interesting and (as with all Scorsese films) a great commentary on humanity. Everything from the Van Morrison soundtrack running through the background, to the cast of quirky, memorable characters made this film shine.