The Quarantine Stream: ‘Bringing Out The Dead’ Is One Of Martin Scorsese’s Best Movies
By Chris Evangelista/Sept. 20, 2020 9:00 am EST
Frank patrols the streets of New York in his ambulance with a rotating group of partners (John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore), and all the while, he’s haunted by the ghosts of people he’s failed to save – primarily a teenage girl named Rose. Meanwhile, Frank is also drawn to a recovering addict (Patricia Arquette, who was married to Cage at the time), the daughter of one of Frank’s patients.
With this set up, Scorsese takes us through a season in hell as Frank has one wild night after another. Cinematographer Robert Richardson blows out the lighting here, with streetlamps burning the way they do when you’re low on sleep. Everything and everyone looks damned, like we’ve been dropped into some circle of hell that looks like New York in the ’90s.
And through it all, Scorsese goes nuts, cranking up the speed of the film, layering over punk rock music, and working with constant editor Thelma Schoonmaker to create Frank’s fractured, sleep-deprived world. And if there’s a light at the end of this long, dark, hellish tunnel, it’s the promise of a good night’s rest. Frank, haunted by his failures, has to learn to forgive himself long enough to shut his eyes for a few hours. And then it’s back out into the night, looking for more bloody bodies to save.
