Bringing Out the Dead

Started by Keener, April 25, 2003, 08:46:32 PM

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Keener

Am I the only person who missed this movie ? I mean, I love Scorsese and Schrader and it had a good cast supporting it. But over-all,  the film seemed kinda lacking to me. Anyone agree ? Disagree ? Don't care ? Want some donuts ?
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Sleuth

It was a little lacking spirit, but everything else seemed well done.  Donuts, yes
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oakmanc234

'Bringing out the Dead' is the perfect midnight movie (as in you watch it at midnight), you'll feel like your doing the graveyard shift with them. Or better yet, watch it in the early hours, about 3, when its still dark, so that it finishes when dawn breaks. Thats how I watched it the first time and I absolutely loved it. It wasn't really an 'experience' (that word gets used too much for watching a movie) but a lot of fun. I think at times it was uncannily like 'Taxi Driver' in look and sound (which I loved), its the closest anyone will get to a 'Taxi Driver' sequel, thats for sure...
'Welcome the Thunderdome, bitch'

MrBurgerKing

Quote from: oakmanc234'Bringing out the Dead' is the perfect midnight movie (as in you watch it at midnight), you'll feel like your doing the graveyard shift with them. Or better yet, watch it in the early hours, about 3, when its still dark, so that it finishes when dawn breaks. Thats how I watched it the first time and I absolutely loved it. It wasn't really an 'experience' (that word gets used too much for watching a movie) but a lot of fun. I think at times it was uncannily like 'Taxi Driver' in look and sound (which I loved), its the closest anyone will get to a 'Taxi Driver' sequel, thats for sure...

Good points, oakmanc. How about a midnight double feature of After Hours followed by Bringing Out the Dead? Or perhaps make it a triple feature and add that Power Rangers movie.

sphinx

i thought it was a rockin' fuckin' movie.  it really must be watched late at night with some kind of a stimulant, although it's just as effective by itself.  bryan still has my copy of it, that bastard!  that makes me want to watch it right now!

although it's not completely out of print, the dvd is getting harder to find these days, so if you want to nab a copy of it, you'd better do it soon.

Ghostboy

I love this movie. It's not as great as 'Taxi Driver,' but it tells a very similar story (man seeking redemption), and it has a lot of really amazing scenes. This is one of those movies that made '99 a really great year.

And strangely enough, I first saw it around three in the morning, too...screening it at the theater the night before it opened.

Keener

I've tried to sit through it twice and it just doesn't click with me. Guess I'm alone on this one.
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Duck Sauce

i know what you mean, it seems like one of the movies where I would be bored and just not really into it, only i wasnt bored and i really was into it. Loved the movies, especially the backwards shit.

SoNowThen

I love this flick. A couple years after I saw it, I started working the night shift at a shitty hotel in downtown Vancouver, that happened to be next door to a hospital. Everything in this movie is SPOT ON. The night shift produces some very unusual characters...
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

MacGuffin

It took me a second viewing to really appreciate this film. The first viewing, I guess I was expecting something else and had that in mind, and felt disappointed. But upon another look, I looked past all the colorful characters and saw the character study of a man saving himself by redeeming himself.

Also, I think this is Scorsese's best use of source music. The soundtrack is killer.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

chainsmoking insomniac

Keener, you're NOT alone.  I could never settle in with this movie either...there are a couple of scenes that were kinda cool, but overall this film lacked a 'spark'...I almost felt like it wanted to be two movies....
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©brad

Quote from: MacGuffin
Also, I think this is Scorsese's best use of source music. The soundtrack is killer.

oh yes. casino is a close second.

dufresne

Quote from: MacGuffin

Also, I think this is Scorsese's best use of source music. The soundtrack is killer.

exactly.  this movie had more energy than people give it credit for.

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brockly

I though this movie was great. The cinematography was classic Scorsese, and the story really sucked ya in. The dialogue was a little disappointing though.

The Silver Bullet

QuoteOriginally posted on my blog:

In the lead up to the release of the long anticipated Scorsese picture Gangs of New York I have decided that I will go through each of the Scorsese pictures [the ones I can get my hands upon at least] and devour them. I have started with a film that I have been waiting to see since I read the Ebert review of it [a four out of four].

Bringing Out The Dead is a terribly sad, haunting, chilling and at times extremely funny, but not always in an uplifting way, film. The three characters that Nicolas Cage rides with [played by John Goodman, Vhing Rhames and Tom Sizemore, in that order] are brilliantly crafted characters that at once bear testament to the madness of the city of New York and strike the viewer with a near lethal amount of comic relief. It is hard to describe. Some moments are light hearted, yes, some of the characters are caricatures and not real people, sure. But if the audience laughs it laughs uncomfortably and nearly unwillingly. Scorsese’s bright lights fry at the mind and hurt the eyes. The film, at times, plays as much like a music video as a Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino, or Baz Luhrmann film would. But underneath all the glamour and cartoon character comedy is something frighteningly real and desperate screaming at the top of its lungs.

The screenplay reminded me, quite a lot, actually, of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut; we experience a certain world [in this case the world of death and dying on the late night/early morning streets of New York] through the eyes of a man who may not be the most reliable narrator [Cage is plagued by reoccurring visions of a girl who he failed to save; a technique that at times grated and at other times touched, but most of all, seemed just slightly tacked on by Schrader. I didn’t see why failure was necessary to Cage’s character; surely having seen so much death would have been reason enough to have been as emotional torn up as he was?]

The episodic nature of Bringing Out The Dead is what Roger Ebert picked up upon in his review mainly [the review that I can remember anyhow]. Aside from that it is brilliantly executed, crafted, edited and scored [all trademarks of Uncle Marty, yes], but indeed the episodic nature of the piece, aided with its ultimate lack of plot [there are reoccurring threads including experiences with an apartment named the Oasis, with the daughter of a man who is in a coma, and the run ins with a violent and delusional young man, but these are not plots, just experiences, loosely related happenings in the eyes of a man who walks the same road every day of his life] that make the picture what, for me, it was.

Scorsese is probably the best American director to have ever lived. Most everyone who has a true knowledge of film would without a doubt call him the most consistent [his track record far out ways that of, perhaps, his closest rivals, Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Altman who have churned out crap in their times], and so calling him best may not be that far behind.

I did not hear much about Bringing Out The Dead when it was released in theatres, or on video, or on DVD. And it is a shame, because the film is an amazing cinematic experience [and a brilliant way to experience the mastery of Scorsese.].

Up until now one of the most influential pieces of inspiration in the writing of my own new screenplay was in fact not Bringing Out The Dead, but Roger Ebert's review of Bringing Out The Dead. The basic rundown by Ebert of the structure of the film supplied me with a wealth of ideas. Seeing the film I realise that, perhaps, the film is not structurally what Ebert set it up to be [the three nights; Thursday, Friday and Saturday, are not as stylistically defined as I thought they may be, bar the title cards and Cage's acting partner for the evening]. But what did strike me was the theatricality of it, something that I desperately want to capture. Something overacted or a little heightened that by all logical reasoning should be funny, but isn’t. Something humorous that is eaten alive by the desperation of everything that surrounds it.
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  • Any of various long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae.
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