Cage Recommendation: Bringing Out the Dead

Right now, we are living in uncertain times where health care workers must brave the frontlines trying their hardest to keep those they have sworn to protect alive, but the toll of these duties weighs heavy on these individuals. Films and shows that revolve around the stressors of the health care field exist and while some do a great job at showing the duality of exactly what these workers deal with on a daily basis, one of the most powerful and compelling examples might be Martin Scorsese’s 1999 film “Bringing Out the Dead.” Written by Scorsese’s frequent collaborator Paul Schrader, the film is an adaptation of the semi-autobiography book of the same name by Joe Connelly. The duo shine once again with a daunting look at the nightlife of an EMT paramedic that is dealing with the ghosts of those he could not save. 

“I realized that my training was useful in less than ten percent of the calls, and saving lives was rarer than that. After a while, I grew to understand that my role was less about saving lives than about bearing witness. I was a grief mop. It was enough that I simply turned up.”

These are the words of our lead character Frank (Nicolas Cage), a burnt-out paramedic suffering from insomnia, who must dive deep into the abyss of misery that is New York City during the opioid epidemic of the late 1990s. Cage’s performance as Frank may be one of his best due to the deep sense of optimism his outlook on life once had, a good job and loving wife, but as his job as an EMT took over and as patients begin dying on him more and more, he becomes disillusioned by the promise of hope in saving a person’s life and his own. 

In “Bringing out the Dead” Cage excels at giving a somber, believable and sympathetic performance that the audience can empathize with, no one person should deal with the responsibility and challenges Frank deals with, but unfortunately do. Schrader created a complex character that is dealing with the terms of his job and his mortality when faced with the strain of saving lives and the ever presences of death. The conflict of constantly seeing the same patients over and over again affects Frank as he is thrown down the rabbit hole of whose life is worth saving and who would be better off dead; altogether still having a deep sense of powerlessness in what he does. Frank is constantly called to resuscitate the same overdose patients and bring them back to the land of the living, repeating the same actions over and over again; he is constantly at odds against himself.

Scorsese does a fantastic job at depicting the rapid pace of the New York nightlife with fast scenes of Frank and crew being dispatched to gruesome and grizzly scenes while using shadows to accent the slower scenes in a contrast that is simply magnificent. The film has no overarching plot as most of Frank’s days and nights become amalgamized and inconsistent, save for a sub-plot that has Frank help the daughter of a cardiac arrest patient with her own battle with opioids, but this helps convey the overall sense of confusion and helplessness of both Frank and the viewer. The film is definitely worth a watch and one that proves that Nicolas Cage is one of the greatest working actors we have today.