Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Bringing Out the Dead 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Scorsese channels Stone in a hit-or-miss film that's finally making its high definition debut...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown September 16, 2024

I can't begin to explain how Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (1999), an overindulgent, ahem, "ecstatic sensory experience" (quoth the San Francisco Examiner), ends up being such a strangely benign, weirdly forgettable film. And not because more than two decades have passed since its theatrical release. I rewatched it just two days ago, the moment my screener arrived in fact. And even now, type type typing away at my laptop, I'm struggling to remember large swaths of the movie; a rocky off-ramp of a dark dramedy that plays like a mid-career Oliver Stone flick colliding head on with an Abel Ferrara neo-noir. But here I am, skimming my notes in an effort to determine why an arguably decent, long lost Scorsese experiment isn't, in any way, good or ill, latching onto my brain. That's a rarity for one of the prolific director's films. Even his biggest swings and misses have still managed to at least cobble together something memorable. Perhaps it's Nicolas Cage, who pulls inward and goes morose in a picture all but designed to showcase his delightfully devilish eruptions. Or maybe it's the film's tone, which wobbles and bobbles like a cheap plastic Jesus on an ambulance dashboard. Is it overwrought? Over-written? Under-written? Overcooked? Half-baked? Over-stylized? Overly ambitious? Is it too bland despite all its spice? Too slow despite its speed? Too much of a downer despite its coked-up verve? Or is it just a middling film that struck Scorsese and company as a more intriguing idea than the final product proved to be?

Told over the course of three traumatic night shifts, Bringing Out the Dead introduces sullen-eyed Manhattan paramedic Frank (Nicolas Cage), a depressed insomniac struggling to save patients in the wake of failing to resuscitate a teen girl months prior. Night one finds Frank partnered with a drug-addled driver named Larry (John Goodman), night two pairs him with religious zealot Marcus (Ving Rhames), and night three lands him in the passenger seat of the erratic, violent Tom Wolls (Tom Sizemore). Along the way, he meets and befriends former addict Mary (Patricia Arquette), is haunted by ghosts of emergency patients he couldn't save (or botched saving), faces down a drug dealer named Cy (the always excellent Cliff Curtis), and encounters other back-alley denizens in all states of distress. The film also features performances by Marc Anthony, Nestor Serrano, Michael K. Williams, Afemo Omilami, Mary Beth Hurt, Aida Turturro, Phyllis Somerville, Sonja Sohn, Judy Reyes, Martin Scorsese and Queen Latifah (the latter two as the voices of hospital dispatchers).

There's quite a bit of parity between Bringing Out the Dead and Fight Club, 1999's other narration-infused mind-trip. But where Fight Club found its visual footing out of the gate and double-down on its noir-esque narration to expand its satire of toxic male culture, Scorsese's sometimes DOA comedy-turned-drama-turned-comedy never quite seems sure where to step, what to say, or how to say it. Frank is a confusing, often unlikable protagonist who remains bafflingly employed by a system somehow far more broken than his mental state. Bringing Out the Dead almost plays like a referendum on emergency services workers, but it isn't mean-spirited at their expense, making for a confusing string of awful people doing awful things without much in the way of a message as to why so much awful is being allowed to reign the streets. And as soon as it begins to emerge as a film studying the infectious, creeping traits of untreated and undiagnosed mental illness, it bends to the point of breaking, switching lanes as it veers across three nights with three very different drivers, all of whom are meant to shed light on the man that is Frank but instead make him more and more of an enigma.

The performances are uniformly impressive, even if Goodman, Rhames and Sizemore can get a little too Looney Tunes for their own good. Bits and pieces bubble up and nearly burst with manufactured electricity and exuberance, calling to mind NBK's Mickey and Mallory, and there's certainly fun to be had as a result. But the movie co-starring Arquette is not the same movie we get when Frank climbs aboard an ambulance and talks down suicidal vagrants holding shivs to their throats. Both films could have succeeded on their own terms, but stitched together, the unholy beast that shambles forth is more Frankensteinian ghoul than resurrected man. The moment we gain our bearings in one world, we're hurtled into another. The moment we begin to adjust to the tenor of one tone, we're thrown into the next. Scorsese could have found a balance -- think Tarantino and Jackie Brown -- but there's just too much bone and gristle to Dead's meat to make for an appetizing main course. I'm sure someone, somewhere will understand and appreciate Bringing Out the Dead for all its finer qualities. More power to them, because they will enjoy Paramount's fantastic new 4K release more than any of us.

Bringing Out the Dead 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Newly remastered from the original camera negative and reviewed by director Martin Scorsese, cinematographer Robert Richardson and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Paramount's 2160p 4K presentation of Bringing Out the Dead may not be a traditional stunner but, good Lord, does it perfectly capture everything the filmmakers wanted to put on the screen. Grain is filmic and surprisingly consistent, without much in the way of elevation and nothing in the way of being tamped down. Detail is terrific as well. The film may not be the sharpest spike strip on the road, but Richardson's photography is represented faithfully without flaw, even in moments where style surges (or even over-surges) and threatens to wreak havoc on the image's integrity. In these moments, though, only the cinematography and editing are to quote-unquote blame. I didn't catch sight of anything out of sorts with the encode; banding, blocking or otherwise. Color, saturation and contrast, meanwhile -- while by no means always lifelike -- are striking and precise. Black levels crush but it traces back to the original source, nothing more. Skintones are often pale and sickly, but it's intentional, and stark whites and flashes of light make for an at-times unsettling but satisfying series of rapidfire emergency-response sequences. Nitpick the film's style all you want. You'll be hard pressed, though, to find any fault with Paramount's remastering efforts or the disc's encoding.

Bringing Out the Dead 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bringing Out the Dead features a killer Dolby Atmos track (with a standard TrueHD 7.1 core), one that offers a startlingly enveloping, panic-inducing experience primed to bolster everything Scorsese throws at his audience. Dialogue is reasonably intelligible (despite the fact that the filmmakers allow more natural leveling to dominate the mix), narration is warm, full and nicely centered throughout, music slices through the insanity of Frank's night shifts without overwhelming other elements (aside from when it's meant to do just that), and prioritization is masterful. The film sounds more chaotic than it actually is, as method dominates madness time and time again. Never scattershot, always artistic, the mix transforms an after-dark New York City into an alien world full of strange creatures and rough-hewn citizenry. Directionality is exacting to the point of realism, pans are slick and smooth, and the soundfield wraps around the listener without so much as a nod to the deliberate crafting of the soundscape. Moreover, LFE output is bold and aggressive, lending plenty of bark to the film's bite and even adding a depth to Frank's despair and desperation through a series of sternum-thumping outbursts that are as powerful as they are startling. Bringing Out the Dead sounds fantastic.

Bringing Out the Dead 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Filmmaker Focus (HD, 12 minutes) - Martin Scorsese offers a retrospective of the film, complete with anecdotes, production details, notes on casting and location shooting, the look and sound of the movie, his inspirations and more.

• A Rumination on Salvation (HD, 15 minutes) – Nicolas Cage muses about his time in New York City, his approach to his character and the late night insanity of the city that never sleeps, and the time he spent with Scorsese when preparing for his role.

• Cemetary Streets (HD, 6 minutes) - Screenwriter Paul Schrader discusses his adaptation of Joe Connelly's novel, his on-the-job ride-along research, and his collaboration with Scorsese.

• City of Ghosts (HD, 9 minutes) - Cinematographer Robert Richardson dissects his approach to the material.

• On Set Interviews (HD/SD, 23 minutes) - Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, Marc Antony and others chat at length about Bringing Out the Dead and their contributions to the film.

• Exclusive Cast and Crew Interviews (SD, 11 minutes) - A 1999 interview reel.

• Original Theatrical Trailers (SD, 5 minutes)

Bringing Out the Dead 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Uneven and divisive, Bringing Out the Dead wasn't a movie ahead of its time, nor has it revealed itself to be a misunderstood gem that only now is ready to be received with open arms. It's a problematic experiment; an oddity in Scorsese's filmography, for sure, but one that remains wholly watchable, even if it somehow falls away from memory days after watching it. But it's finally earned a high definition release, so watching it is at least far less painful -- thanks to an excellent 4K/Dolby Atmos presentation -- than it was when the only way to watch it was via a standard DVD.