← Back to results
Bringing Out the Dead
1999 121 min United States of America R 16+
★7.0
Drama
Director: Martin Scorsese
🎭 Based on
«Bringing Out the Dead»
byJoe Connelly
Trailers
EN
EN
Description
Once called "Father Frank" for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank Pierce sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls where he might have to face one more victim he couldn't help, yet cannot quit the job on his own.
Budget:
$32M
US Gross:
$16.8M
Worldwide:
$16.8M
Starring
Nicolas Cage
Actor
Patricia Arquette
Actor
John Goodman
Actor
Awards
2 wins & 5 nominations total
Key opinion
Bringing Out the Dead is widely regarded as a polarizing, hallucinatory, and intensely atmospheric descent into the life of an urban paramedic. While critics and fans alike applaud the film’s striking visual style and Nicolas Cage’s raw, committed performance, opinions diverge sharply on whether the narrative substance justifies its unconventional, dream-like structure.
| Acting | Nicolas Cage delivers a powerful, high-intensity performance that effectively captures the exhaustion and mental deterioration of the protagonist. | |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson's cinematography masterfully renders New York City as a claustrophobic, hallucinatory, and nightmarish urban landscape. | |
| Direction | The film is a stylistically daring, unconventional work that marks a distinct, atmospheric departure from Scorsese’s more traditional crime narratives. | |
| Originality | The narrative is polarizing: admirers praise its surreal, dark psychological depth, while detractors find it pretentious, formless, or lacking in substantive meaning. | |
| Screenplay | The screenplay is a point of contention, with some viewing it as a poignant, gritty exploration of trauma and others dismissing it as a repetitive or aimless adaptation. |