From Joe Connelly's novel drawing on real life experiences, Bringing Out the Dead offers a nightmarish glimpse into the life of a burned out paramedic (Nicholas Cage) as he works the weekend night shift in a Hell's Kitchen where any and everything can happen, which has been all the more amplified by a lethal substance which has just infiltrated the local drug market. Working again with screenwriter Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese offers a series of amazingly filmed vignettes, highlighted by a riveting soundtrack (featuring Van Morisson, The Rolling Stones, R.E.M., and Frank Sinatra among others), and is anchored by a harrowing, all-in performance from Cage who receives great support from then wife Patricia Arquette, Cliff Curtis as a neighborhood pusher, Nestor Serrano as a worn emergency room doctor, and John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore who play Cage's colorful driving partners.
