Bringing Out the Dead

A nervous breakdown is a far to common occurrence from a stressful job, it is a terrifying thing to be apart of, whether it's happening to you or you're the witness to the incident. Martin Scorsese gives us a wonderful adaptation of Joe Connelly's memoir about a third shift paramedic in New York City. Nicolas Cage plays Frank Pierce the main character on this insane trip into the nightlife of a paramedic, with John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore along for the ride.
Stumbling through three sleepless third shift nights, Paramedic Frank Pierce must battle to keep from falling into the abyss of a nervous breakdown while working with unsympathetic workmates and hallucinations that dog his every step. With the haunting hallucinations of ghosts, from Frank's past, looming around every corner, the film is given a creepy feeling that just seems to be turned up a notch every few minutes. The hallucinations popping in and out of scenes draws the audience into the breakdown as its happening and leaves the viewer wondering if Frank is going to make it or if he's going to give into the breakdown. The truly surprising performance in this film is from Marc Anthony who plays a crazy street wanderer, who without coming right out and saying it shows Frank what his life could be like if he doesn't hold on to reality.
Seeing the downfall of a civil servant is distressing, but to see him fall and beat himself up along the way is more disheartening than anything else. Having Frank haunted by one of his early loses of life enhances the stress factor for the character and you eventually start to feel the exhaustion that he's going through. Scorsese' style of filmmaking is so powerful here that its hard to believe that this film wasn't as successful as his other films. I was amazed at how good this film was it's very different from the usual movies that we see from Scorsese but it's by far not a movie to be over looked.