Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

What better movie to start the week off than an underappreciated gem from the writing-directing duo of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ?

Bringing Out The Dead follows a paramedic, Frank Pierce, as he weaves through the streets of an early morning New York City.

He's trying his best to save whoever he can as he battles his severe depression, insomnia, burnout, and a deep sense of failure. And did I mention he hasn’t saved anybody in months?

Frank knows that no matter how many people he brings to the hospital, will always have to go back out for more. He will never make a dent and he knows this.

Scorsese and Schrader wanted to highlight death itself. Not in a grisly, gratuitous way, but in a way that actually examines the impact it has on the people who are left behind.

We all know Cage can make some baffling acting choices.

In any other movie, his actions here would come across as strange and out of place.

In this scene, however, they fit perfectly within the context of the film and Frank’s emotional journey through the depths of his own mind.

As research, Cage accompanied paramedics on the job, an experience he called “terrifying and depressing”.

On top of that, the movie was shot mostly at night and Cage would fly home to LA on the weekends to see his son, then fly back to New York by Monday.

So, as you watch him, remember that he’s not just acting crazed and exhausted, he’s actually exhausted and is still able to act to perfection.

Frank is suffering from intense insomnia and over work, and this is reflected perfectly in the look of the film.

The streets are slick with rain and light. The image is just a bit overexposed. The whites are deathly pale, the colors are hazy and dulled, and the shadows are deep.

Scorsese and his cinematographer, Robert Richardson, used a method called skip-bleaching to create this effect.

To develop a color film reel, it's first washed in a solution that reacts with the silver and dye contained within the reel. This creates a color negative and a silver residue.

Usually, the next step is to add bleach to the film which reacts with the residue to make a substance called silver halide. The bleach is then washed away, taking with it the silver halide and leaving the color reel.

However, Scorsese and Richardson chose to leave the bleach step out. This means the silver is still in the film negative, resulting in a lower color saturation and a higher contrast.

Basically, you get a black and white and color photo blended together!

Guess Tomorrow’s Film