Get Your Reps In: “Bringing Out the Dead” Brings Out Prime Performances by Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames

What to see at Portland’s repertory theaters.

Bringing Out The Dead (1999) (IMBD)
By Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Only a few times in his singular acting career has the movie around Nic Cage gone bigger than Nicster himself.

Bringing Out the Dead, which screens at Cinemagic on Aug. 20 and 21, is a shining, sweating example.

The often-overlooked midperiod Martin Scorsese drama casts Cage as Frank Pierce, an insomniac paramedic who drives the night shift in pre-Giuliani Manhattan.

A soul-deep mix of medical extremity and spiritual reckoning, Bringing Out the Dead lets Cage sink into the bleary mania of a man strung out on his inability to make a difference. He watches, both numb and aching, at a world constantly overdosing and bleeding out around him.

“After a while, I grew to understand that my role was less about saving lives than about bearing witness,” Frank narrates to himself in classic script-by-Paul Schrader fashion. “I was a grief mop.”

It’s a terrifically calibrated performance that allows for Ving Rhames, Scorsese’s probing camera, and a deluge of frantic rock needle-drops to steal the show. Cinemagic, Aug. 20–21.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: Kikujiro (1999), Aug. 16–18. Academy: Twilight (2008), Aug. 16–22. La Haine (1995), Aug. 16–22. Hackers (1995), Aug. 16–22. Cinema 21: The Room (2003), Aug. 16. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Aug. 17. Cinemagic: Jennifer’s Body (2009), Aug. 15. Lethal Weapon (1987), Aug. 15. Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Aug. 16, 17 and 22. Child’s Play (1988), Aug. 16, 17 and 22. Independence Day (1996), Aug. 17, 18 and 20. Hell or High Water (2016), Aug. 18 and 19. Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991), Aug. 19 and 21. Clinton: The Birds (1963), Aug. 17. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Aug. 17. Razorback (1984), Aug. 18. Hollywood: Menace II Society (1993), Aug. 15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Aug. 16. The Shining (1980), Aug. 17 and 18. RRR (2022), Aug. 18. Cruising (1980), Aug. 18. God’s Own Country (2017), Aug. 19. Tomorrow: Queen of the Deuce (2022), Aug. 17. Pulp Fiction (1994), Aug. 17. The NeverEnding Story (1984), Aug. 18.

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