Bringing Out the Dead
for gritty violent content, drug use and language.
Reviewed by: Aaron Westerfield
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Very Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Adults Teens |
| Genre: | Drama Thriller |
| Length: | 1 hr. 1 min. |
| Year of Release: | 1999 |
| USA Release: |
October 22, 1999 |
Death in the Bible
PHYSICAL HEALING—Is it guaranteed in Christ’s atonement?—“…with his stripes we are healed.” Answer
About miracles, with list of biblical miracles
Did God make the world the way it is now? What kind of world would you create? Answer
Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? Answer
What about the issue of suffering? Doesn’t this prove that there is no God and that we are on our own? Answer
Does God feel our pain? Answer
ORIGIN OF BAD—How did bad things come about? Answer
| Featuring | Nicolas Cage, John Goodman, Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames, Mary Beth Hurt |
| Director |
Martin Scorsese |
| Producer | Barbara De Fina, Scott Rudin |
| Distributor |
 Paramount Pictures Corporation, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS |
Nicolas Cage plays EMS paramedic Frank Pierce. It is the early 1990s and New York has not yet undergone its renaissance of recent years. Surrounded by the injured and the dying, Frank is dwelling in an urban night-world, crumbling under the accumulated weight of too many years of saving and losing lives. The film follows Frank over the course of fifty-six hours in his life—two days and three nights on the job—as he reaches the very brink of spiritual collapse and redemption.
“Bringing Out the Dead” is a good movie, with good acting and good choices of actors that played the parts very well. As a paramedic, I can say one might have to be involved in the EMS system to understand some of the black humor, including some of the plot.
As far as a Christian perspective is concerned, there is a lot of swearing, violence and drug use by Cage among others (giving some idea of what some medics do to cope with job-related stress). There are sexual jokes, and one of the paramedics beats a patient (though unrealistic). If you are looking for a movie with a Christian perspective, this is not the one. It does, however, promote friendship (the only positive Christian factor in the movie).
Christians will be interested in one “healing” scene where a paramedic pretends to heal a patient suffering from a drug overdose. While he keeps the attention of onlookers, his partner gives the patient a drug that will bring him out of an overdose. It appears that the medic heals the patient through the power of prayer. While this is certainly possible through Jesus, there are no comments to the medics that God healed the patient; just a congratulations to the medics for doing a good job.
This film is interesting for those involved in emergency medicine. Others, too, may enjoy “Bringing Out the Dead.” All in all, a good movie with good acting! Beware, however, of the gritty violence, drug use and language.
The point of the film is much more important than the realistic street observations, an inner city missionary will encounter this everyday, probably worse. The point of this movie is that salvation cannot be gotten through your own works, and I’d say that the Gospel is given in the movie. Look closely at the biblical imagery. The virgin birth, by a mother Maria, all the horrible “lepers” that only the medics would touch, the sacrifices to help other people live. Look at Vhing Rhame’s character, he is a real person and not so perfect. He has his imperfections. It’s a wonderful movie with a wonderful message.