Bringing Out the Dead

Martin Scorcese's heroes have always been some of kind of Christs:"Taxi driver" is the most prominent example,but the boxer in "raging bull" is another one.It was downright embarrassing he totally missed the point when he made his "last temptation"

Nicholas Cage is another modern Christ (check the poster),and the last picture leaves no doubt about it when he and Patricia Arquette look like a pieta.More a chronicle than a real story,this is a two-hour wandering through the deepest worlds of human despair.the hero experiments helplessness,culpability and remorse.His "victims" ,so to speak,come back to haunt him and he's gradually slipping into madness.It's hard to be a saint in the city .

As always in Scorcese's movies ,the soundtrack is particularly good ,including REM's "what' s the frequency Kenneth?" and 10,000 Maniacs'"these are days"(from an album called "our time in eden"!).The cinematography is often dazzling when the ambulance goes thru the neons at night.Nevertheless,if you're feeling down-in-the-mouth,avoid.