Dude, we have a Directors’ cup match going on Right Now with Bringing Out the Dead, out read those comments and make a vote, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for this thread.
I’ve never heard of a Director’s Cup Match before. Well I guess if I knew there was such a thing, I wouldn’t have bothered haha. Well now that this forum is up anyway, does anybody want to contribute?
Have you bothered to actually look at any other threads on the Forum? Did you not see the Tab above the threads that says Directors’ Cup? Have you taken a few minutes to see what others have started up?
I think it is great you have an interest in film, but so do many, many other people and they have started some great threads. Maybe be a part of the community and maybe not try to bring the community to you. And that probably isn’t even your intent, but that is how is it coming off.
There are 300+ pages of threads available that hit on any number of subjects, including I’m sure ones you are interested in.
And you can read people’s thoughts on Bringing Out the Dead here
To answer the question —
BRINGING OUT THE DEAD isn’t one of Scorsese’s strongest, but it is far from being one of his weakest. I much prefer it to the tiresome THE DEPARTED.
I saw BRINGING OUT THE DEAD in a crowded, discount-priced theater. I was sitting in the middle of the row and desperately wanted to leave in the middle of it, but there were large families sitting on either side of me and it was a narrow row and I didn’t want to climb over people with my heavy bag and winter coat. So I stuck it out. It was one of the worst films by a beloved director that I’ve ever seen. And was absolute torture to sit through. I didn’t find a single believable moment in it.
Scorsese’s more recent films—i.e. anything with DiCaprio in it—are pretty horrible also, but I haven’t found myself wanting to bolt the theater during any of them. They were all interesting films, and might actually have been GOOD if DiCaprio hadn’t been anywhere near them. He’s an absolutely terrible actor by any objective standard and I don’t understand why so many otherwise intelligent people give him a pass. I never believe a single moment when he’s onscreen. He’s clearly “acting” every time he steps foot before a camera. And he furrows his brow whenever he’s supposed to show emotion because he thinks that’s what you’re supposed to do. A good actor is supposed to BE the character he’s playing, not “act” it. DiCaprio never ever convinces me and it’s been a source of great anguish to me that Scorsese’s ruined so many potentially good films because of his hard-on for DiCaprio.
Yeah, it’s neither Scorsese’s best nor his worst.
The thing that I love so mug about it is how passionately it was made. And Scorsese puts you so far into Nicholas Cage’s head that you feel his desperation as well. I know that not everyone will connect with him like it did but that’s why I love it so much.
It’s not his best, but at least it fits in nicely with his older films in terms of subject matter.
the new films, however, do not.
Nicole Brenez sees it as response to Ferrara’s use of elements of Taxi Driver and Mean Streets in his ’90s films.
^^Thanks for reminding me about Brenez. i’ll have to order that book soon.
@ ULI CAIN
I really don’t see anything wrong with starting this thread and ignoring the DIRECTOR’S CUP silliness. Maybe he hadn’t seen the other movie you guys were discussing.
Watched the movie once and didn’t like it, mostly because of Patricia Arquette’s annoying performance. Really need to see it again though, as it’s been about ten years.
In my opinion it is one of his weakest sorry Bret…
I liked Bringing Out the Dead. It’s probably the last sincere film Scorsese has directed. Since then we’ve only seen mediocre works masked as great Oscar worthy epics. I surely miss the raw emotion and intensity that made him a great director and Bringing Out the Dead may very well be the last example of that.
Amen, Carlos. I dig his last 4 films (well, not so much “Gangs” and “Aviator”) but “Dead” was his last movie I really connected with.
People seem to want to see it as a revisit to themes and ideas of Taxi Driver, but to me it also has a lot in common with the absurdity of After Hours and the black comedy of The King of Comedy.
^i think it’s both Matt. to me they are all films that are part of the male isolationist trope, After Hours less so however, because it’s not really ‘serious’. King Of Comedy has a serious point to make, even if the film is funny. it’s funny mostly in a sad/pathetic/uncomfortable kind of way.
I like Bringing Out The Dead but i often question whether it needed to be that glossy.
Yeah, it’s going for hallucinatory and hyperreal . . . whether it gets there is up for debate.
Wait, how the hell is “Bringing out the Dead” a response to Ferrera? This I want to hear.
Brenez:
“Another, completely different option would be to pose the problem of evil without passing through the negative, as Scorsese envisaged in Bringing Out the Dead, an amicable, briliiant response to Ferrara’s cinema. It reverseses the frenetic, agonised treatment of madness, crime, and misery in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and After Hours—not to mention Bad Lieutenant, King of New York, and The Addiction—into the realm of compassion, charity, and the problematic of healing.”
Bret Bynum
Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead has had a lot of mixed reviews. Most people that I’ve come across say that it’s one of his weakest movies. While in my opinion, and the opinion of few others, it’s in a list of his top three absolute best. What are people’s thoughts and opinions on this? Is the film weak or strong?