I watched Bringing Out The Dead last night as I do every few years (originally saw it on the giant screen at Loew's Astor Plaza NYC at 11:00 am and that was quite the experience). Martin Scorsese has been spot-on with what must be hundreds of music cues throughout his career. And this film contains many of his great ones--"Janie Jones", "T. B. Sheets", "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" But I must say that his use of "These Are Days" is his biggest misstep of ALL of the songs he's used. The song kicks in about halfway in the film, after Nicholas Cage offers Patricia Arquette a ride in the ambulance. The tune invokes a sense of a false ending and then is subsequently played for too long, lacking the usual clever subtlety of 99.9% of Scorsese's cue. I get the feeling that Scorsese was in love with the song, as was I, and it was relatively and comparatively a new tune at the time of the film's release. But my giving second thought to all of the great cues--Devo's version of "Satisfaction" in Casino; the Piano Exit from "Layla" in Goodfellas; Elton John's "Daniel" in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore--I can't help but hate this one cue.
Review of Bringing Out the Dead
