Bringing Out the Dead

There’s such a natural set of connections between Scorsese’s late-90s Bringing Out the Dead, set in the early 90s, and Taxi Driver that it feels like a spiritual sequel. Written by Paul Schrader, set in New York City at night with a main character who drives people around in a dirty, run down environment, Bringing Out the Dead is ultimately the more hopeful variation on the story that made Schrader and Scorsese famous in the 70s.

Nicholas Cage already had a well-worn reputation as an acto...