Party Like It's 1999 Even With The Phantom Menace: Episode Two

Martin Scorsese released "Bringing Out The Dead" in the fall of 1999, a story about an ambulance driver wrestling with his job, his life and his soul. Nic Cage played the ambulance driver, one of his last dramatic roles before becoming an action caricature. A few years off from his Oscar winning performance in "Leaving Las Vegas", this had an idea, a director and a star that could phone in greatness. It just didn't work as a film. It was slow and not haunting. I remember reading an article at the time about how Scorsese had lost it. Though 1999 wasn't his year, this pivotal moment led to him filming "Gangs of New York", something he had wanted to do for over twenty years. With Robert DeNiro older and in comedies, who would be Scorsese's muse? He found it in Leonardo DiCaprio who at the time hadn't done much film since Cameron's "Titanic." They needed each other. Dicaprio to keep Scorsese's touch intact and Scorsese to transition Dicaprio from boy wonder to manhood taking his films to the next level. In an interview, Dicaprio said he had the chance to do P.T. Anderson's "Boogie Nights" or "Titanic" and given the chance to do it all over, he would've chosen "Boogie Nights." Who knows where his career would’ve gone but hard to bet against P.T. Anderson.