SNAKE EYES |
| Unusually, for me, I have put off reviewing this film for an entire week, mainly
because I couldn’t make my mind up about it. I’m not much further forward on my
thinking so I’d better give it a go. I think it’s worth mentioning in passing
though that films which seem brilliant as you exit the cinema are often forgotten the next
day whilst ones that leave you cold grow in stature as time passes. Perhaps we should have
a day after rating followed by a three month later rating and average the two marks. Anyway, Snake Eyes is Brian De Palma’s latest offering in a long line of pyrotechnically brilliant but often emotionally cold films. At various times in my life I have both loved and hated his films. I loved "Carrie" and still consider it to be his best film and more chilling than a dozen Exorcists; I loved "Dressed to Kill" in its day too though I am less fond of it as years pass; others, such as "The Fury", "Body Double" and "Scarface" I still regard with great affection which probably sounds odd if you are in the slightest bit PC (in which case, what are you doing in the Lizard’s Lair anyway?) I think I liked him so much in days of yore because he was one of the few American film makers who really made what I consider to be film i.e. he used the medium, moved the camera, experimented with form, never stood still. Lots of other film makers (far too many) are happy just to let the camera follow the action or fill their films with iconic talking heads who appeal to celebrity-loving airheads but have little appeal to posterity or art. So De Palma is one of the true artists of film-making and what he has to say is always worth seeing. It is the emotional coldness which is sometimes frightening. David Thompson in "A Biographical Dictionary of Film" says "There is a self-conscious cunning in De Palma’s work, ready to control everything except his own cruelty and indifference." Nicholas Cage is the detective of dubious morals and Gary Sinise his apparently upright Navy Commander buddy. When the Secretary of Defence is shot dead at a Boxing match where both cop and commander are on duty the scene is set for a complex plot which unravels who shot whom and why. If you even consider that Nicholas Cage is really a bad guy then you haven’t been paying attention to American movies of the last 60 years. The story is really just a device that De Palma uses as a backdrop to practice his considerable skills. The opening is apparently a single unbroken 20 minute sequence although when interviewed De Palma confesses it is three shots cunningly segued to look like one. Everyone knows about this shot of course and your mind is immediately taken off the story as you follow the swooping of the camera and wait for the first cut. It is dazzling to watch although I didn’t really see the point of a lot of it. That the scenes around the boxing ring and the assassination are filmed this way makes perfect sense although the action as we follow Cage into the Arena would have worked perfectly well without the tracking shot. Straight after this opening sequence we have a series of flashbacks and different POV scenes which enable you to gradually piece the story together and demonstrate that De Palma can do this kind of thing much better than Tarantino can. And then we are into the home straight as Cage has to rescue the girl and do battle with the baddies. De Palma never lets up on the techniques though, using high camera angles, split screen shots and documentary techniques to mention just a few. You leave the cinema feeling that you have received a lesson in all the great cinema techniques of the 20th century and that is what is wrong with the film. "Snake Eyes" is a riveting film which anyone with an interest in cinema cannot fail to enjoy but it is ultimately let down by a story which can’t quite match the on-screen pyrotechnics. When De Palm next gets a killer script, like the one he had for Carrie, then perhaps he will make another perfect film. He needs some balancing influence which will put his amazing talent to work and it is this lack of emotional and editorial control that I think leads Thompson to conclude "He is the epitome of mindless style and excitement swamping taste or character." The judgement is too harsh. Whatever his faults, De Palma is still one of the most exciting and worthwhile directors we have working today. So this is why I waited a week before writing the review and the process of writing has clarified what the rating should be. If we go on the arc of the film then this is a 4 star movie. But if we go on "Snake Eyes" as film and compared to the work of many of the other donkeys of the modern cinema it is a 5 star movie. Depends on your POV. Almost brilliant film from ever-watchable De Palma. Lizard’s Rating ***** PS Warrior Mouse says it's a crap film, has an uninspired plot and that the Lizard can't even make up his own mind and has to quote from books and anyway he's getting more pretentious by the day. |