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Anyone familiar with Danna's career knows that he has travelled the world learning about the music and instruments of many cultures. As a result, he is quite adept at the interpolation of African and East Indian instruments into the setting of a Western Orchestra. In Eight Millimeter, the world of the underground snuff producers is scored with boisterous and occasionally overwhelming sequences of a native Arabic and North African instrumentation. Not only will the strange atmosphere be tough on the ears of many conservative score collectors, but it doesn't make sense in the context of the film. By associating the white criminals in the film (and their industry) with an extremely heavy Moroccan influence, Danna risks drawing the conclusion that Moroccans are savage barbarians who would kill a person in sex film. So awkward is the Moroccan music in the film that it just begs such questions. Beginning in "Missing Persons" and reaching erotic, super cool bass rhythms in "Loft" (an almost Hans Zimmer style of overbearing simplicity), these sequences can't be explained away as easily as the East Indian music for a Toronto night club in Exotica, which could at least have some indirect connections to the Kuma Sutra. The "Hollywood" cue alone stands out in the film as completely inappropriate. The music itself is actually a fascinating study, albeit unlistenable in parts, and it's easy to get the impression that most film score collectors would simply use this score to irritate co-workers, roommates, or elderly neighbors. To his credit, Danna continuously strains the Moroccan rhythms as Cage, who plays a family man, travels deeper into the land of these sexual atrocities. The shrieking dissonance of "Rainstorm" is the culmination of these efforts, merging the orchestra with the native vocals and percussion in a completely intolerable crescendo of noise. As the film states, there are things that one cannot "unsee." Unfortunately there music that can't be unheard, either.

If you can, for some reason, throw aside the questionable and highly draining Moroccan sequences of Eight Millimeter, there are portions of Danna's score that offer a sliver of hope. The score opens and closes with style, providing a conservatively appealing theme performed, as usual for Danna, on piano. The opening five and final two cues feature subdued, but attractive underscore along the same morbid lines as Ice Storm, but with a more varied orchestral approach. Danna uses various electronic acoustics to ominously foreshadow the coming investigation, including an interesting effect at the very start that simulates the turning of a film reel that is whipping around after reaching its end. The level of restraint in these cues very effectively mirrors the level to which Cage's character is in control of himself in the story. The sympathetic portions of the score, including the quick theme for "Cindy" (during the fifth track on album) and the partial relief of the final two tracks, are the true gems of this score. Danna's piano solos, sometimes accompanied by flutes, are more readily accessible than many of his other themes. Therein lies yet another incongruous element of this score; these appealing cues occupy only a fraction of the score. Overall, you still cannot doubt Danna's talent for creating an alternate and foreign sound for a disturbingly creepy environment. The harsh and loud Moroccan music that dominates Eight Millimeter, though, is almost so overblown that it comes across as "tongue in cheek," something that Danna likely did not have in mind. He manages to effectively convey the dark and sinister side of the film, however, making the album a possible item for search; be aware that while Silva Screen released the album in Europe, the Compass III label distributed it in America, and with the demise of that label not long after, Eight Millimeter will be difficult to find. It's more of a novelty item than a listenable product.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Mychael Danna reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.25 (in 16 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.06 (in 5,347 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 50:08