Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,262
Written 5/30/99, Revised 7/7/07
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Buy it... only if you noticed the score in the film itself and
appreciated Ryuichi Sakamoto's strikingly classical methodology in
contrast to the film's visual style.
Avoid it... if you expect the score to engage you on album with the
same expansive flair that the film had.
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| Sakamoto |
Snake Eyes: (Ryuichi Sakamoto) If there were ever a
perfectly fine film that was so totally and utterly decimated by its own
atrocious ending, Snake Eyes would be near the top of the list.
Director Brian De Palma's stunning sense of visual style is completely
betrayed by a terrible ending forced upon the film by its budget
restrictions, but that didn't hinder the first ten stunning minutes of
the production. An elaborate assassination at an Atlantic City boxing
match is staged with phenomenal precision, and the investigation into
that killing is handled with outstanding intelligence. But by the time
the hurricane outside the arena plays as a central figure, the film has
disintegrated into one of the most disappointing conclusions in recent
memory. One interesting aspect of De Palma's career has been his
constant switching between composers, both obscure and famous, for his
projects. Following his collaboration with Danny Elfman for Mission:
Impossible, De Palma would turn to Japanese composer Ryuichi
Sakamoto for the score for Snake Eyes. The project would be one
of his most visible films to Americans since he won the Academy Award
for The Last Emperor more than ten years before. His music for
Snake Eyes would be an interesting study, because there are
listeners who both dislike the score because of its inappropriateness
for the film, and others who love it for just the same reason. There is
nothing as strange at times as seeing Nicolas Cage frantically
gesticulating and yelling on screen while Sakamoto's restrained
classical music is playing. This juxtaposition is evident right at the
start, with the lengthy, meandering single shot challenged by its own
choice of musical accompaniment. In some regards, the extremely
conservative approach taken by Sakamoto threatens to make his music
irrelevant when you are dazzled by the visual elements of the film.
Anyone expecting the score to be vibrant in a modern sense will be
disappointed, for Sakamoto provided a striking classical score for
Snake Eyes, one perhaps better suited for a film like
Gattaca than this one. Michael Nyman fans, pay attention.
The title theme for
Snake Eyes will fail to
engage you in the film, but it is definitely a beauty on album. Heard in
suites at the opening and closing of the score section on that album,
the "Snake Eyes" theme is a restrained string piece with the kind of
slow solace that only the prelude to a requiem could demand. The
classically-inclined alternations of string layers will put some
listeners to sleep, though by the end of the longer suite, a dramatic
snare rhythm provides the score's thematic highlight. While the theme
makes some cameos in the remainder of the score, Sakamoto's work jumps
wildly in style from one track to the next. The cues for the Julia
character are most related to the quiet string meanderings of the title
theme. But in "Assassination," "The Hunt" and the monumental climax in
"The Storm," a very stark, dissonant style erupts. To say that there is
an influence by Bernard Herrmann in this music would be an
understatement, especially in the violent performances by the brass
section. The downright vicious brass rendition of the title theme in
"The Storm" would unfortunately be cut down in the film because of
Paramount's problems with the ending. By far the most interesting cue in
the score is "Tyler and Serena," a piece that better merges Sakamoto's
classical talents with his experiments on synthesizer. He takes an
enticing saxophone performance mixed in the distance over the string
section and mutilates its performance to Robert Rodriguez's
Sin
City levels. Here, though, the distortion is extremely intriguing,
especially as it is followed by some Golden Age string romance writing
pushing directly at the film noir buttons. The entire score probably
could have used some more of this innovative approach, for as it stands,
significant portions of it are underdeveloped and boring. The three
mid-section cues from "Kevin Cleans Up" to "Blood on the Medals" offer
dissonant strings without much direction or interesting accompaniment.
The film's end credits sequence uses a very decent Meredith Brooks rock
song, a track that will overshadow the score on album. The final hop-hop
song was never worth inclusion on the album. Ultimately,
Snake
Eyes is a score better heard on album than in the film.
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- Score as Written for Film: **
- Score as Heard on Album: ***
- Overall: **
