Here's Father Geek with his rundown on SNAKE EYES. Dad has been a De Palma fan for eons. He introduced me to each film, he hung the Phantom of the Paradise poster on my ceiling when I was a dwarfling. The conspiracy/assassination/betrayl genre is one of Dad's faves as you can tell from reading below, but it's time for me to step aside and let Father Geek take over...
Caught "Snake Eyes" last night, no not the bad craps roll, but rather a pretty good entry to the "Assassination" film genre. This one is directed by Brian DePalma with Nick Cage as the amoral cop who must make some hard decisions concerning his life's direction. If you've seen the trailer then you know the setup. There's a boxing match, an assassination, the place is locked down, and the search for the killer or killers begins. Pretty standard fair, but DePalma & Cage raise it well above the normal cat & mouse that you have come to expect. Like some of DePalma's other work this one has a little Hitchcock in it, but it's not "Torn Curtain", "Topaz", or "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Those were/are more spy-thriller-assassination flicks, this one is not about spys.
It differs too from those other sporting event-terrorist-assassination movies like 1977's "Black Sunday" by John Frankenheimer, or "Two Minute Warning", the cookie cutter opus with Heston & Cassavettes that came out the year before. Much of those films was spent outside of the event venue, not so with "Snake Eyes". For the great majority of this one we are locked in the arena with everyone else. In that regard, it's like that Van Damme farce of a couple of years ago. What was that? Oh yeah, "Sudden Death", I'd wiped it from my mind. Never fear, that is not "Snake Eyes"! This film has writing, directing, and acting. It reminds me more of the murky elements of friendship & betrayal examined in that excellent Peckinpah assassination film from 1975, "The Killer Elite". Then it's not really like that one either.
Maybe I should go over what "Snake Eyes" is not briefly. It's an assassination genre flick that is for sure. However, it is not like; "La Femme Nikita", "Parallax View", "Red Scorpion", "Brass Target", or "Day of the Dolphin", and while I liked it and had fun it is certainly no match for 1969's highly acclaimed "Z" by Constantin Costa-Gavras. That film won 2 Oscars and was nominated for 2 more. It copped the Edgar Allan Poe Award for screenwriting and the Nat. Soc. of Film Critics Best Picture prize as well as awards at Cannes, at the British Acad. Awards, and the N.Y.Film Critics Best Picture & Best Director laurels. No, "Snake Eyes" is not like any of those, they all deal with the planning stage, the plotting, and the chases. There are no cars, motorcycles, or airplanes in this action movie, no explosions either. Just twists, turns, and good dialogue.
Well, Father Geek what else does it have? You know, it has elements of lots of the best assassination films. Things that remind me of parts of 1954's outstanding "Suddenly" like the way Sterling Hayden and Sinatra play off each other. The same holds true for the relationship between Eastwood and his prey in "In the Line of Fire". An almost friendly rivalry, a bonding of sorts, a brotherhood that exists between the good & the bad, the hunter & the hunted, and just when you've got it all figured out, well, DePalma mixes it all up again. Sort of like parts of that greatest of assassination motion pictures, John Frankenheimer's 1962 masterpiece "The Manchurian Candidate". Now notice I said "parts of" in refering to the above 3 films, I am not saying "Snake Eyes" is their equal, just that elements are simular, and isn't that what makes for enjoyable entertainment, taking various good parts changing them up, mixing them around and coming up with a new novel look and feel for a film. Like an old friend that's changed and become more interesting. Go see "Snake Eyes" I think you'll enjoy the familar yet different trip Cage and DePlama have planed for you.
Keep It Cool,
Father Geek
