(2020 review) It's a good thing I waited about, oh (checks watch) 22 years to rewatch Snake Eyes - since I saw it as an adolescent opening weekend - as I have a (somewhat) different perspective on the film. It helps that at the time I only knew Brian De Palma from the only other work Id seen from him, Mission: Impossible, and at the time this felt like a pretty natural progression from that blockbuster: both are about shadowy government conspiracies that can fly over the head of someone who is too young to know much better about logic or how things work in the grownup world, and can just appreciate the suspense and A-list actors doing what they do with these roles.
Now, I've seen Blow Out, and indeed practically all of the rest of the director's catalog, not to mention a whole shitload more of Cage, and it's certainly a film by that director as well... Just not quite on that level. Then again, how could it be? That story of a sound man for low budget movies stumbling on a conspiracy via the power of cinematic grammar and the bond that forms and (spoiler) is broken by the end between Travolta and Nancy Allen was astonishing for its marriage of technical craft and emotional resonance, and as an 80s movie that spoke to the disillusionment of the previous two decades. Snake Eyes is taking a cue from that as far as "OmG our government has some really dastardly people out for power grabs with... Defense contracts and missile systems" and so forth, which, fine, but it doesn't seem like the story has that much complexity past it being an Intricate Conspiracy Plot for the sake of De Palma getting to do his thing as a master stylist.
This sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm largely not, insofar as overall enjoyment goes. I liked this more than when I was a more thickheaded young teen, and seeing this filmmaker get to do what he wants on a fairly large canvas, not to mention understanding how much he's not just soaked in Hitchcock Bleach but so many of the concepts and visual cues and motifs of film noir (boxing match gone awry, women in double crossing roles or just not what they seem, double crossing in general, corruption abounding including with our protagonist Atlantic City detective, storytelling from various points of view with multiple narrators), I got a kick out of seeing how he finds a way to filter all these ideas through his own visual language and framework.
So as far as the simple thrill of a superb director pulling off things like that opening (almost) unbroken tracking shot, that one shot panning over the hotel rooms (which holy jellyfish Spielberg totally stole for a similar moment in Minority Report), to the split screen and the POV shots we get when being told the stories of what went down, from fighter to red-headed red-herring (ho ho), it's fun stuff. Where it falters a bit is the emotional resonance part, where it needs to get us to believe that there's this backstory and friendship between Cage and Sinise (Cage and Gugino is different as it's a lot more brief so there doesn't need to be as much there except for what's required suspense-wise).
I didn't buy that they were somehow at some level that the eventual betrayal was so shattering. Maybe, as solid as he is, Sinise is slightly miscast (though probably better than... Will Smith who was considered, too young I think) - I knew something was up with him from the start, even as a dumb young moviegoer in 98, because he seems shady from the jump. Maybe with a slightly nicer-looking guy, like Bill Paxton or someone like that, it could have been a stronger turn when it's revealed how rotten he is. Or, again, I just didn't see how his plan to assassinate a defense secretary needed to even uh... Be, so a main part of the plot doesn't hold water either.
And yet, I still recommend Snake Eyes because it's a thriller that takes chances with how to convey us details and story through how everything is presented (the video surveillance is another key filmmaker touch and one that fits right at home here), and because Cage is having a great time playing an openly sleazy but not BAD guy who realizes how deep he's into some shit, at a time when he was in Full Movie Star mode as a leading man. Last but not least, Carla Gugino, if you'll permit me a moment... Ahhh, what a sexy and very good actor here.
Now, I've seen Blow Out, and indeed practically all of the rest of the director's catalog, not to mention a whole shitload more of Cage, and it's certainly a film by that director as well... Just not quite on that level. Then again, how could it be? That story of a sound man for low budget movies stumbling on a conspiracy via the power of cinematic grammar and the bond that forms and (spoiler) is broken by the end between Travolta and Nancy Allen was astonishing for its marriage of technical craft and emotional resonance, and as an 80s movie that spoke to the disillusionment of the previous two decades. Snake Eyes is taking a cue from that as far as "OmG our government has some really dastardly people out for power grabs with... Defense contracts and missile systems" and so forth, which, fine, but it doesn't seem like the story has that much complexity past it being an Intricate Conspiracy Plot for the sake of De Palma getting to do his thing as a master stylist.
This sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm largely not, insofar as overall enjoyment goes. I liked this more than when I was a more thickheaded young teen, and seeing this filmmaker get to do what he wants on a fairly large canvas, not to mention understanding how much he's not just soaked in Hitchcock Bleach but so many of the concepts and visual cues and motifs of film noir (boxing match gone awry, women in double crossing roles or just not what they seem, double crossing in general, corruption abounding including with our protagonist Atlantic City detective, storytelling from various points of view with multiple narrators), I got a kick out of seeing how he finds a way to filter all these ideas through his own visual language and framework.
So as far as the simple thrill of a superb director pulling off things like that opening (almost) unbroken tracking shot, that one shot panning over the hotel rooms (which holy jellyfish Spielberg totally stole for a similar moment in Minority Report), to the split screen and the POV shots we get when being told the stories of what went down, from fighter to red-headed red-herring (ho ho), it's fun stuff. Where it falters a bit is the emotional resonance part, where it needs to get us to believe that there's this backstory and friendship between Cage and Sinise (Cage and Gugino is different as it's a lot more brief so there doesn't need to be as much there except for what's required suspense-wise).
I didn't buy that they were somehow at some level that the eventual betrayal was so shattering. Maybe, as solid as he is, Sinise is slightly miscast (though probably better than... Will Smith who was considered, too young I think) - I knew something was up with him from the start, even as a dumb young moviegoer in 98, because he seems shady from the jump. Maybe with a slightly nicer-looking guy, like Bill Paxton or someone like that, it could have been a stronger turn when it's revealed how rotten he is. Or, again, I just didn't see how his plan to assassinate a defense secretary needed to even uh... Be, so a main part of the plot doesn't hold water either.
And yet, I still recommend Snake Eyes because it's a thriller that takes chances with how to convey us details and story through how everything is presented (the video surveillance is another key filmmaker touch and one that fits right at home here), and because Cage is having a great time playing an openly sleazy but not BAD guy who realizes how deep he's into some shit, at a time when he was in Full Movie Star mode as a leading man. Last but not least, Carla Gugino, if you'll permit me a moment... Ahhh, what a sexy and very good actor here.