Drawing from the descent into an underworld-y type place like Goodfellas and the method of cheating a little bit by hiding his cuts as in Rope, Brian De Palma orchestrated one of his most memorable sequences in his overlooked 1998 film Snake Eyes. No stranger to the extended take, which you can find in movies like Carlito’s Way and Obsession among others, De Palma sets up his opening sequence with a news reporter yelling “cut” and her producer telling her she has to get her next shot in one go-round. These directors sure do like to draw attention to how much they’re showing off.
Initially we’re watching through the frame of a camera monitor, until we’re introduced to Nicolas Cage’s cop protagonist, when we’re introduced to multiple monitors, showing a variety of perspectives. We follow him throughout the arena until the climactic moment of this U.S. Defense Secretary fellow getting shot by a sniper. It’s a bold introduction to the narrative but also a practical one. The events become magnified by the lack of cutting, with our attention being paid to the technique, though we’re also a little bit distracted by the meta element of the sequence. This plays with our memory, which is important for when the scene is revisited as the narrative progresses. I get that a lot of people find the whole thing a tad grandiose and everything, but I dig it.
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