This new film (known as just ENTEBBE outside the US) has an effective, low-key score by a Brazilian composer I'm not familiar with named Rodrigo Amarante.
However the musical standout is an existing piece that absolutely MAKES the soundscape of the film.
This piece is used three times in the film (skip past the 42 second intro):
Slight spoilers ahead:
The film opens with a filmed stage performance, very similar to this one. We soon learn the featured dancer who falls on the ground is the girlfriend of a fictional soldier who will be sent on the mission.
Then we see the dance again, halfway through, when the IDF is training for their raid, and the dancers are rehearsing - the music is used to score the sequence, amazingly.
Then, the opening night performance is BRILLIANTLY intercut with the final attack on Entebbe airport. Virtually this ENTIRE piece plays out as score for the sequence, and it's riveting. It's the first sequence in a film in a couple of years that literally had me in tears with the sheer audacity of it. The music elevates the assault on the airport, and the intercutting of the dance and the soldiers attacking the airport is masterful.
It's similar to a sequence Spielberg did in MUNICH, with the intercut sex scene and execution of the hostages at Fürstenfeldbruck airport, but honestly, while most of this film is nowhere near the level of that Spielberg masterpiece, I think this one sequence far exceeds the similar sequence there. It's absolutely worth seeing the film just for this.
That's interesting -- I saw the film yesterday, and thought that the subplot with the dancer girlfriend, and particularly the use of the dance sequence in the finale, nearly ruined the film. After I saw it I checked some reviews on-line to see if any of the critics agreed with me, and the San Francisco Chronicle critic expressed a similar sentiment. The fact that it was reminiscent of the very worst part of Munich (a film I otherwise really like) didn't help.
Honestly, who cares about the dancer girlfriend? I have never seen a more bone-headed mistake in my filmgoing days than intercutting a hostage raid with an obnoxious modern dance sequence (not to mention song). It's like watching Twyla Tharp direct Black Sunday.
Honestly, who cares about the dancer girlfriend? I have never seen a more bone-headed mistake in my filmgoing days than intercutting a hostage raid with an obnoxious modern dance sequence (not to mention song).
It's like watching Twyla Tharp direct Black Sunday.
It's like watching Twyla Tharp direct Black Sunday. I guess it's just me, but that sounds REALLY cool. Black Sunday is one of my favorite films ever, but I would totally pay money to see that version.
