Swagger and Soul: Analyzing the Music from Ocean's 11

Saul is the oldest con man and the closest the group has to touching that infallible era of the Rat Pack. The other characters for the most part are portrayed by Holmes’ drum ‘n bass riffs, most drastically being Linus, who is introduced immediately after Saul, providing nice contrast. His Big Band arrogance translates over to the group, but his age and health occasionally comes up in the dialogue as being a problem. “Daniel, if you say that to me again, you will not wake up the following morning,” he says after Danny asks if he’s up for it. In the second scene with this music, Saul is shown getting ready to leave for his part of the mission, but he falters and sits on the bed looking rather unhealthy. This is in effect is supposed to make the viewers doubt in him and add a level of suspense as to whether or not the heist will be successful. Unfortunately for the director, the theme comes back again (1:06:10) and erases all doubt in Saul. We’re trusting of any man who can strut around with this song on his back. To us, Saul is the closest we can get to the actual Rat Pack while the other characters still have to earn our trust. Saul’s got swagger.

Transformations, Musical and Otherwise

Essentially these actors and this music had to achieve a transformation of character. Coming from whatever predispositions of distinguishing traits, the music and the personalities had to bridge the 40-year gap between the Rat Pack and the year 2001 and create a convincing modernization of the original film. As a remake, it must say something new, yet to ignore the original is a flawed way of thinking. The audience seeing this particular film is aware of the original film, regardless of whether or not they’ve seen it. The stigma attached to this particular film is that it is essentially a gangster movie shot in Las Vegas, and that the only difference between this one and all of the other iconic films shot in Las Vegas is that this one was happening in 2001. Soderbergh recognized this and knew that his characters had to undertake the task of becoming the Rat Pack.

Musically speaking the task was identical. Holmes had to portray Sinatra Cool in a language that wasn’t dated. To do this, he had to assign personalities to the themes, such as Saul’s big band sound and Danny’s drum ‘n bass vamping. While the source music did the hard work in this transformation, mainly setting the stage for nostalgia, Holmes’ score successfully incorporates the instrumentation of the era and a feeling of Sinatra Cool. As the heist ends, timeless Claire de Lune plays in the full string orchestra as we see each of their faces one by one. Flash now meets class and sophistication and the Rat Pack lives on.