The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

So much average

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in blandness. The performances are great, but they spend so much time uncomfortably staring directly through the screen and into my soul that I can't ignore the overtly broad and ridiculously conspiratorial dialogue. I really should've watched the original first.

On the look out for a cerebral thriller, I came across this ten year old re-heat of the 1962 Frankenheimer film. Jonathan Demme is someone who you want to believe is a genius (Silence of the Lambs). Unfortunately watching this you can't help but feel that the screenplay for the afore mentioned must have laid things on a plate for him. Whilst there are some of his trademarks, notably the trade mark tight to camera eye-lines...there's nothing really here about the filmmaking that indicates any form of expression beyond just doing it by the numbers. Yes, there are a few tiny skin crawly moments (the tattoo face lady montage) where you think things might just get a bit Jacob's Ladder on you but the film never really hits any frights, down mostly due to its slavishly naturalistic aesthetic choices which is surprising given Demme was collaborating with very hot (at the time) DP Tak Fujimoto who shot dark classics including The Sixth Sense. Denzel is watchable as always and that's something worth the 5 dollars. It's probably also the best Liev Shrieber has been, perfectly cast as a golden boy political hopeful. Another example of "if it ain't broke.."

I guess in a new age of hysteria and paranoia where people believe that terrorists could be hiding next door, or plotting the next attack on American soil, that a remake of this movie needed to come out. However the problem is that the premise of this movie changes somewhat from the communist conspiracy that planned on placing a hypnotised vice president into the White House to control at will to a shadowy equity fund doing the same thing, but also setting up a presidential assassination on election night to drive the American people into such fear that they would pretty much give up all of their freedom for security.This seems to be one of those things with the American society, the conflict between freedom and security – we want to be secure from our enemies but we do not want to give up our freedoms to gain that security. Obviously there is also that argument that if you are not doing anything wrong then there is nothing to worry about, and that is all well and good until you suddenly discover that the things that you do have suddenly been made illegal, or you are arrested on trumped up charges.This film, like the book, is about fear, paranoia, and control. It is interesting that they never actually say which political party the candidate represents, and there is no actual mention of the War on Terror, or the War in Iraq, but I guess it is a warning as to how things can move. Granted America has enemies – everybody has enemies – it is a natural part of life, but the question comes down to how does one respond to those enemies, and is one doing things that is creating more of those enemies.Some have suggested that this film is just some paranoid left-wing conspiracy, but to be honest with you, I have seen some videos produced by some conspiracy theorists on the far right that are just as out there as this film. I consider myself somewhat left leaning (though not extreme as some are, though I suspect compared to the average American I probably am quite extreme) but generally ignore theories such as the American Government blew up the twin towers to start the war on terror, though I have watched some of those documentaries and it is scary the amount of research that they seem to put into them, and they are quite convincing. However, most of these videos usually come down to one argument, and that the American nationalism, which is not left wing, but right wing to the extreme.

The Manchurian Candidate is a thriller film based on the novel of the same title by Richard Condon.It The film stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier; Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate; Jon Voight as Tom Jordan, a U.S. Senator and challenger for vice president and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, also a senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw.Miguel Ferrer, Ted Levine, and Dean Stockwell play key supporting roles.It was directed by Jonathan Demme.Major Bennett Marco and Sergeant Raymond Shaw are two soldiers who served in the same company during Operation Desert Storm, but their paths following their tours of duty have been very different. Shaw, the son of powerful congresswoman Eleanor Shaw, has used his reputation as a war hero to quickly scale the ladder of American politics, and with the help of his mother earns the Vice Presidential nomination. Marco, on the other hand, has been troubled with mental illness, and is convinced that something strange happened to him and his compatriots during the war. As Marco struggles to find the truth behind his nightmares and emotional torment, he unearths some disturbing facts about how his mind and body have been reworked by shadowy forces, as well as those of his fellow soldiers that includes Shaw.While it is not the classic its predecessor is, this remake is well- acted and conjures a chilling resonance.This humorless and nonsensical version is never quite engages, devolving the original's camp and satire into self-serious melodrama and it never approaches that level of intensity, intelligence, or audacity unlike the original.But nevertheless,it remains watchable due to great performances of the talented cast.