The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Good concept, poorly executed.

An Exercise In Nonsense

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I made the big mistake of watching the black and white original 1962 movie, starring Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey and Angela Lansbury not long before watching this latter-day remake. That John Frankenheimer - directed film is comfortably in my top 10 all-time movies, while it's fair to say that this Jonathon Demme version isn't.I allowed all the licence I could to the new film while watching it, from the awkward way they got the original title, so naturally important and relevant to the original, into the plot here, to the other changes in the narrative and roles of the main players, but the fact of the matter is that this feature has nothing like the original's sense of pace, drama, suspense or excitement. Even the scene-setting first shot, of Denzel Washington's Captain Ben Marco's character's troop of carousing young Desert Storm soldiers takes an age to move on to a shot of Liev Schreiber's Raymond Shaw sitting apart from them, both shots however hardly demonstrating the former's disdain or loathing for him or his alienation from them. The effect of this is to undermine their later pre-ordained litany of admiration for him after he's awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honour for his miraculously rescuing them (or did he?) when they're all ambushed.It doesn't improve from there. For me the most memorable scene from the earlier movie was the masterly way the brainwashing scene and its attendant slaughters of the innocents was chillingly but imaginatively realised. Here it's done in a much more confusing and slapdash way, incorporating images of the faces of tribal females for reasons I couldn't decipher. Shaw's romance with Jocelyn Jordan is played down so much that it significantly reduces the impact of her and her father's later demises, again unlike the shocking double-sequence in the original.Listen, I could go on and on, detrimentally comparing and contrasting the new against the old, but even if the later film had appeared as an original work, I'd still have struggled to work up enthusiasm for it. The casting here is uninspired too, Washington appears suitably confused throughout, Meryl Streep phones in her trademark unsurprising "Iron Lady" performance, the casting obviously forgetting about the devastating impact of Angela Lansbury's casting against type previously, while Schreiber seems content to just copy Lawrence Harvey's playing as if he's over-studied the part.The climax at the party convention, like so many others in this film, was so played out it lost any prospect of achieving a nail biting finish. One of the binding factors in the earlier movie was its topicality, especially as the Kennedy assassination followed so soon after its release, whereas here the events played out seem too fantastic and contrived to in any way convince the viewer that something like this could have happened now.Really, this is a very poor remake of a very good film and I urge anyone who watched this movie, whether they liked it or not to look out that original. I promise you that you won't be disappointed.

I am a huge fan of the original film, and when I first saw the remake I disliked it. It is impossible for me to go back to my thoughts at the time, because now I believe that if anything the Jonathan Demme version is better. But it does not have to be better to be superb. Denzel Washington gives the performance of a lifetime (except of course he has given many performances of a lifetime) as a lonely Gulf War veteran suffering from some very troubling dreams. He simply lives the character of a once strong man reduced to a humiliating marginal life, not comprehending how he has come to this point or why. He slowly gets purpose back in his life as he investigates the basis for his dreams. Meryl Streep similarly embodies the role of the senator and mother who uses her son for political advantage. The scene where she persuades her colleagues to support her son as the VP candidate is perfect. Similarly, Liev Schreiber is awesome as Raymond Shaw the son whose values are so different from his mother's, and who is one of the main victims of the Manchurian conspiracy. Two reasons for preferring the remake. First, the performances are overall stronger, or perhaps its just that the characters are more believable. In particular, Denzel Washington and Kimberly Elise outshine Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh. This does not apply to Angela Lansbury of course. Second, the plot of the original has been changed to make it more credible. In the original one puzzle is why Raymond Shaw, the son of a prominent politician, is being used as an assassin. George Axelrod, the original scriptwriter, explained this with some great dialogue, but this question is resolved differently and more sensibly (and more frighteningly) in the remake. Finally, the ending of the remake is much richer. Its hard to say much more but I have found that with each viewing I have come to appreciate the new ending more and more. I love the final lines from the original of course, but the final moments of the remake reflect the fact that Jonathan Demme was perhaps a more human-centred director than John Frankenheimer. Interestingly, the Frankenheimer film that is closest to this Manchurian candidate in tone is perhaps Seconds, and it is clear from that comparison that what Demme does effortlessly comes with effort to Frankenheimer. (Although I would not have suggested Demme for The Train, or French Connection 2 or Grand Prix). The only things I absolutely prefer in the original are the trigger words "why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire" (which are kind of silly but unforgettable and chilling) and the scene between Raymond and his mother Eleanor when she gives him his instructions and justifies her choices.

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.."

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.