An update of the original 1962 classic, The Manchurian Candidate is director Jonathan
Demme’s (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) take on
political manipulation in the current world of mega corporations and regular terrorist alerts.
Denzel Washington plays U.S. Army Major Ben Marco, leader of a Gulf War unit
that was ambushed and saved through the heroics of second-in-command Raymond Shaw (Liev
Schreiber) – or was it? Marco keeps having vivid dreams about the events that
contradict what he initially remembered, and Marco starts to think that his dreams may be
the real reality. This would mean that Shaw, who has used his hero status to launch a career
in Congress and a vice presidential nomination, isn’t what everyone thinks he is. But
the more Marco tries to uncover what really happened, the more his world starts closing in
around him.
The original Candidate focused on the fear of communism and centered on brainwashing
that took place in the Chinese region of Manchuria; here, “Manchurian” refers
to a Halliburton-like global corporation, and the focus is on manipulating politics for
profits. Demme effectively projects Marco’s feelings of disorientation and dread with
layered sound and odd camera angles, and the plot really keeps you guessing. The acting
is excellent: Washington and Schreiber are dead-on, and Meryl Streep as
Shaw’s manipulative Senator mother almost steals the show. Having never seen the original
Candidate, I can’t compare this update with the original, but the thing from
this film that made the biggest impact on me is that in our post-9/11 world and this current
U.S. election season, Candidate’s content, which four years ago might have
seemed completely far-fetched, suddenly doesn’t seem so unbelievable.
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