The Manchurian Candidate Movie Reviews

The Manchurian Candidate is a psychological thriller based on the famous Richard Condon novel and previously turned into a famous 1962 Frank Sinatra/Angela Lansbury thriller. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington), a career soldier grows suspicious about his experience in Desert Storm after Squad Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), son of the powerful Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), becomes a candidate for Vice President.

His investigations into his nightmares uncover the sinister truth about what happened to the squad one night on the battlefield and how the people now surrounding Raymond are using them both for their own ends in a dangerous plan that could affect the entire world.

Remakes are always a risky proposition; usually because they are remakes of ?classics? that everyone loves and try to cash in on that adoration. They try and recapture a film that is considered nearly flawless and draw crowds in with a new crowd. This, of course, has mixed results from abject failure (?Psycho? and ?The Planet of the Apes? remakes) to success (?Ocean?s Eleven?). Lately the idea of a remake has been to not to literally remake the movie but to recapture its essence, the quality of the film that made it so good. Not so much remaking the same story but retelling the same idea. This has had more success as with ?Texas Chainsaw Massacre? and ?The Italian Job?, ?The Manchurian Candidate? falls in line with these last two in terms of how the remake is handled.

The 1962 original was a masterpiece and often considered the paragon of the psychological-suspense thriller genre, and it is without a doubt a wonderful film. With strong performances and a pointed, political message about the lust for power, it has only a few minor flaws (the conspiracy draws a slightly long bow and the fact that there is no guarantee that a queen of diamonds would be found in a game of solitaire).

This remake keeps the essentials: a unit of American soldiers go missing in combat, turn up a while later, minus two, thanks to the heroic effort of Sgt. Raymond Shaw, whom the whole unit agree is ?is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.? Shaw ends up running for vice-president (rather than being the step-son of the vice-president candidate), tries to salvage a relationship with an opposing senator?s daughter, is under the watchful eye of his mother, and is regarded with suspicion by Marco as well as the rest of the unit.

In areas the plot holds together better, mainly in the conspiracy the whole idea of a Soviet in the White House was far fetched and the ?alliance? was a little nonsensical, now by making it a global corporation, instead of Chinese Communists, is far more believable particularly in these days of cash and carry government. However by isolating Marco and making him a rogue soldier investigating his suspicions without the army, in the original he?s part of Army Intelligence, it?s unlikely that he?d get as far as he could. Also by adjusting the conspiracy, it removes a lot of the power and sacrifice from the climax, there is simply no comparison between the older version?s harder finish.

The performances all show a lot of heart. Washington allows the script to convey the message and there is none of the grandstanding that he has in ?The Siege?, he turns in a quiet, emotionally damaged performance that shows that as far as the silver screen is concerned less truly is more. Streep does chew the scenery a little, but in fairness it is a delicious performance and she grounds it with conviction. Schreiber gives a heart-breaking performance as Raymond Shaw, masterfully going between a broken man and a brainwashed agent. The last scene between him and Washington is fantastically done:

Raymond Shaw: Are we friends, Ben? I want to believe that we were friends.

Ben Marco: We are connected, and that's something no one can take from us. You could have had me locked up, but you didn't. That's proof there's something deep down inside you that they can't touch, deep down inside us. And that's where the truth is.

It takes a long time to get moving however, and for newcomers the first half will be hard going with the occasionally creepy and surreal moment (the cupboard full of one brand of instant noodles for instance). There?s still suspense it?s just that the audience doesn?t really know where it?s coming from, it?s just there. That works in its favour if the audience is patient enough.

The only other thing likely to put people off is the partisan nature of the politics. While the party that Shaw belongs to is unnamed there is no doubt that he is a Republican, and the Republicans in this movie are hardly the nicest of people. Between the power games, Eleanor Shaw, cash and carry government and willingness to sacrifice the little people, this film doesn?t pull punches against the conservatives. This has drawn it a lot of criticism? However this criticism pushes an absurd notion that movies should not have any sort of political or social message and relevance (similar to that idea of ?That Hollywood Left should shut up, they?re only actors what would they know??) If you can stomach a little political/ social commentary in your movies, i.e. if you can see a film for adults, then this shouldn?t be a bother.

For me the biggest drawback of this remake is that it lacks the humanity of the first movie. While pointed there was still decency in characters and actions were done because they were right and are now marginalised in this new version. Shaw gains humanity not through his ?government for everyone? policies but through his relationship with Jocelyn.

Senator Jordan?s behaviour is dictated not by power-broking but doing what?s best. Marco?s relationship with Rosie, a woman on the train, is nothing more than a relationship? In this new version it?s given an agenda. It makes the film incredibly depressing especially considering this is Demme making a comment about how soulless society has become.

Overall it?s a smart, sophisticated psychological thriller that utilises the core of a great story, amazing performances and clever directing to make one of the better films of this year. Still, see the original.

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American army jeep rumbles through the burning oil fields of Iraq on that tense night of 1991.

Inside are Captain Ben Marco & his patrol, including Sergeant Raymond Shaw.

All of a sudden the journey is disrupted by enemy presence. Ambushed by Iraqi soldiers, the patrol is helplessly outnumbered. Captain Marco gets hit and falls unconscious. As his vision gradually fades, he sees Sergeant Shaw retaliating with heavy gun-fire. Spitting the enemy with all that he got......

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The Manchurian Candidate

by the director of The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme

starring

Academy award winning actor Denzel Washington as Ben Marco

Academy award winning actress Meryl Streep as Eleanor Shaw

and Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw

=======================================================

The American in the white coat hands him the revolver. And orders him to do it.

Now its the chance for Raymond. He's ordered to strangle another fellow soldier to death. Raymond quietly obeys.

The nightmare keeps haunting Army Major Ben Marco. Its 2003 but the old visions keep reminding Marco of an uncertain incident 10 years ago. Was it just a dream?

The experts assure him that he's just another victim of the Gulf war syndrome, a common disturbance among Gulf war veterans. His superiors remind him to continue having the prescribed medications.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Washington.

Vice-Presidential candidate Raymond Prentiss Shaw. The popular Congressman & national hero to the public. The brave Gulf war vet awarded the Medal of Honor - for saving the lives of his senior Marco & the others in the missing patrol, barring two of them who were tragically killed by the enemy.

Backed by his mother the powerful Senator Eleanor Shaw, Raymond is all set to sweep the coming elections along with Presidential candidate Robert Arthur.

For Marco, ugly bubbles keep surfacing in his mind.

By chance, he meets upon a depressed Gulf war vet, Al Melvin. A soldier from the missing patrol, Melvin confides to Marco similar dreams that he had.

Now here is someone else who too is a victim of the same hideous dreams. Its time to get help.

On the way to seek answers from underground researcher Richard Delp, Marco is befriended by a grocery clerk Rosie. The friendly Rosie even invites Marco to stay in her cousin's apartment.

Apart from his dreams, there's also something else that keeps bothering Marco. A small lump in his back shoulder which he decides to investigate further. Operating on the lump, his pocket knife comes in contact with......a tiny implant.

Richard informs Marco that the implant is used as an aid to hypnotise a person.

Stunned Marco keeps falling onto further spilled beans.

Doubtful of Rosie, he secretly searches her bag. Out comes cassettes and files with his name on it.

Studying them, Marco hits pay dirt.

About the giant defence contracting company, Manchurian Global. This octopus wants to secure more defence deals by spreading its tentacles to many nations. For that, it needs the help of very generous politicians. What can it do? Simple. Stage an 'ambush' amidst the Gulf war. And hire a mad scientist to hypnotise the kidnapped soldiers in killing two of their own comrades. And brainwash the rest from knowing the truth. The world will only know that an American patrol went missing for a few days during the war, 'captured' by 'Iraqis'. But finally came back alive minus two of them saved by the brave soldier, Raymond Shaw.

Marco's fears finally got confirmed.

This was a ploy to get Shaw elected.

And wouldn't business be easy for Manchurian if there's a puppet in the White House to sign the necessary papers?

But why choose Shaw?

Marco did not have to look far.

The ambitious Senator Eleanor Shaw is only too happy to shake hands with Manchurian. So that she can gift the highest chair in the States to her only son.

Which would only mean one more thing. That Presidential elect Robert Arthur is in grave danger.

Marco also discovers that Rosie is one among a shadow unit assigned by Manchurian to keep track of what he does. So that he does not become a liability in the end.

Marco loses no time.

Shares the situation to Raymond's arch political rival Senator Thomas Jordan. Urging him to expose this deeply troubling scam before its too late.

And is Raymond too implanted? Marco must warn his close buddy too.

Little does Marco know that Raymond, Jordan and Eleanor are already within the smelling range of Death...

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Denzel as Marco breathes life into this movie.

He easily slips into the garb of a man helplessly handcuffed by evil technology yet risking everything he got to unearth the truth.

But I can't help wonder that this role could have been done by anyone else too. Why Denzel? The role didnt match up to the actor that Denzel is.

And Meryl Streep. Yes she scores too. But the talented actress has been wasted in another insignificant role. She deserved better.

Liev Schreiber is convincing. No less thanks to the formidable role he got.

Our hearts go out to him in the end.

Here you have it. A suspense thriller.

A movie showing the touching friendship of 2 courageous Gulf war vets. Trying to rescue themselves from human greed intend on submerging them into a sea of bad science for the sake of money and power.

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