![]() Where the movie differ, though, is crucial in appreciating how far Demme has gone recasting The Manchurian Candidate as a searingly of-the-moment political statement. In both version, the pawn is not a particularly charismatic or likable man, even though his comrades-in-arms continually describe him as “the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.” And yet through the insistence of his mother, who’s eager to use his heroics to further his family’s political legacy, he’s thrust into the Presidential race. Two of the men from his unit were killed in combat, despite Shaw’s courageous actions in the field his dreams suggest, however, that he and Shaw each murdered one of the men under hypnosis (or, in a slight modification here, a high-tech medical implant). But his memories of the events conflict with his dreams, which tell a much different story. Bennett Marco, commander of a unit that’s ambushed and taken hostage. Some of the basics between the two films are the same: Denzel Washington steps into the Sinatra role of Maj. Senator for a mother, nefarious parties see a chance to install “the first privately owned and operated Vice President of the United States.” Once there, they’re merely a rifle blast away from the top. In Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), a Medal of Honor winner with a powerful U.S. (Like, say, Russia.) Of the many tweaks Demme and his screenwriters, Daniel Pyre and Dean Georgaris, made to the original, the most important is changing Manchuria from a region in communist China to an American private equity firm, Manchurian Global, with its hands tucked elbow-deep in Congressional sock puppets. ![]() They also provided a lasting metaphor for any politician who acts as a vessel for someone else’s agenda, especially if that someone else hails from a hostile foreign nation. Working from Richard Condon’s novel about a war hero who returns as the unwitting agent of a communist plot, Frankenheimer and his screenwriter, George Axelrod, flipped a Kennedy-era Red Scare thriller on its head, decrying the paranoia and violence that had consumed American politics. At a time when major studios were plundering the vaults, looking to turn yesterday’s properties into tomorrow’s surefire hits, Demme slipped in like a thief in the night, smuggling a truly radical film under the cover of a Hollywood star vehicle.īoth films are clever acts of subversion. So not only were Demme and company assessing an ongoing conflict - something mainstream films have traditionally never done - they were sharply criticizing a war that had not yet been deemed a fiasco. The Bush administration had done an excellent job ginning up popular support, mostly by fudging a connection between Iraq and the terrorists responsible for 9/11. Consider the audacity of the timing alone: Our nation’s excursion in Iraq had only just started the year before, under the false pretense that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The director took a Cold War freakout about the Korean conflict and the Communist threat, and turned it into Gulf War I story that actually comments on Gulf War II while continuing to tell the tale of American imperialism in the 21st century. Yet Demme’s Manchurian Candidate did what remakes should do, which is to reimagine the same material to much different ends. It was never going to live up to the unimpeachable original, despite the ingenious casting of Meryl Streep as the movie’s Lady MacBeth in a pantsuit.įlashback: Tina Turner Covers Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson on Debut Solo Album It’s better than its reputation - look past Mark Wahlberg’s wet sock of a lead performance and there are eclectic delights galore - but the bad vibes seemed to follow him to which opened late in the summer to respectful reviews and quietly wilted in the August heat. Jonathan Demme had tried to work his elusive magic on another early Sixties treasure, the Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn confection Charade … and wound up with The Truth About Charlie, the biggest critical and commercial disappointment of his career. Majors studios are always looking to plunder the vaults, eager to turn yesterday’s properties into tomorrow’s surefire hits, but John Frankenheimer’s 1962 conspiracy thriller wasn’t Starsky and Hutch or Fat Albert or even The Stepford Wives, to name three other I.P. It never sounded like a good idea to remake The Manchurian Candidate. This week: Scott Tobias on Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. ![]() We’re calling the series “ Revisiting Hours” - consider this Rolling Stone’s unofficial film club. Every Friday, we’re recommending an older movie that’s available to stream or download and worth seeing again through the lens of our current moment.
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