The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)
by Jonathan Demme
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Kimberly Elise, Liev Schreiber, Meryl StreepDirector: Jonathan Demme
Brand: Paramount
Producer: Jonathan Demme
Producer: Ilona Herzberg
Producer: Peter Kohn
Writer: Daniel Pyne
Writer: Dean Georgaris
Writer: George Axelrod
Writer: Richard Condon
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: A Missed Opportunity...
Summary: 3 Stars
1962's "The Manchurian Candidate" was an outstanding classic of an earlier era of movies, crisply shot in black and white and featuring a talented cast and a tightly wound, haunting plot firmly embedded in the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War. 2004's remake also features a talented cast in Denzel Washington, Liev Schrieber, Meryl Streep and Jon Voigt, but misses badly as a movie. Produced for an audience that might only dimly remember the Cold War, the substitute premise of a rogue corporation selling arms fails the plausibility test, while a major change in the plot undercuts the credibility of one of the principal characters.
Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) is a veteran of the Gulf War, suffering from nightmares that seem to present an alternate version of a fire fight in which his life was saved by a Sergeant Raymond Shaw. Shaw, played with disquietingly detached deameanor by Liev Schrieber, is now on a greased path to political stardom, coached by his ambitious and prominent mother, played by Meryl Streep. Marco's attempts to resolve his nightmares lead him to contact Shaw and to suspect that his experience in the Gulf was an illusion. Marco's quest for the truth will lead him into a nasty conspiracy involving brainwashing, with a shocking outcome for Marco and Shaw.
"The Manchurian Candidate" has a good build-up, as Marco relentlessly seeks the truth of his experience in combat. However, the movie loses its way in its closing stages. An effort to be original by introducing changes in the basic story makes for an incoherent and implausible ending. 2004's "The Manchurian Candidate" may well be a perfectly acceptable movie for someone who had never seen the original. For those who saw and appreciated the original, this remake is a missed opportunity, worth a look mostly for the outstanding cast.
Summary of The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)
Serving together in the Persian Gulf War, Captain Bennett Marco and Sgt. Raymond Shaw were part of a platoon of soldiers kidnapped and brainwashed. Ten years later, Shaw gears up for his vice presidential campaign while Marco eventually remembers being kidnapped and discovers Shaw's powerful mother played a big part in that scheme. Determined to reveal the truth behind everything, Marco must first convince Shaw that the brainwashing really happened.The Manchurian Candidate, a classic of paranoid cinema from the 1960s, gets a cunning update, rife with hot-topic references to corporate war profiteering and electronic voting machines. Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, Training Day) has been haunted by nightmares ever since a firefight during the first Gulf War--a battle in which he believes he was saved by the heroism of Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, Kate & Leopold). But Marco's nightmares suggest otherwise and drive him to investigate what happened, which may threaten Shaw's candidacy for vice-president. Meryl Streep plays Shaw's mother, a senior senator who manipulates everyone around her with an iron will and a sharp tongue. The Manchurian Candidate loses steam towards the end, but up until then director Jonathan Demme keeps the movie rolling fluidly, crafting some creepy paranoia of his own while Streep tears into everything in her path. --Bret Fetzer
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