The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)
by Jonathan Demme
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anthony Mackie, Dorian Missick, Jeffrey Wright, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Pablo SchreiberDirector: Jonathan Demme
Brand: Paramount
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: How Much Do People Control a Democracy?
Summary: 4 Stars
Jonathan Demme's version of "The Manchurian Candidate" was a favorite film of mine that recently came to my DVD collection as the result of a great price. Demme won the Oscar for directing "Silence of the Lambs" in 1991. I enjoyed watching the DVD extra interviews with him, only wondering why he didn't use a razor. :)
There is no doubt that with two Oscars for "Kramer vs. Kramer" in 1979, "Sophie's Choice" in 1982 & numerous other nominations, Meryl Streep is one of the most acclaimed actresses of our time. However, it was this film for which she was nominated by the British Academy Awards & the Golden Globes that really made me a Streep fan. To watch her glide through Eleanor Shaw with elegance, polish and the cold-blooded instincts for political survival was incredible. The scene where she's wearing purple sunglasses and swirls around lecturing the other Manchurian Global bigshots was breathtaking.
Liev Schreiber who I recently enjoyed in The Painted Veil does an excellent job as Congressman Raymond Shaw. Schreiber has been nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a TV movie or miniseries for "RKO 281." As Shaw, he does a masterful job of playing the polished politician with perhaps too strong ties to his mother's apron strings.
That said, Denzel Washington turns in another blockbuster performance as Maj. Bennett Marco. Washington has two Oscars for "Glory" in 1989 & "Training Day" in 2001. The levels he achieves -- from the stable military commander to the unstable programmed assassin to a confused man trying to figure out a puzzle -- result in a varied & excellent performance. Demme particularly complimented Washington on the scene where Marco tells Shaw that there is a strong bond between the two of them.
Jon Voight who won his Best Actor Oscar for "Coming Home" in 1978 as a stressed out veteran does a good job here as Sen. Thomas Jordan who gets squeezed out of a vice presidential nomination. Vera Farmiga who I'm enjoying in the DVD Never Forever and who played in "The Departed" performs well in the cameo appearance as Jocelyn Jordan, the daughter of Sen. Shaw and the past romantic interest of Raymond Shaw. Her demise is as strangely beautiful as it is violent. Kimberly Elise who was in "The Great Debators" plays Rosie with depth, the F.B.I. agent who becomes sympathetic to Washington's Bennett Marco. Jeffrey Wright who has recently played in "Casino Royale" as well as the new James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" does a masterful job as the unstable Al Melvin who is haunted by his dreams, writes them down in a journal and scribbles disturbing drawings on the wall of his flat.
Demme keeps the pace moving, the intrigue breathtaking up to the final shots in the film. This was a great picture whose performances make it worth viewing. I also found the issues of just how much control the people actually have in a democracy when those elected constantly try to control the outcome to be relevant to present day. Enjoy!
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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