Ahoy, squirts. Quint here with an early review of Jonathan Demme's take on John Frankenheimer's classic MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. I saw Demme talk about this film at the SXSW Film Festival a couple months back and he had a real excitement about it, sure that he had given it a new enough twist so his film and the original could co-exist... He went on and on about Meryl Streep as the mother and how brilliant she is in the film. I want to believe him, but can anyone truly top Angela Lansbury's fuckin' psychotic and creepy turn in the original? Let's just hope that the below reviewer was "treated" to a very early cut and the finished product pulls it together. Now, why don't you pass the time by reading this review and playing a little solitaire?
Hi Harry,
Hope your producing is going well. I am glad that you are finally getting some credit and opportunities in the industry. When I first started visiting AICN, it seemed things for you were very different.
Anyway, I have been going to AICN for a few years now and might finally be able to contribute something. If you use this, please call me Verspartum.
I recently saw 'The Manchurian Candidate' starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep in Philadelphia, PA. I have seen the original film of the same name, so I definitely went in with some expectations. I also really wanted to like the film even throughout the audience's laughter at the ridiculousness of some of it, but I came out very disappointed. If you are short on time go to the last paragraph, otherwise read on first.
This modernized version has the army platoon fighting in Kuwait in 1991. The film justifies the 'Manchurian' in the title by adding that the brainwashing is being funded by a private equity fund called Manchurian something . The film's description of this private equity fund was unusually similar to the actual private equity fund called The Carlyle Group. Anyway, it was not clear why this private equity fund would be funding the brainwashing for the purpose revealed at the end of the film. In this film Shaw's father, formerly a Senator, is dead and his mother has taken the Senatorial seat.
The film was long and the audience got restless half-way through. The film dabbled in all the major points/characters of the original film but did not develop most of them enough. The character development was not thorough or consistent, many of the major points were not convincing, etc. The original story itself can be difficult for modern viewers to believe so together with all these other serious problems caused the film to fall apart.
- The scenes of Ben and his platoon of soldiers was not long enough for you to care about them or their war experiences. The film ends with a picture of them, so it seemed like that was not the intent of film.
- Shaw's love for a rival Senator's daughter was not convincing, as there were no flashback scenes of this and there wasn't enough explanation of what happened either (the manipulation by Shaw's mother in the original film wasn't explained here).
- The woman in the train and Ben's sudden close relationship was not convincing (it got laughter continuously from the audience because it was so unbelievable).
- The incestual sparks between Shaw and his mother were done in such a way and at a time that just caused the audience to laugh at the ridiculousness and seeming irrelevance.
- The tattoo-faced women that are haunting them are not explained.
- Exactly how the brainwashing works was not clear and it wasn't clear when the characters were brainwashed either.
I saw the original film and knew what was going to happen and still was confused by some scenes.
SPOILERS BELOW
The final scene with Ben and the sniper rifle was not satisfying. The brainwashing of Ben wasn't convincing. It was not clear in this film how what was planned, if successful, would almost guarantee Shaw becomes President (Shaw's planned positioning next to the President, and the speech he prepared were essential to the satisfaction of the ending of the original film because you were convinced that he would win the Presidency if the assasination was successful). I remember the end of the final scene in the original film as being somewhat unexpected and very satisfying. The end of this scene in this film unfortunately didn't even feel like a climax. SPOILERS END
There are more of these problems that I won't get into further because they are not worth reading anymore about. The modernizing of certain aspects of the original story was done decently, but the film seemed to forget or totally ignore what made the original film so effective. I only consciously realized these things were so important after watching this film, so something positive did come out of the experience - it allowed me to truly appreciate the original film. Basically, this film is terrible so just stay away and rent the original. This film is bit like a cheater who copies an A+ student and still gets an F. First you feel sorry for the guy (which I did earlier in the review, hence the polite criticism)...and then you feel like assasinating him because he really doesn't deserve to exist.
Verspartum
