|
“The Manchurian
Candidate”-2004
|
 |
Reviewed
by: |
Wayne A. Klein |
| Genre: |
Suspense
thriller |
| Video: |
2.35:1 Anamorphic
widescreen |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
| Languages |
English,
French |
| Subtitles |
English,
Spanish |
| Length |
129minutes
|
| Rating |
R |
| Release Date |
12/21/04
|
| Studio |
Paramount
Home Entertainment |
| Commentary:
|
Director
Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Daniel Pyne |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
“The Cast of The Manchurian
Candidate”, The Enemy Within: Inside The Manchurian Candidate”
|
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
None |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Deleted scenes
with optional commentary, outtakes with commentary, Political
Pundits with optional director’s commentary |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Live Schreiber’s
screen test |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Denzel Washington,
Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise, Jeffrey
Wright, Ted Levine, Bruno Ganz, Simon McBurney |
| Written
By: |
Daniel Pyne
and Dean Georgaris |
| Produced
By: |
Jonathan
Demme, Tina Sintra, Scott Rudin |
| Directed
By: |
Jonathan
Demme |
| Music:
|
Rachel Portman
|
| The
Review: |
You’re not paranoid if they are
out to get you. Remakes are programmed to succeed. Give the
audience something familiar and their more likely to go to
it. It’s like comfort food for the eyes. Remakes are a tricky
business. Change the plot too much and you risk alienating
fans of the original film. Don’t change the plot enough and
fans will be bored. Jonathan Demme’s failed remake of “Charade”
was a case in point of everything that can go wrong with a
remake. Luckily, “The Manchurian Candidate” succeeds where
that remake failed by touching on the themes of the original
film, updating the story for a post-9/11 world and through
careful casting. Although it’s flawed, it’s still a powerful
film that will leave an impression with audiences. Hitchcock
liked to point out that suspense thrillers aren’t really designed
to connect with common sense or answer all the questions we
expect. That would be true of “Silence Of The Lambs” and also
the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” as well. ---
In the midst of the Gulf War a platoon
of soldiers fight off an enemy advance with their Sgt. Raymond
Shaw (Liev Schreiber) fighting off the enemy single handedly
while his commanding officer Ben Marco (Denzel Washington)
is incapacitated . Or did he? It seems that members of Marco’s
platoon are having nightmares about what happened and these
nightmares, which seem vividly real, suggest that something
else entirely happened and that, in fact, Shaw killed one
of their own and that this is some sort of weird plot to deceive
the American public. Since Marco and others members of his
troop appear to be suffering from Gulf War Syndrome and symptoms
of paranoia, their observations are discounted until Marco
discovers some troubling information. ---
|
| Image
and Sound: |
Perhaps
we’re programmed to think all of these movies on DVD look the
same but they’re not. With a sharp, rich transfer “The Manchurian
Candidate” looks like someone I might vote for. There’s one
curious sequence where the scene shifts color balance ever so
slightly that I’m sure wasn’t intended but, aside from that,
this high definition transfer looks particularly good. The rich,
paranoia inducing soundtrack soundtrack by Rachel Portman and
the use of sound effects creates a spooky atmosphere comparable
to but different than what Demme did in “The Silence Of The
Lambs”. --- |
| The
Extras: |
A number
of interesting extras include the usual “making of” featurette.
The best featurette is the one on the cast of the film. We
get to hear the cast discuss their characters, their reasons
for interest in a remake of a paranoid thriller/political
satire. There’s also deleted scenes (which help to clarify
a couple of plot points but aren’t essential) as well as the
screen test that actor Liev Schreiber did with Meryl Streep
for Demme prior to production. Schreiber clearly was the perfect
candidate for the movie with his boyish good looks and undercurrent
of vulnerability. There’s also an option to watch the uncut
faux news program hosted by Al Franken with optional commentary
as well. ---
|
| Commentary:
|
Director
Demme and co-screenwriter Pyne discuss not only the nuts and
bolts of working on the movie but what their intensions (even
if they don’t always work and they’ll admit it themselves first)
were. Both clearly enjoy each other’s company and compliment
each other very well covering material that the other hadn’t
thought about. --- |
| Final
Words: |
An exceptionally
good remake that updates this classic paranoid satire for contemporary
audiences, “The Manchurian Candidate” brings Richard Condon’s
novel and John Frankenheimer’s classic 1964 film to life with
nice unique touches all its own. Demme’s sure hand and the script
by Pyne and Gregarious provide the perfect canvas for the cast
to express themselves. The outstanding cast manages to make
their characters uniquely their own. |
