Manchurian Candidate

Cafe Society
61

I went and saw the remake yesterday and was happy with it. Having seen the original, most of the plot was not suprising but there were a few definite twists which worked nicely, especially how Denzel’s character fit into the whole scheme. My only real problem was how they forced the name Manchurian Candidate into the movie. It really made little sense in the remake. A multi-billion dollar conglomerate which supplies the United States Armed forces named after a region in China? That’s pushing it a bit.

NPR had an interview with Jonathan Demme which was very interesting. At first he did not want to remake the movie because he loved the original so much. Only after he read the screenplay did he decide it would be a good project.

Anyway, good movie and worth seeing.

62

That bothered me too, but how else could they have kept the name? Make Shaw one of the soldiers patrolling the Korean DMZ?

What struck me was the way it changed the villains. In the original, the brainwashing conspirators were foreign Communists (and one American political wife who is almost certainly not a Communist, just a power-mad opportunist). In the remake, I half expected the brainwashing conspirators would be Islamic terrorists, but they’re not – they’re superrich corporate fiends! Which is rather more realistic, when you think about it. :smiley: It’s rather like the contrast between Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and They Live (1988). The first one is a “Commies from Mars” film – the evil aliens are trying to sneak into our nice little world and take control. In They Live, the evil aliens are already here and running things – what else could explain what we see around us?

63

Perhaps a scene where Denzel, in an attempt to explain to someone what is happening, says he heard of similar experiments being carried out in Manchuria on American P.O.W.s. Another possibility is comments on rumors which float around the Pentagon about possible mind control experminents carried out on Americans during the Korean war, etc etc. Could have been a good way to nod toward the original movie. Anyway, just ideas.