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The Manchurian Candidate
2004
U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington) can’t sleep at night … and he doesn’t want to. Marco spends his days giving inspiring speeches about his platoon’s ambush in the Kuwaiti desert and the heroics of Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Schreiber), who won the Medal of Honor for saving Marco’s crew. But at night, Marco’s dreamlike .. Read more
| Starring | Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, Jon Voigt |
|---|---|
| Director | Jonathan Demme |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
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The Manchurian Candidate
U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington) can’t sleep at night … and he doesn’t want to. Marco spends his days giving inspiring speeches about his platoon’s ambush in the Kuwaiti desert and the heroics of Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Schreiber), who won the Medal of Honor for saving Marco’s crew. But at night, Marco’s dreamlike memories of the desert turn sinister and terrifying. And Marco privately wonders whether the two soldiers who died in the firefight might have met darker fates than officially recorded – and whether Shaw might not be the glorious hero that everyone thinks he is. When Shaw takes the national stage as a surefire candidate for vice president – under the thumb of his controversial mother, Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (Streep) – Marco is forced to act on his growing suspicions. With military officials questioning his sanity, and the net of security tightening around Shaw, Marco races to probe deeper into the unimaginable, shocking truth before the White House is won.
| Starring | Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, Jon Voigt, Ted Levine, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise, Jeffrey Wright, Bruno Ganz, Simon McBurney, Vera Farmiga |
|---|---|
| Director | Jonathan Demme |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 9 mins Blu-ray: 2 hrs 4 mins Watch now: 2 hrs 9 mins HD DVD: 2 hrs 4 mins |
| Certificate | DVD: , Watch Online: |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
| Language | DVD: English Blu-ray: English Watch Online: English HD DVD: English |
| Dubbed | German |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 04 Apr 2005 Blu-ray: not available Watch now: 25 Aug 2009 HD DVD: 17 Sep 2007 Production year: 2004 |
| Watch now | £2.49 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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Slick thriller that de-fangs the original, removing its paranoia about the political process and replacing it with something less topical and more amorphous; on its own terms it's watchable, but it's no more than another disposable high-tech thriller.
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Major Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) suffers nightmares, related somehow to his experiences in Kuwait in 1991. But... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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38 out of 51 people found this review helpful
A bland remake of a classic film
The fact that Jonathan Demme's remake doesn't live up to the original comes as little surprise, unfortunately the film fails to impress even when taken on it's own merits. Pedestrian and uninvolving, it had me checking my watch within the first hour. It takes forever for the film to set up the basic premise and then never really delivers on it. The plotting is obvious and often ludicrous, leaving some gaping holes along the way.
'The Manchurian Candidate's main strength is in its fine cast, but not the leading man. Washington just seems to sit there in the middle of the screen for long periods, offering nothing of interest until he switches into his twitchy, sweaty, paranoid mode. It's probably the least engaging performance I've ever seen from this normally compelling actor.
Meryl Streep delivers her usual strong performance as Raymond Shaw's mother, and she gets all the best lines, but the real stand-out is Liev Schreiber as Shaw. He's convincingly slick as the aspiring polititian but also vulnerable and racked with doubt when he needs to be. John Voight is excellent in an all-too-brief role but Kimberly Elise is saddled with a very poorly-conceived character that she can't do much with.
The most disappointing thing about 'The Manchurian Candidate' is how a very creepy and unusual film has been transformed into a straight-faced, slick blockbuster, indistinguishable from many other conspiracy thrillers. Demme's tricksy, cluttered direction is annoying, as are his endless point-of-view shots(which worked well in the confines of 'Silence of the Lambs' but not here).
Demme does get one over on Frankenheimer's film with the well-orchestrated assassination climax, but too often this falls short. And its desperate attempts to make everything seem topical and relevant will ensure it quickly dates while the original continues to shine -
Most recent members' review
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7 out of 10 people found this review helpful
Partly Succesful
Jonathon Demme's partly succesful remake but still isn't a patch on John Frankenheimer's original....
This time the lost patrol are in Kuwait in 1991 and are ambushed by the Iraqi army - the patrol are saved by Sgt Raymond Shaw(Leiv Shrieber) who wins the medal of honour....or at least that's what they think happened - all the survivors are having the same recurrent nightmare including Major Ben Marco(Denzil Washington) who begins to doubt his take on events.
Shaw is now a Senator whom his obbessed Mother(Meryll Streep in a grandstanding performance) is trying to get on the Vice-Presidential ticket meaning is elected he is (litterly) a heartbeat away from the Presidency....
It follows the original in that Marco has to work out the truth before sinister events take over and murky conspericies are unleashed - what I did like about it was this time round instead of Chinese Communists being behind it all its a faceless corperation that wants to to create the first privatly owned President of the U.S. - no prizes for guessing where that barb is aimed at...Washington is good in the Frank Sinatra role but Schriber hasn't got the twitchy neurosis that made Lawrence Harvey so memorable and even Streep(who is marvellous) just hasn't got the creepyness of Angela Lansbury....although there is good support from Jon Voigt.
The major issue with it is that Frankenheimer kept it all more enigmatic - that amazing opening scene where the Communist Doctors are inter-cut with the floral ladies and its quite a way in before you realise what's going on - Demme makes it all fairly obvious from the opening and there is a certain join-the dots feel to the plot....and the ending is such a cop-out.
That said it as interesting elements and if nothing else made me want to screen the original again.
3.5 stars. -
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Manchurian Candidate, The - HD DVD Version
Jonathan Demme updates the original 1962 John Frankenheimer classic with plenty of new paranoid twists: This time a sinister Halliburton-style corporation is behind the brainwashing of a Gulf War hero turned vice presidential nominee, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber). Shaw's old unit commander Ben ...
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- Manchurian Candidate, The - BLU-RAY Version
- Blu-Ray: £11.93
Free Delivery - RRP £19.79 (you save: 40%)
Jonathan Demme updates the original 1962 John Frankenheimer classic with plenty of new paranoid twists: This time a sinister Halliburton-style corporation is behind the brainwashing of a Gulf War ... -
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- The Manchurian Candidate
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U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington) can’t sleep at night … and he doesn’t want to. Marco spends his days giving inspiring speeches about his platoon’s ambush in the Kuwaiti desert and the ... -