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THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE by Tom McCurrie
Since most remakes usually suck (to use very fancy-schmancy critical parlance), I was expecting the remake of John Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE to, well, suck. But CANDIDATE '04 doesn't suck one bit. In fact, it has plenty going for it, including tight direction by Jonathan Demme and sterling performances by Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and especially Meryl Streep as Liev's power-hungry Senator Mama. What it doesn't have is a script as superb as the 1962 original, and without that, this is one CANDIDATE that doesn't quite rock my vote.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
In the original CANDIDATE, written by George Axelrod (THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, LORD LOVE A DUCK) and based on the novel by the late, great Richard Condon (WINTER KILLS, PRIZZI'S HONOR), the criminally underrated Laurence Harvey plays Raymond Shaw, an Army sergeant kidnapped during the Korean War, shuttled off to Manchuria via chopper and brainwashed by the Commies into becoming the perfect assassin. Once Harvey sees the proper trigger, in this case, a red queen from a deck of playing cards, he turns into a zombie and does whatever his Red handlers (one of whom is his own mother (!), played with Oscar-nominated zeal by Angela Lansbury) want him to do. One of these "things to do" is assassinate a Presidential candidate so the VP (Lansbury's hubby and fellow traveler, i.e., the Manchurian Candidate) can slip into the Prez slot and ride the public's outrage all the way to the White House.
Now the script for CANDIDATE ?04, written by Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris, does have some good points. One is the way it cannily updates the villain from the Communist Menace to the Capitalist one. In the remake, it's a corporation called Manchurian Global that brainwashes Shaw, now a VP candidate played by Liev Schreiber, to do its bidding. The baddies don't bother brainwashing the Presidential candidate, since Shaw's fellow veteran Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) has been brainwashed to knock him off, an act which will create enough hysteria to sweep Shaw into power. With the Reds gone the way of the dodo, and the creepy symbiosis between Washington and Halliburton becoming more and more apparent, the theme that corporate greed poses a clear and present danger to democracy couldn't be timelier. (Of course, since the nefarious corporation is called Manchurian Global, the title of the movie still works, too.)
CANDIDATE '04 actually improves on the original by tying two characters more directly into the conspiracy. In the Frankenheimer version, Marco (extremely well-played by Frank Sinatra) is brainwashed, too, but not to be an assassin. Denzel, however, is slated to pull the trigger, upping the stakes (and tension) for his character in the remake. Love interest Rosie also comes off better in the Demme film. In the original, Rosie (played by Janet Leigh) is an underwritten contrivance: she just happens to meet Marco on a train, falls immediately in love with him, and two scenes later is shacked up with the guy. In the remake, Rosie (Kimberly Elise) also falls head over heels for Marco, but that's part of the plan -- she's a government agent planted to keep tabs on him, a much more realistic explanation for their relationship than gaga at first sight.
Unfortunately, CANDIDATE ?04 falls short of its predecessor in several important ways. One of the most striking is in the murders of Senator Jordan and his daughter Jocelyn (Jon Voight and Vera Farmiga, respectively). In both versions, the brainwashed Shaw is ordered to kill these two because they pose a threat to the bad guys' plot. But in the Frankenheimer film, Shaw and Jocelyn are madly in love, and in fact have just gotten married. So when Shaw is forced to kill her it creates a sense of tragic power that bowls us over emotionally. In Demme's film, however, Jocelyn could care less about Shaw, and the latter's so-called obsession with her is mentioned only once in dialogue and never followed up. So Shaw's murder of this woman is emotionally meaningless; she might as well be a complete stranger for all the impact it has on the audience. Then there are the logic problems. In the Frankenheimer version, Shaw comes to Jordan's home in the dead of night to murder him with a silenced pistol. But in Demme's film, Shaw murders Jordan and his daughter in broad daylight -- by drowning them in a lake, no less, a long, protracted way to go that somehow attracts no attention. And if Shaw is a VP candidate, where is the Secret Service detail? These guys would definitely be witnesses to the crime, but they're conveniently not around (in the '62 version, Shaw is just a newspaper man and thus can come and go without notice). Is the entire Secret Service in bed with Manchurian Global and thus paid to look the other way? This would make sense, but according to the script the government is investigating Manchurian, indicating the company and Washington are enemies, not bedfellows.
Also, Denzel realizes he's been brainwashed when he discovers an implant on his back while showering. But this lump was put there by the baddies years ago, during the '91 Gulf War. Why did it take so long for him to discover it? Is this the first time he's showered since '91?
Having Liev snap Denzel out of his brainwashed stupor with a few smiling glances, causing the latter to shoot the bad guys (Liev and his Dragon Lady Senator mother) instead of his real target, doesn't wash, either. A couple of looks are supposed to shock a programmed assassin back to reality? Frankenheimer's version handles it much more believably. We see Marco slowly, painstakingly deprogram Shaw with a deck of red queens and a lot of talk, so we completely buy that Shaw (as the assassin) could act on his own from then on.
Finally, the remake's happy denouement rings false. The government protects Denzel as their star witness (even though he just assassinated a VP candidate and a Senator), and doggedly goes after Manchurian Global for their crimes. This doesn't jibe with our current reality where the government kowtows to corporations instead of fighting them. (Halliburton, anyone?) Thus the ending comes across as phony, undercutting our emotional involvement when it should be at its highest. Frankenheimer's ending, on the other hand, has a bittersweet tone that's just right. Shaw shoots his mother and her hand-picked VP, defeating the bad guys, but then commits suicide, unable to live with himself after being forced to kill Jocelyn, the only woman he ever loved.
So as Gallup says, if the election were held today, I'd still vote for the old-school MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, circa 1962.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, they're now archived on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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