THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
US, 2004, 132 minutes, Colour.
Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, John Voight, Kimberley Elise, Jeffrey Wright, Ted Levine, Bruno Ganz, Dean Stockwell.
Directed by Jonathan Demme.
The difficulty in understanding public figures is, of course, that we see only what the media present to us. In 2004, during the presidential election campaign, there was a George Bush who was attempting to persuade the nation that he was a leader, a firm, decisive and courageous man. And then came Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and the images of the president in the immediate aftermath of the crash into the twin towers: the president with no minders, sitting quietly alone in the Florida classroom reading the children’s story. What is the real image? What is the manufactured image? There is a nice line in The Mirror Crack’d where Angela Lansbury remarks about Hollywood: ‘Under the artificial tinsel is the real tinsel’.
The character played by Meryl Streep in The Manchurian Candidate is a dramatic reminder of this dichotomy between image and reality. She is Eleanor Shaw, a senator, wife of a senator, mother of a Gulf War hero who is standing for Vice President of the United States.
The Manchurian Candidate was originally a novel by celebrated writer, Richard Condon. It appeared at the end of the 50s, in the aftermath of the Korean War and America’s hostility towards the Soviet Union and the countries behind the Iron Curtain, as well as an antipathy towards China. The film version was released in 1962, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey with Angela Lansbury in a very chilling performance as Harvey’s mother. However, events overtook the film with the assassination of J.F. Kennedy and the emergence of an era of conspiracy theories. The film was withdrawn from circulation and not released again until the late 1980s.
Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) has decided to update the plot for his remake. (The previous year he had remade Stanley Donen’s Charade as The Trouble with Charlie, starring Mark Wahlberg.)
The early 21st century, especially after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, as well as the Iraq War, offers a setting for a new version of The Manchurian Candidate. This time the focus is on brainwashing but not solely by an enemy (here, Arabs during the first Gulf War). The villains are in fact both politicians and the leaders of huge corporations using mind-altering chemicals to achieve their aims. The film was released in 2004, the election year as well as the year of Fahrenheit 9/11, as Michael Moore exposed aspects of the Bush administration, life in America and its paranoia as well as the links between corporations and government.
Frank Sinatra played the investigator, Marco, in the original version. Here he is played by Denzel Washington. In the original, Laurence Harvey was the soldier who was reputed to have led his group to safety – which, in fact, did not happen. This perception was the result of the brainwashing. Liev Schreiber is very good in the Harvey role as Raymond Shaw. However, the writers have changed the plot insofar as, originally, the son of the senator was the assassin. Here it is Marco. Now, Raymond Shaw, after the experience of the war, comes back to take his place in American politics, moving to a vice-presidential nomination and, with the possibility of an assassination, to be president himself. In the background his mother is lurking. Angela Lansbury played the mother in the original film. This time it is Meryl Streep – playing the opposite of some of her kinder and more gentle roles. Just as in the first film, it is chilling when the audience realises that it is the mother who is controlling her son and ordering him to kill.
At the movie’s climax, we see Eleanor Shaw’s manufactured image. Her son is the Vice Presidential candidate. She is beaming happily, all sweetness and light. Invited to dance by her son, she shrugs modestly. She insinuates that she should be simply in the background, the loving mother rejoicing in the success of her son. But, this is the moment of assassination, her son completing his breaking free of his mother, manoeuvring her into a literal dance of death. And he dies with her. We will never know what influence she will exercise over him both as mother and as wielder of hypnotic power.
We have no difficulty in surmising what she would have been like. We have seen her real self, the image of her real self in her interactions with her son and with the powerbrokers behind the scenes.
Eleanor Shaw seems to be a dominant personality, complicated by the fact that she sees herself born to power, descendant of prestigious politicians, widow of a politician whom she despised and discarded as a failure to live up to her expectations, mother of a success who is a creation of her own schemes and power plays, whom she will not allow to fail like his father. She has to control his mind and his will. Like Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in Wall Street, she portrays a character who has chosen to be locked into their personality, exploiting it and using it destructively and deceived by seemingly logical rationalisations that they are at the service of people and a cause instead of the fulfilment of their greed or ambitions.
She can play the game of pretending to be her opposite when she phones her son and meekly apologises for interrupting him, a sweet and unassuming mother whose only thought is for her son. She thinks nothing of ruining her son’s love for Senator Jordan’s daughter. When Senator Jordan’s campaign stands in her way, she controls her son, willing him to kill the Senator with the consequent death of the woman that he truly loved.
The revelatory sequence is that when she meets with the powers that be in Washington to force them into accepting her son’s nomination. The men she confronts are tough leaders. She is not deterred. She shrewdly applies political blackmail with language to boot. She is no lady here. Masks are off and we see and hear just what a ruthlessly determined woman can do to browbeat opponents into submission.
The film is rather long, pales at times in comparison with the exposes and the wild conspiracy theories that have prevailed in more recent times. However, it is a good example of stylish film-making and is well grounded in Richard Condon’s novel.
1.The impact in 2004? American election year? The adaptation from Richard Condon’s novel? The perspective of the 50s and 60s into the 21st century? The theme still topical? The changes in Condon’s novel? The issues that remained the same?
2.American conspiracy theories, American politics, the power of corporations? The themes of power and righteousness?
3.The strong cast, the director, a high-powered film?
4.Kuwait 1991, the red tint on the war sequences, the songs and the soldiers playing cards, the groups, the individual, their fates? Marco with them? The three days, the ambush, their story, the medal for Shaw, the Medal of Honor from Congress? The photo of the group?
5.The significance of the dream sequences, the images, the people in the dreams, the Iraqis, the doctor, the symbols? The role of Raymond Shaw? His killing the two men on orders? The diaries and scrapbooks of the survivors?
6.The title, the Manchurian company, its experiences, use, experiments? The money power? The scenes with the executives, with the senator?
7.Denzel Washington as Marco, his leadership in the team, his comments about the war, the effect of the ambush, the sinister memories? His opening speech to the scouts, Al Melvin and his questions about the dreams? Why Marco was not honoured with the medal? The role of Shaw? Marco watching television, the election campaign, the speeches, Raymond Shaw and his smooth presentation? Marco appearing before the tribunals, their criticisms of him, not believing him? Wanting him to go to psychiatrists, to take his medication? The FBI following him? Rosie at the supermarket, on the train, her friendship, taking him to her house, his having the shower, discovering the implant? His going to see Shaw, his being barred by the security guards? Shaw talking with him? Shaw’s ambiguity in attitude? The repetitions of phrases, especially about Shaw, and Marco’s suspicions? His telling Rosie about the implant, the implant in Al Melvin? The effect of Senator Jordan’s death? His being afraid? Going to discuss things with Raymond, their being honest with each other? The phone call, the senator and her controlling him, mind control? His donning uniform, going to the booth, aiming at Shaw, the shooting, about to shoot himself but Rosie saving him by shooting? His being the victim? The FBI and the change of identity of the killer, the processing of the photo? Rosie and Marco in the gulf, reaching the sea, the photo and the medal in the sea? Shaw having given him the medal?
8.The possibility of such mind control? In realistic terms? In symbolic terms of mind control of Americans? The exercise of mind control, especially the conspiracy by the senator on her son?
9.Raymond Shaw, in the war, his background as explained by the media, the summary of his life and achievement? The role of his mother, the Prentiss family, his father considered a failure and dying? His relationship with Joyce, his mother’s intervening, Joyce leaving? The antagonism between the Shaws and the Jordans? His return from the war, going back to his mother? The campaign, the speeches, the rehearsals, meeting people, his mother coaching him? The nomination? His being with Marco, refusal, changing his mind, the very serious talk at the end? His being controlled to kill Senator Jordan and Joyce? His having talked to Joyce frankly about his loving her? His not knowing that he did it, suspicious about himself? The final discussion, the cue for the nomination and then the election, standing on the star, waltzing his mother, kissing his mother, lining her up for the bullet? His decision about the death, their both being killed? The panic in the room, the presidential candidate and his family, their being hurried to safety?
10.Senator Shaw, her experience, love of power, her control of her son, intervening always in his life, the phone calls, joking about her predictability, rehearsing her son? The episode with Joyce? Her ideology, her confrontation with the power brokers, her persuading them to nominate her son? Her strong speech, her hold over them? Her links with the Manchurian company, meeting with the executives? Her ability to exercise power, taking it for granted? Her talking about America, its greatness, her exercising power and controlling? Her disdain for Marco? Controlling Raymond, getting him to kill the senator and Joyce? Her defence of herself to the executives? The final scene with her son, the kiss, the incestuous overtones? The end, her triumph, celebration, the dance, her being shot?
11.Al Melvin, his life, after the war, his book of scraps, his room, talking with Marco? Killing himself? The FBI investigating, finding the implant? Marco and his going to his friend whom he got out of Albania, to examine the implants, the information he got, the friend’s surprise at such technology?
12.Senator Jordan, candidate, his views, considered more liberal, his meetings with Joyce, with the Shaws, kayaking, the pathos of his death?
13.Joyce, her life after the break with Raymond, marriages and divorce, her supporting her father, Raymond telling her that he still loved her, her trying to save her father, Raymond killing her?
14.Themes of politics, politicians, the blind faith in American greatness – and the lack of scruple to achieve power in the name of righteousness?
