A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Even Denzel and Meryl could not save this remake of a classic cold war thriller. Meryl was no match for Angela Lansbury, and Denzel did not ring true in his role, originally played by Frank Sinatra. Lawrence Harvey was outstanding in the original and Schrieber while looking like Harvey was not equal to him. The major flaw though was changing who the bad guys were. In 1962, the Cold War was in full swing and brainwashing by the Chinese Communists was very real. The story does not translate well by updating the time frame.

You will see a technology that you can imagine that can influence today's politics.

I guess in a new age of hysteria and paranoia where people believe that terrorists could be hiding next door, or plotting the next attack on American soil, that a remake of this movie needed to come out. However the problem is that the premise of this movie changes somewhat from the communist conspiracy that planned on placing a hypnotised vice president into the White House to control at will to a shadowy equity fund doing the same thing, but also setting up a presidential assassination on election night to drive the American people into such fear that they would pretty much give up all of their freedom for security.This seems to be one of those things with the American society, the conflict between freedom and security – we want to be secure from our enemies but we do not want to give up our freedoms to gain that security. Obviously there is also that argument that if you are not doing anything wrong then there is nothing to worry about, and that is all well and good until you suddenly discover that the things that you do have suddenly been made illegal, or you are arrested on trumped up charges.This film, like the book, is about fear, paranoia, and control. It is interesting that they never actually say which political party the candidate represents, and there is no actual mention of the War on Terror, or the War in Iraq, but I guess it is a warning as to how things can move. Granted America has enemies – everybody has enemies – it is a natural part of life, but the question comes down to how does one respond to those enemies, and is one doing things that is creating more of those enemies.Some have suggested that this film is just some paranoid left-wing conspiracy, but to be honest with you, I have seen some videos produced by some conspiracy theorists on the far right that are just as out there as this film. I consider myself somewhat left leaning (though not extreme as some are, though I suspect compared to the average American I probably am quite extreme) but generally ignore theories such as the American Government blew up the twin towers to start the war on terror, though I have watched some of those documentaries and it is scary the amount of research that they seem to put into them, and they are quite convincing. However, most of these videos usually come down to one argument, and that the American nationalism, which is not left wing, but right wing to the extreme.

The Manchurian Candidate is a thriller film based on the novel of the same title by Richard Condon.It The film stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier; Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate; Jon Voight as Tom Jordan, a U.S. Senator and challenger for vice president and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, also a senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw.Miguel Ferrer, Ted Levine, and Dean Stockwell play key supporting roles.It was directed by Jonathan Demme.Major Bennett Marco and Sergeant Raymond Shaw are two soldiers who served in the same company during Operation Desert Storm, but their paths following their tours of duty have been very different. Shaw, the son of powerful congresswoman Eleanor Shaw, has used his reputation as a war hero to quickly scale the ladder of American politics, and with the help of his mother earns the Vice Presidential nomination. Marco, on the other hand, has been troubled with mental illness, and is convinced that something strange happened to him and his compatriots during the war. As Marco struggles to find the truth behind his nightmares and emotional torment, he unearths some disturbing facts about how his mind and body have been reworked by shadowy forces, as well as those of his fellow soldiers that includes Shaw.While it is not the classic its predecessor is, this remake is well- acted and conjures a chilling resonance.This humorless and nonsensical version is never quite engages, devolving the original's camp and satire into self-serious melodrama and it never approaches that level of intensity, intelligence, or audacity unlike the original.But nevertheless,it remains watchable due to great performances of the talented cast.