Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

Thriller

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Denzel Washington: U.S. Army Captain Bennett Marco
Liev Schreiber: U.S. Army Sergeant Raymond Shaw, winner of the Medal of Honor
Meryl Streep: Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, the real power behind her son’s political career
Jon Voight: Senator Jordan, up against Shaw as the running mate of the president elect
Kimberly Elise: Rosie, a grocery store clerk

REVIEW
The dual premise of the movie rings true: people can be manipulated and politics are controlled by big business who would like nothing better than have their own puppet in the White House.

In this case it takes Major Marco some time to uncover these truths albeit in a somewhat confusing manner. The acting throughout is excellent although Meryl Streep playing a tough bombastic politician is somewhat out of character.

CLASSIFICATION

for for violence and some language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
The shirt collar of Major Marco’s shirt is crinkled but when we see him in close-up it is neatly ironed.

The letter “E” in the red neon sign for the hotel is defective and blinks when Major Marco first goes there to see a former comrade; on the second visit the blinking letters are now “O” and “T”.

When Major Marco is in the police station the suit lapel of the investigator has a brown spot on it except for one scene where it is no longer visible only to return in the following shot.

P.S.
There are so many plot twists and turns it’s easy to get confused. Several things to keep in mind:
 after the ambush attack during the first Gulf War, we are not sure what happened to the soldiers in Marco’s units until he experiences the flashbacks
 Manchurian is a multinational defence conglomerate (not the region in China) a world wide conglomerate that had employed a genetic scientist to do research in mind control methods so people programmed will respond to certain words and carry out the task demanded of them
 the purpose of the shoulder implant is never completely explained
 Manchurian Global is the largest single contributor to Senator Shaw’s political career and she has been told the mind control words
 Senator Jordan, after talking with Marco, knows too much for his own good
 the vice-president elect (Shaw) gets confused and stands in the location on stage designated for the president elect
 Rosie is an excellent marksman (markswoman?) and can wound a man in the shoulder preventing him from taking his own life

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.