Could there be a
more appropriate time for a film like this? Released one month after Fahrenheit
9/11 with conspiracy theories about George W. Bush—“the Arabian candidate,”
as he has been called—running at an all-time high, The Manchurian Candidate
is a masterpiece of cinematic timing. Thankfully, it is also a great movie.
Based on the 1962 classic starring Frank Sinatra, this remake retains all of
the suspense of the original but updates the context so that it has that ring
of truth that makes you believe something like this really could happen—almost.
It all begins
with Captain Bennett Marco, a Gulf War vet who cannot seem to leave the war
behind. Diagnosed with “Gulf War syndrome” and “post-traumatic stress disorder,”
Marco has been relegated to giving speeches to Boy Scout troops about the
Congressional Medal of Honor. At the same time, he is plagued by a recurring
dream full of horrific images. When he meets up with an old war buddy who is
suffering from exactly the same affliction, Marco begins to suspect that maybe
he is not crazy. Perhaps the dream is reality, and what he has always been led
to believe about his tour of duty in Kuwait is nothing more than a fabrication,
a memory implanted in his mind by an unknown entity for unknown reasons.
When the body of
Marco’s war buddy turns up in the river, he is even more certain a conspiracy
is underfoot. Desperate for answers, Marco seeks out the only other surviving
member of his platoon: Raymond Prentiss Shaw, who was decorated with the
Congressional Medal of Honor for saving Marco and his platoon when they were
ambushed in Kuwait. Shaw is currently on a fast track to the White House,
thanks to his pit bull mother, and is not interested in Marco or his theories
at first. But when Shaw begins to have nightmares as well, he realizes Marco
may be on to something.
Meanwhile, Marco
has discovered some nefarious connections between what he “remembers” about the
brainwashing experience in the Gulf and one of Shaw’s largest campaign
sponsors: Manchurian Global. He comes to believe that Manchurian has somehow
preprogrammed Shaw to be a “sleeper” in the White House, a pawn that they can
activate at will. Marco has no idea what Manchurian is up to, but he is not
about to wait around and find out. However, just as Marco is about to make his
move, another dimension of Manchurian’s conspiracy is revealed, placing Marco
and his plans in jeopardy.
I will not reveal anything further about the
film save this: Hollywood has been pumping out some smart thrillers lately, and
The Manchurian Candidate is one of them. While the premise of this film
is more fun than feasible, the idea that big business wields tremendous clout
in Washington is far too real to ignore. Power and money go hand-in-hand—you
can’t have one without the other. And this film paints a grim picture of what
happens when money and blind ambition get in the way of the common good—or,
worse, what happens when people in power begin to believe that their money and
their ambition are the common good. Rather than encourage conspiracy
theories of this ilk, however, The Manchurian Candidate is more like a
classic, sci-fi cautionary tale, a parable rather than a docudrama. In this
sense, I think it does far more than Fahrenheit 9/11—a purportedly
non-fiction film—will ever do to raise awareness about what is really going on
in the world.
Then again,
perhaps I am just not paranoid enough…