The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

In the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes.

Director:

Jonathan Demme

Writers:

Richard Condon (novel), George Axelrod

Stars:

Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeffrey Wright	...	Al Melvin
Pablo Schreiber	...	Eddie Ingram
Anthony Mackie	...	Robert Baker
Dorian Missick	...	Owens
Jose Pablo Cantillo	...	Villalobos
Teddy Dunn	...	Wilson
Joaquin Perez-Campbell	...	Atkins
Tim Artz	...	Jameson
Denzel Washington	...	Ben Marco
Robyn Hitchcock	...	Laurent Tokar
Liev Schreiber	...	Raymond Shaw
Antoine Taylor	...	Boy Scout #1
Joe Alessi	...	Boy Scout #2 (as Joseph Alessi)
Raymond Anthony Thomas	...	Scout Dad (as Ray Anthony Thomas)
Bill Irwin	...	Scoutmaster

Storyline

When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

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Plot Keywords:

conspiracy | brainwashed assassin | mother son relationship | george washington character | abraham lincoln character | 

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Taglines:

Everything is under control.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and some language

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of Major Marco's evaluation papers is clearly dated 2008.

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Goofs

In the last scene of the movie you hear radio chatter over the aerial beach shot. The audio says "NS 10 milepost 79.81, No defects." While this may sound like military radio traffic, what this actually is is an automated announcement system for a railroad safety system. A track side detector for Norfolk Southern Railroad (i.e. "NS") located at milepost 79.81 has just had a train pass by and no axle bearings were overheating (i.e. No defects). This is the message that the train engineer hears over his VHF locomotive radio after the train passes the detector. This was not appropriate radio traffic for this scene.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ben Marco: So why don't we just go directly right up in this route, straight in...
Laurent Tokar: Yes, I see the Captain enjoys the road less-traveled.
Ben Marco: No, the Captain enjoys not going down the highway, draggin' his ass so every Tom, Dick, Gaddafi can take a whack at it.

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Connections

Featured in The Jay Leno Show: Episode #1.75 (2010)

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Soundtracks

New Year's Eve
by Peter Bauer, Matt Barrick (as Matthew Barrick), Hamilton Leithauser, Paul Maroon & Walter Martin
Performed by The Walkmen
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc./Record Collection
by arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

User Reviews

Even Creepier Than the Original

The original version of this film was a very disturbing film due to the fact that it was at the height of the cold war and that it was during the time when America and the world faced its greatest crisis in the Cuban Missile Crisis and due to the fact that one short year after the original was released, President Kennedy was assassinated.

The main difference between this film and the original was that the original villains were the Communists and the villains in this film is big business. The Manchurian Corporation pretty much could be seen as stand-ins for not only Halleburton, but also could be seen as a stand in for many other corporate entities that pretty much want to wield influence in our government.

Another way this film works is as a strong psychological thriller. You pretty much have the troops brainwashed much as they were in the original, only it is more technologically based. However, the thing that really made this film as creepy as it was, was the relationship between Raymond and his mother. In the original, Raymond's mother was nothing more than a manipulative harpy who would stop at nothing to make sure she and her husband became the next president. However, in this version the film goes even farther by even implying that Mrs. Shaw (Mrs. Iselin in the original) almost has an incestuous obsession with her son. This is what really distinguishes this film from the original.

This definitely is one of top thrillers of the year.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Manchurian Candidate

Filming Locations:

New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,018,620, 1 August 2004

Gross USA:

$65,955,630

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$96,105,910

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions, Clinica Estetico

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1