The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Release Date: October 24th, 1962
United Artists
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh
Where: DVR (HBO)
Note: Not one of my better reviews but to be honest I am going to be out for a while and I wanted to make sure I got this up at least before tomorrow evening, I might polish it up a bit.
In 2004 a remake of a 1962 political thriller came out called The Manchurian Candidate starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep. I liked the movie, probably more than I really should have at the time. I’ll be the first to admit it’s sort of a guilty pleasure movie and I always make a point to catch it when it happens to be on TV or if I’m bored I’ll pop in the DVD. For the longest time I had no idea that it was a remake, or I guess new adaptation of a famous book but whatever, silly me? (For the record this is definitely not something I am proud of.) A few years ago I found out that the original version starred an all star cast and was directed by none other than one of my all time favorite action directors, John Frakenheimer. Being a huge fan of movies like Grand Prix and Ronin I had to check it out and see if it’s really as good as everyone says it is. Unfortunately the timing was never right and it took me until yesterday to see this supposed political thriller masterpiece. How right you all were.
From a technical and script standpoint this version blows Denzel and Demme out of the water (no disrespect). Frankenheimer hits on all cylinders creating one of the tensest and most well paced movies I’ve seen in recent memory. The script has some great dialogue and some sequences that really are damn near perfect. For those who don’t know The Manchurian Candidate tells the story of a Korean vet (Frank Sinatra) who investigates a former squad member’s (Laurence Harvey) questionable behavior following the war which may or may not have something to do with Communism and brainwashing, you’ll just have to watch it to find out. Despite being a definite story of the time that it was made, the Red Scare parallels in particular are fairly interesting compared to the political climate we live in now.
Along with the profoundly interesting story, Frankenheimer gets a hell of a performance not from an actor but from cinematographer Lionel Lindon. You won’t find a trademark Frankenheimer car chase but you will get a thrilling fight scene and a foot chase through New York City that ends just as confusing and intense as it begins. Speaking of confusing, what’s with Sinatra in this picture? He’s not bad but there are times where he overacts or underacts far too much and never quite gets it right. Sinatra is at his best when he shares the scene with Laurence Harvey, who I am just now finding out was criminally underrated as an actor at least for me. Even better are the scenes with Harvey and his onscreen mother Angela Lansbury in what is by far the best thing I have ever seen her in. I’ll have to go back and see who beat her out as best supporting actress of that year because she does crazy mom spot on, I got tingles. All of this adds to a fantastic noir-mystery atmosphere where you will be working to figure out who’s behind it all up until the very end and I will guarantee you will never look at Solitaire the same ever again
A well acted, gorgeously shot film with an awesome pace, I can safely highly recommend this movie to anyone especially those who have only seen the newer 2004 version.
The Manchurian Candidate gets 5 out of 4 Queens of Diamonds.
No comments:
Post a Comment