The Manchurian Candidate (2004) PAL DVD9

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THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004)



THE DVD:



Aspect Ratio: 16/9

Region: PAL

DVD9 => DVD9

Software: DVDFab



Audio: Spanish [5.1] / English [5.1] / Director's Comments

Subs: Spanish, English, Greek, Hebrew, Croatian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Serbian



Extras: Yes

- The Enemy Within: Inside The Manchurian Candidate

- Comments by the Director and the Co-Writer

- The Cast Of Manchurian Candidate

- Deleted / Extended Scenes

- Outtakes

- Liev Schreiber Screen Test

- Political Pundits



Stripped: Nothing





THE FILM:





The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American film based on the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon, and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film. The film stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier, Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Congressman 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 Shaw, also a senator and mother of Raymond Shaw



Plot:



While the plot of the 2004 film still centers on a candidate brainwashed with the involvement of his mother and her own political aims, the mechanics of the story and the parties involved are quite different from the original film in cases. In particular, the political dynamic of the plot is transformed: While the earlier film imagined a Red-baiting Republican McCarthy-esque figure as an unwitting front for an international Communist conspiracy, the remake has a centrist New Democrat as an unwitting front for a shadowy corporate oligarchy.



The movie has Shaw (Schreiber) himself as the vice-presidential candidate; Marco (Washington), also brainwashed but not fully aware of it, as the assassin; Eleanor Shaw (Streep), as a power-hungry and ruthless politician (a Senator from Virginia). The film attempts to adapt itself to the modern world by having the brainwashing conducted by Manchurian Global, a large multinational private equity fund and government contractor (widely assumed to be comparable with the real world global private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, or sometimes the oil and military services contractor, Halliburton), with the aim of expanding corporate influence as well as government contracts for themselves. Instead of capture during the Korean War, and being brainwashed by communists, Marco and Shaw's unit is captured during the first Gulf War (Desert Storm), and brainwashed at a secret Manchurian Global facility. The film also plays on the issues of the 2004 presidential campaign (it was released that same year), such as the War on Terror.



The incredibly friendly first meeting between Eugenie (named Rosie in this movie) and Marco is retained almost verbatim, and made realistic when it is discovered that she is an FBI agent assigned to monitor him. It is Rosie who then discovers Marco after the altered assassination (who kills Shaw, having just won the election, as opposed to the original where the assassination takes place just before a candidacy declaration). Unlike the original, where Shaw commits suicide after killing Iselin, the assassin (Marco) is subdued before he can do so.



After hospitalization and conditioning, Marco helps the feds locate the abandoned island facility where he and his unit were brainwashed. In the original version, the question of whether the Communists' brainwashing technology could be used again is never addressed, and they simply disappear from the story.



Directed:

*Jonathan Demme

Produced:

*Jonathan Demme

*Ilona Herzberg

*Scott Rudin

*Tina Sinatra

Written:

*Daniel Pyne

*Dean Georgaris

Starring :

*Denzel Washington

*Meryl Streep

*Liev Schreiber

*Jeffrey Wright

*Jon Voight

*Bruno Ganz

Music:

*Rachel Portman

Running time 129 min.

Language English