I honestly had no idea what film to submit this week. A few days ago, the Criterion website delivered me a sucker punch by having a sale on their entire catalog. (I've talked about the Criterion Collection in previous posts, so I won't go into it here. If you're not familiar with it, you can look for those posts after you've read this.) So I bought a couple of titles. They literally just arrived less than an hour ago. I realized that one of the titles I ordered, in spite of the fact that it's more than 60 years old, still holds up. It's still a shocking film that still freaks the shit out of me every time I watch it--and now I get to watch it in high definition blu-ray!
Originally
released in 1962, the movie focuses on Raymond Shaw (played by Laurence
Harvey), a Korean War veteran who comes home after being held as a POW
with the rest of his troop. He's considered a hero for what happened.
Much to his disdain, his stepfather is a high profile senator, John
Iselin (played by James Gregory), hell bent on rooting out Communism in
the government. However, Raymond's mother, Eleanor (the great Angela
Lansbury in an Oscar-nominated performance) is really the person running
the show, controlling what her husband says in front of the TV cameras
and smearing the reputations of anyone who dares question him.
Some
time after the return of Raymond and his men, certain members of his
troop start having nightmarish flashbacks. Major Bennett Marco (played
by Frank Sinatra) begins to have doubts about what really happened and
decides to investigate, only to find a terrifying truth.
At
the time it came out, it was a shocking political thriller. After the
assassination of JFK, the film was rumoured--falsely--to have been
pulled from circulation for over 20 years. In 1987, to coincide with
its 25th anniversary, the film was re-issued both in theaters and on
home video. It was even given a PG-13 rating which, at that time, was still a
relatively recent thing. And even nearly 40 years after that, themes
like fundamental freedoms of speech and press and holding those in power
to account still resonate today... sadly. Perhaps the most shocking
thing about it is that those themes are still eerily relevant.
I
always recommend this film to people my own age and younger just
because of Lansbury. Having come of age during the 1980s, I essentially
grew up on "Murder She Wrote" and Disney films like Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I tell people that if that's all you remember her from, this performance will set your hair on end.
In
2004, director Jonathan Demme remade the film starring Meryl Streep,
Denzel Washington, and Liev Schreiber. As much as I like Demme and his
cast, I've never seen it. As I understand, the plot was updated to make
it more about corporate interference in government policy--although
that is also a concern more than 20 years after that was made.
The original was so rooted in the Cold War that it was practically
another character in the movie. I've always felt that taking it out of
that environment would ruin it--I don't care how good the cast and
director are.
Co-starring Janet Leigh, based
on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon, and directed by John Frankenheimer,
please enjoy the original (and, dare I say, better) version of The Manchurian Candidate.
Until
next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember
that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for
you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
No comments:
Post a Comment