The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate

This article covers the 2004 remake
of the Manchurian Candidate 

My interest in the Manchurian candidate was sparked when I noticed that Denzel Washington had gotten one of his lines wrong in the remake. A bit later I caught the original on late night cable and things became clearer. The story had changed in the remake and the screen play still contained a line of conversation which had made sense before but no longer did.

This one line led me to judge the movie as a second rate movie for many years an opinion I have since reconsidered.  So what had happened in the screenplay and what had caused me to reconsider?

Adaptation

The story comes from (Cordon, Richard 1959) a book with the same title which was considered a classic political thriller. In the book the protagonist is Major Bennett Marco and his men are brainwashed in Manchuria with the aim of creating a sleeper agent that could be placed into the highest political office.

The first adaption from 1962 is a political neo-noir suspense thriller adapted by George Axelrod who had also done the adaptation for Breakfast in Tiffany in 1961. The adaptation had a number of stars including Frank Sinatra. As the cold war was still ongoing the adaptation was fairly faithful though it did water down the sexual aspects of the book. However following Kennedy's assassination the film was out of circulation for almost 15 years. The Manchurian candidate is Raymond Shaw son of a senator captured  by Soviet forced and brainwashed by Chinese. After the war he is groomed for The antagonist being Shaw's mother

In the second adaptation (2004) the war is now the Gulf war of 1991 and since the cold war is now over. Manchurian references a front for military - industrial complex. This time the antagonist is played by Meryl Steep.

Now what I find interesting in this story are the following:

1. The neo-noir protagonist is a regular Joe but he has a shared history with a the future vice president. Such a connection is due to a plot device - they were both in the army. This is  credible as most presidents and some senators boat of their military service. This common background is not that uncommon. This is also the relation between the Winter soldier and Captain America.
2. Brain washing and hypnosis was a stronger trope in the 60 when people got to know about LSD. However today there are more modern parallels. In 50 First Dates and in Memento the love interest and the Protagonist characters have to deal with long term memory loss and the resulting confusion. In Inception the protagonist is blindsided by the manifestation in dream state of his gilt for the  death of his wife. In Gamer 2009 and in Assassin's Creed 2016 characters are compelled by external wills in a virtual reality. These issues contribute to creating an unreliable Character. In the Manchurian Candidate, the Protagonist is confused, and practically deranged at times. As he tries to sort though his past new evidence comes to light, though this is hardly conclusive it intimates a conspiracy of  unprecedented proportions. other individuals arise around him corroborating, supporting and believing in what he is able to uncover. This adds an element of unpredictability to the story line in a positive way.
3. The conflict is taking place on at all three levels:
1. There is inner conflict initially embodies in nightmares - Raymond and Marco's characters are fighting their brainwashed identities, to reassert control of their individual wills, to recall past events and to ease their troubled conscience.
2. There is outer conflict - to get to his senator friend and in lieu of his problematic recent history. The FBI and Secret Service provide obstacles and Manchurian which may be involved in the misfortune of Marco's platoon after the war.   
3. There is institutional conflict. Both Marco and Raymond are struggling against the political organisation which is trying to put Raymond into power. The evil is embodied in Raymond's mother  Mrs Elenor Iselin who was rated as on of the top female villains of all times by the AFI.
4. There is a subplot symmetry between the Raymond and Marco - both are compelled to kill against their will.  Both want to reassert their mastery over their destiny. Though Raymond who has been completed to kill a number of times is weighed by guilt. The symmetry is eventually broken since the "moral code" determines that killers protagonists should not  survive to a happy ending. Which boils down to Raymond not surviving. Marco who has cooperated with the CIA and brought down Manchurian is given a reprieve.
5. For the moral premise we can look at the Medal of Honour Raymond got though a deception. He eventually realises he has murdered his love interest, her father and two of his platoon members and gives the medal to Marco. In the final scene Marco places a picture of Raymond and the rest of the platoon in the waters of the sea which washes all sin. He also 'buries' the medal of honer in the water  signifying that  Raymond's final action has redeemed himself. 

One aside is that the cast of The 2004 adaptation, in particular the less well known supporting actors have all gone to have very successful careers since.