THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004 FILM)

'''The Manchurian Candidate''' is a 2004 U.S. 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 the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw.
'Tagline:'

★ ''Everything is under control.''

Contents

Plot

Awards and Nominations

Trivia

External links

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 follows Maj. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington), a war veteran who begins to doubt what is commonly known about his famous army unit. During Desert Storm, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schrieber) supposedly rescued all but two members in his unit, of which Marco was the commanding officer. While this made Shaw a war hero, gained him the Medal of Honor, and launched him into a career in politics, Marco and other members of the troop feel that while they remember that Shaw ''did'' rescue them, they don't actually remember him doing it.
The members begin to come together in the dystopic near-future of 2008 after Shaw, now a United States Congressman, becomes his party's candidate for Vice-President. He is an unexpected candidate, as Connecticut Senator Tom Jordan (Jon Voight) was the leading choice for some time. Jordan is pushed aside by Shaw's mother, Virginia Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), who blackmails the party leaders into nominating her son. An obvious rivalry exists between Eleanor Shaw and Tom Jordan, partly due to a past relationship between Raymond Shaw and Jordan's daughter Jocelyne (Vera Farmiga).
After Shaw is nominated, Marco begins investigating what really happened during the war. Allied with a female FBI agent (Kimberly Elise) he links the mystery of his lost platoon to Manchurian Global, a global conglomerate with major political connections, including the Shaw political family. Soon Marco discovers Manchurian Global's brainwashing of his "lost" platoon, and their plans to take over the White House with Shaw, under the power of not only themselves, but of Eleanor Shaw, who is even more power hungry than she appears.
Soon Eleanor Shaw begins to take matters into her own hands, trusting Manchurian Global less and less. Her ruthlessness is shown when she uses her own brainwashed son to assassinate Senator Jordan, who had been contacted by Marco and had began to support his investigation and attempt to expose her plan. As she becomes more and more controlling over her son, it is soon revealed that the Vice-Presidential spot is not what she has in mind for her son, but the presidency. On election night, the newly elected president will be assassinated, and the planned assassin of Shaw's running mate is none other then Marco himself, brainwashed in the war at the same time as Shaw.
As the movie comes to a close, Shaw and Marco begin to regain a conscious state even while under Manchurian Global's control. While on the podium at the election night celebration party, the newly elected Shaw and Major Marco, with a rifle aimed at the stage, realize what must be done. Shaw leads his mother onto the stage with him, and she does not realize his reason for doing so until Marco fires one shot at the two Shaws, killing both of them as they hug. Just before Marco can kill himself (which had been part of Eleanor Shaw's plan), the female FBI agent stops him by shooting him in the shoulder. The FBI covers up Marco's involvement, pinning a Manchurian Global conspirator with the shooting.

Actor	Role
Denzel Washington	Major Bennett Marco
Meryl Streep	Senator Eleanor Shaw
Liev Schreiber	Congressman Raymond Shaw
Jon Voight	Senator Thomas Jordan
Kimberly Elise	Rosie
Vera Farmiga	Jocelyne Jordan
Ted Levine	Colonel Howard
Miguel Ferrer	Colonel Garret
Dean Stockwell	Mark Whiting
Jeffrey Wright	Al Melvin
Simon McBurney	Dr. Atticus Noyle
Bruno Ganz	Delp
Tom Stechschulte	Governor Robert Arthur
Robyn Hitchcock	Laurent Tokar
Obba Babatunde	Senator Wells
John Aprea	Rear Admiral Glick
Roger Corman	Mr. Secretary
Al Franken	TV Commentator
Bill Irwin	Scoutmaster
Adam LeFevre	Congressman Healy
Charles Napier	General Sloan
Tracey Walter	Night clerk

Awards and Nominations

'2005 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)'

★ Nominated - Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Liev Schreiber

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actress (Film) — Meryl Streep
'2005 BAFTA Film Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Meryl Streep
'2005 Black Reel Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actor — Jeffrey Wright

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actress — Kimberly Elise
'2005 Golden Globe Awards'

★ Nominated - Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture — Meryl Streep

Trivia

Cup noodles paid for product placements in this movie.

External links

★ Official Site

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