Skip to main content

the manchurian candidate



so the other night, after the kids were in bed and shannon was watching project runway, i decided to watch a movie. i've got several dvd's sitting around that are just waiting for me to watch them, so i somewhat randomly chose "the manchurian candidate," put it in the dvd player, not knowing what to expect, and sat down to a couple suspenseful and interesting hours.

this movie is a remake of a 1962 film (which i have never seen), and as such carries some baggage for many viewers. however, given that i not only have never seen the original but am also am completely unfamiliar with the story or plot of the film, this was all new to me.

and i really enjoyed it. for one thing, you probably need to understand that i totally have a man crush on denzel washington, and so i find myself loving any film that he is in (can you say "glory" or "the pelican brief" or "remember the titans?"). so maybe i was just blinded by my own denzel-love, but i really enjoyed this film. while it has a pretty far-fetched and almost completely unbelievable sci-fi element to it, the politics of the movie are compelling and relevant. a movie that believably tells a story about big-government in bed with big-business in a torrid relationship that plays itself out in politics, money, war and even souls is, unfortunately, increasingly close to home. in other words the far-fetched science doesn't matter (maybe in part because we have learned that science can do a lot more than many of us even know about), because the politics seem so plausible. we can believe that big business has basically bought a candidate. we can believe that politicians can be at once idealists and self-serving power and money hungry near-despots. we have seen a long line of broken politicians and crooked leaders, and in a day when fear about our leaders has escalated, we believe that it can get worse.

this film plays on those fears, a bit, in a masterful and convincing way. the tagline for the film is "everything is under control," and this always seems tobe the mantra of big government. everythign is under control. even while it seems like everything is spinning wildly out of control, the buttoned up pinstriped leaders clench their jaws and smile reassuringly. everything is under control.

in the end, the film seems to have little hope in government or business. but it does put some hope in the strength of the human spirit to find its way through all the brokenness and crookedness. it seems to say that, maybe, even in the midst of corruption, we have a choice, we have an ability to be different, to tell the truth, to stop the machine. we have the ability to be truly human and not just players, not just casualties.

i hope that's true.

Comments

John said…
I've only seen the original, but it was fantastic.
Anonymous said…
original is better. trust me.
cathyq said…
I've never seen the movie, but I am a huge Denzel fan too. Love him in "Much Ado About Nothing"! Those leather pants...
greg milinovich said…
pete, many reviewers say that this may well be the best remake ever made. i haven't seen the original, but many of the reviews i read say that this film rivaled the original by staying true to its spirit while having something new to say in a new age. i'll have to see the original someday to draw my own conclusions...
Anonymous said…
i won't argue with it being the best remake ever--it's definitely that. but the original was just that: original. i felt this way when i saw the spanish film Vanilla Sky was based on ('apres los ojos')--Vanilla Sky is technically superior by far, and is produced beautifully, but apres los ojos is...well, original.

in addition, when watching the original you have to deal with the fact that you're watching something that's nearly 50 years old, so the dialogue and mannerisms seem a little awkward to our 21st century sensibilities. And then, of course, there's the fact that Angela Lansbury is trying to play the mother of someone she's only five years older than...

Popular posts from this blog

bad haircuts (for a laugh)

everybody needs to laugh.  one good way i have found to make that happen is to do a simple google image search for 'bad haircut.'  when you do so, some of the following gems show up.  thankfully, my 9th grade school picture does NOT show up.  otherwise, it would certianly make this list!  please laugh freely and without inhibition.  thank you and have a nice day. 

happiness is dry underwear

we started potty training jack on thursday. we followed a program called POTTY TRAIN IN ONE DAY, which, by the way, i think is kind of crazy. i mean, if someone were to offer you a book called, "ACHIEVE WORLD PEACE IN ONE DAY" i don't think you would take it seriously. and yet here we are, trying to accomplish an equally daunting task in one 24-hour period. it is intense. the day is shrouded in a lie because as soon as your happily diapered child wakes up you tell him that it is a big party. we had balloons and streamers and noisemakers and silly string - all the trappings of a legitimate party. but it is most certainly not a party. it is a hellishly exhausting day. as soon as jack got out of bed, we gave him a present: an anatomically correct doll that wets himself. jack named him quincy. several times quincy successfully peed in the potty and even had an accident or two in his "big boy underwear." he also dropped a deuce that looked and smelled sus

the crucifixion of Robert Lewis

  "the crucifixion of Robert Lewis" mixed media collage with leaves, acrylic paint, and found objects by gregory a milinovich october 2023 this october i was invited to participate in a three day trip which was called a "pilgrimage of pain and hope."  while that may not sound super exciting to many of you, it actually really intrigued me.  i am the kind of person that wants to feel big feelings, and i am drawn to the deep places, so  i was interested in traveling to the scranton area, where the trip was planned, to see what it might look like to be a pilgrim that was wide-eyed and listening to the pain and the hope in the stories of others.   this trip included hearing the stories of immigrants to the northeastern pennsylvania area, and the work in the coal mines that many of them did.  it included hearing from folks who are working for housing justice and equity in downtown scranton.  it included hearing from those indigenous people who first inhabited that land.