‘Manchurian’ update exposes corporate threat

In theaters

“The Manchurian Candidate”

Directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris, based on the novel by Richard Condon, 130 minutes, rated R.

Jonathan Demme’s “The Manchurian Candidate,” a remake of John Frankenheimer’s jittery 1962 Cold War classic about political brainwashing, joins Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in being the year’s timeliest movie.

It arrives smack in the midst of an election year – soon after the Democratic National Convention, soon before the Republican National Convention – with our presidential candidates stumping tirelessly across the country, each offering messages of hope and improved national security.

The film takes advantage of their journeys and those messages, but it finds its real strength in its slaying of corporate America, with big business viewed here as the real threat to our country, much in the same way that the communists were feared in the original film.

With its ripped-from-the-headlines feel, the movie works on several levels. Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris’ script deftly updates the proceedings to the near future, the roles are complex and meaty, and the performances by Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber are superb.

The film errs in that it’s too long-winded in parts, but its ideas and its fears are steeped in enough legitimate worry to be compelling, with the payoff leading to a strong finish of note.

Swapping out the original film’s backdrop of the Korean War for the Gulf War, the film follows Gulf War vet Maj. Bennett Marco (Washington), who discovers that during the war, he and other members of his platoon were implanted with computer chips in their brains that have brainwashed them into remembering events that never took place.

Of chief concern to Marco is Raymond Shaw (Schreiber), the tall, good-looking Army sergeant who won the Medal of Honor for an act of heroism Marco believes never occurred. Now a vice-presidential candidate backed by his vicious, powerful mother, Sen. Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (Streep), Raymond is on a manufactured path to greatness. He’s unwittingly being controlled by Manchurian Global, a mysterious corporate giant that has – shall we say – special interests in making sure that Shaw gets into the White House. They don’t want Shaw there as a mere vice president. They want him to be president, which means that somebody here is going to have to assassinate Shaw’s running mate so that Shaw can assume the ticket and ride a wave of public support into the top job.

As ever, Washington is so good, you almost take him for granted. Same goes for Streep, whose evil, ice-crunching senator is a fine nod to Angela Lansbury’s bristling turn in the first film, with Streep tossing in a bit of Hillary Rodham Clinton for good measure.

While it doesn’t match the raw, satirical power of the original, Demme’s “Candidate” scores major points for being so prescient. Its messages of “securing tomorrow today” and the “need to look inward to tend to our own base” are especially timely. They feel as if they were uncannily lifted from speeches given at the recent Democratic National Convention – and they give this movie a power all its own.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

“Kill Bill, Vol. 2” Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, 136 minutes, rated R.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill, Vol. 2” is a less violent, less successful, more introspective movie than last year’s “Kill Bill, Vol. 1.” Had it been shown as Tarantino originally intended – an uninterrupted whole – it would have balanced the first film’s kinetic energy and gore.

Given the entire film’s lengthy running time and Tarantino’s unwillingness to do any further editing, Miramax split the movie in two, a decision that may have scored the studio larger profits, but which didn’t do the movie any justice. Just as in the first film, Tarantino begins “Vol. 2” with an unflinching, black-and-white close-up of Uma Thurman’s smashed-in face. It then fades in and out of a series of flashbacks and flashforwards, with Thurman’s Bride seeking vengeance for the massacre that took place on her wedding day.

This time out, she’s out to kill the remaining three members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad: beer-bloated Sidewinder (Michael Madsen); California Mountain Snake (Daryl Hannah); and Bill (David Carradine), the father of the Bride’s child.

What ensues features two superb, clever fight sequences that are jaw-dropping in their detail. Also appealing is the cast, particularly Hannah, who makes a great villain, and Carradine and Thurman, whose relationship gives the movie depth. All resurrect their careers in a film that makes us realize how necessary it is to have them onscreen. Still, disconnected from “Vol. 1,” “Vol. 2” suffers. This is, after all, the downside of the story, and too often, it feels restricted, as if Tarantino let the air out of his chic, retro rooms.

Heavy on self-conscious chatter, it’s too long, lacking the first film’s consistent leaps of faith into others genres, where style and homage not only ruled over substance, but won.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style and 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland. They are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.