'Manchurian Candidate' marathon: Two takes on twisted tale

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The original Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a classic -- a film that was ahead of its time in terms of sophistication and style.

Re-watching it now, quite a bit of it is beyond absurd. The portrayal of the Communist bad guys is cartoonish at best and Janet Leigh's character is totally implausible.

Yet it's a testament to this film's power that it is still referenced regularly and used as a tool to fear-monger (particularly on the right when it comes to President Barack Obama).

This is ironic since the film is staunchly anti-McCarthyism as well as vehemently anti-Communist. It boasts some of Frank Sinatra's best film work and features an against-type Angela Lansbury as one of the mostly truly evil villains ever captured in a movie.

The plot is totally crazy. A platoon of American soldiers fighting in Korea is captured and brainwashed into thinking an unpopular officer in their midst (Lawrence Harvey) is actually a hero so he can be set up to be a trained assassin. His killings are triggered by the phrase: "How about you pass the time while playing a little Solitaire?"

What transpires is surprisingly dark by today's standards -- let alone 1962. In fact, rumor has it the assassination plot got the film pulled from theaters in 1963 out of sensitivity to the killing of JFK. Whether or not this is true, the film's climax is truly shocking and it haunts you.

The 2004 version was doomed to be overshadowed by the influential original even though it boasts a top notch director (Jonathan Demme) and cast (Denzel Washington, underrated in the Sinatra role, Meryl Streep in the Lansbury role and Liev Schreiber in the Harvey part).

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

It wears its left wing politics a little more on its sleeve (Streep goes a little too over the top as a kind of hawkish Hillary Clinton) and the film makes the mistake of making Schreiber far less sympathetic than Harvey's was -- although it's arguably the trickiest role in either version to play and portray.

Still, as far as remakes of already excellent films go, it's strong.

It's got a creepy vibe and an off-kilter timing that is uniquely Demme and the plot plays enough with your expectations that even if you love the 1962 version you'll be kept guessing about how the 2004 edition will pan out.

Even though both movies are uncommonly absurd, they work because they tap into a deep-seeded subconscious fear that so many of us have, regardless of our political persuasion -- that the people in the seats of power are not who they seem and maybe just have dangerous ulterior motives.

Tellingly, the villains in the 2004 Manchurian Candidate are a corrupt conglomerate as opposed to an amalgam of Communist insurgents. That is the modern boogeyman because we are so in the dark about the reach of moneyed power and helpless in the face of its influence.

These two films are enjoyable as exercises in style (although the 2004 version cops out with a more upbeat ending, although I appreciate the movie's fearless implication of incest) but they also dare to slip a little bit of subversive thought under their surface, which for a mainstream thriller is pretty impressive.