Denzel Washington: 'The Manchurian Candidate': stars in remake of psychological thriller

Jet, August 2, 2004 by Aldore D. Collier

Denzel Washington takes on deadly and unbelievably powerful political forces in the remake of the classic thriller The Manchurian Candidate.

In the film, Washington plays U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco, a tormented soldier who can barely sleep and when he does, can't deal with the bizarre and shocking dream that torments him nightly. For him, it's the same dream.

Marco spends his days playing the dutiful soldier and gives speeches about his platoon's ambush in Kuwait during the 1991 Desert Storm conflict. He regales people with stories about the heroics of Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), who won the Medal of Honor for saving Marco's crew.

Beyond that sinister dream, Marco wonders if two of the soldiers who died in the firefight might have been killed in a different way than was officially recorded. And he wonders if maybe Shaw isn't quite the hero that the world now thinks he is.

Meryl Streep plays Shaw's mother, the powerful and ruthless Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw. She has controlled much of her son's life, including picking and choosing his friends and girlfriends. She even decides what her adult son, now a congressman, wears.

The pace of the film quickens as Marco makes it his mission to find the truth. The military, as well as Shaw and his mother, thinks he is totally insane. Marco is encouraged to pursue the truth when he comes across Corporal Al Melvin (Jeffrey Wright), one of the soldiers he commanded who has similar nightmares.

The unthinkable suddenly becomes a frightening possibility for Marco. What if the entire group was somehow brainwashed? All the soldiers have the exact same, strange memory of what happened when they came under fire. And they recount it the exact same way-word for word.

The question becomes what exactly happened to them in Kuwait and, more importantly, why?

The backdrop of the movie is the political convention where Senator Thomas Jordan (Jon Voight) is the presumed nominee for the vice presidency. However, Mrs. Shaw has far different plans. She is one of the most powerful political forces in the nation and well-accustomed to getting her way, whether with womanly wiles or sheer ruthlessness. She has decided that her son is better suited. And she gets her way.

Kimberly Elise, who co-starred with Washington in the hit John Q, is again cast with him. She plays a warm and supportive woman who comes into his life. As warm as she is, her character also is mysterious and takes viewers on a ride.

When the decision was made to remake the 1962 classic which starred Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington was immediately at the top of director Jonathan Demme's list.

"When playing a part that has already been created by another actor, the decision always arises as to whether or not seeing that interpretation would be valuable," Washington said. "I chose not to look at the original movie so that my ideas about Marco would be completely my own. This is a very interesting, complicated story, and my character is very complex. What Marco remembers about the ambush doesn't coincide with what he sees in his dreams and believes to be true. So, he is very conflicted. He's been taught what to say, but that's not what he actually feels."

To play the role some have considered one of the most evil women in movie history, Meryl Streep, another two-time Oscar winner was chosen.

"I just love the way Ellie Shaw is described in the screenplay--'ageless with soft curves that conceal razor claws and a titanium backbone,'" Streep said. "How could I possibly not relish portraying a juicy character like that? Ellie Shaw is a woman who adores her son and believes in him."

For Ellie, power is an aphrodisiac. She has no qualms about controlling all aspects of her son's life. She decided early on that she would push him to become what she could never be--the President of the United States.

Liev Schreiber, who was featured in such hit films as Ransom, The Sum of All Fears and Kate & Leopold, was chosen to play the totally controlled Raymond.

"Raymond is a reluctant hero whose fame, to his dismay, fuels his political career and his mother's ambitions," Schreiber noted. "But, although he's in a position of power, Raymond is truly powerless against his mother, a woman so controlling she will, on occasion, decide what he should wear. What Meryl brings to the character is a cloaked tenderness that will surprise people with Ellie Shaw's depth and ability to love."

Elise was drawn to the role of Rosie because of the character's compassion. "Rosie has a heart of gold, and she's one of the few people willing to find out what's going on inside this man," she said. "Denzel is so exciting to watch as Ben Marco because we so often see him playing characters that are in control, and in this instance he gets to portray someone with a lot of vulnerabilities--a strong man, but one who's lost in a web he can't figure out."

Tina Sinatra, daughter of the late Frank Sinatra, served as producer of the film. The original movie was shot in black and white and was not in theaters for very long before it was shelved. There have been various reasons given for the movie being pulled from theaters.