August 02, 2004

The Manchurian Candidate

Love the 1962 film by John Frankenheimer. I'll wait to watch the remake on HBO or Showtime. But there is one thing I'm curious about. From the reviews I've read, why isn't this film called The Halliburton Candidate? What is the link to Manchuria in this remake other than an allegiance to the title of the original film, where a reference to Manchuria actually made sense? Or are the corporate evildoers in the remake Chinese food moguls or cheap plastic novelty magnates?

Posted by Charles Austin at August 2, 2004 10:56 AM
Comments

Disengenuity ills becomes you...

And besides, Manchuria doesn't have a legal department. Not THAT kind, anyway.

Posted by: John at 09:13 PM

Could you go into some more detail, "John", so that your comment makes sense?

Posted by: Andrea Harris at 07:47 AM

I was pretty disappointed when I found out this was being remade, re-imagined, or what have you.

The original is as close to perfect as you can get. One of my favorites.

Posted by: Eric at 12:06 PM

I saw the movie last weekend and thought it wasn't bad, overall, even though left wing politics are written in to it. Al Franken has a couple spots where he plays a tv host and he rattles off a long list of things wrong with the country: US troop presence overseas, the futile, bloody and "endless" war on terrorism, government scare tactics to roll back civil liberties, the environment going to shit, outsourcing, etc. I can't remember them all now, but it sounded like Howard Dean's talking points. Franken's parts don't distract too much from the movie, though, which of course is about an evil global corporation. I must say that Meryl Streep plays a darn good Hillary, no matter who she claims was her inspiration for the character.

Posted by: Lawrence at 06:18 PM

To actually answer your question, Charles, apparently the sinister Halliburton/Bechtel/Enron clone that's behind all the fishy goings-on is called Manchurian Global. It all sounds pretty weak-tea stuff compared to the ChiComs trying to take over the planet.

I won't be seeing it. I'm fed-up to the back teeth with this relentless frickin' agitprop that the Left-coast doofuses are flinging at us. Of course it's possible this movie has more factual basis than Fahrenheit 9/11. But then so did Spider-Man 2.

Posted by: David Gillies at 09:58 PM