"The Manchurian Candidate" will close the F9/11 sale. Bush is TOAST.

[TruthIsAll]

"The Manchurian Candidate", coming out this week, will take the baton from f9/11. It will solidify the threat of Bushian brainwashing, fear-mongering, warmongering and the illegal 2000 selection.

I remember the 1962 original. That was one scary flick. Especially the mother (Angela Lansbury) who uses her brainwashed, programmed son (Korean War hero Lawrence Harvey) in an attempted assassination coup.

It was relevant then and much more so today. The bogeyman was Communism then. Its Terrorism now.

Only the actors have changed. In 1954 it was the alcoholic Sen. Joe McCarthy calling people traitors, using scare tactics, commanding the airwaves. But Joseph Welch came along at the McCarthy hearings and asked "Have you no sense of decency, sir"? And McCarthy was TOAST.

Today its Bush and the corporate whores, brainwashing the American people daily.

But new heroes like Michael Moore and Joe Wilson are making sure that the Little Dictator and his Cheney Cabal are exposed for the corrupt criminals they are. And Bush will soon be TOAST.

[sniffa]

1. odd - a few weeks ago

the word out of the RW pundits was, "john kerry is the manchurian candidate", which didn't make much sense to me, but those guys make bLankets out of a swatch.

[seabeyond]

2. a year ago i was wondering what hollywood

crowd was doing and why they were so quiet. now i know, lol and a wink

coolest

[Worst Username Ever]

3. I am not sure how this movie will be interpreted...

I was getting the impression that it is more pro-repug, but then again I never saw the original. Is this true??

[calico1]

5. I read somehwhere that

they were either trying to change some scenes or some makeup on Meryl Streep because she looked and acted too much like Hillary Clinton and they felt it would be bad. Anyone remember any of this? I have never seen the original movie so I am not familiar with the story.

[NYCGirl]

8. Streep said she based her performance on Peggy Noonan & Karen Hughes (eom)

NT

[jedicord]

13. Actually, she said that no one has guessed it yet...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=579&e=4&u=/nm/20040720/en_nm/film_streep_dc

This is too rich: "There is a rumor that Paramount asked to tone down scenes that were too much like Hillary Clinton," Streep said. "That disturbed me.


Streep, an Oscar winner for her roles in "The Deer Hunter" and "Sophie's Choice," said she viewed one Internet story about her "Manchurian" performance as part of an insidious attack on Clinton.


"These are high-stakes games these people are playing, high-stakes games, and it gave me the chills when I looked it up," she said.


"And I thought, 'Oh my god. So this is how they get Hillary," she said, insisting, "this is so far from Hillary Clinton.


"This isn't paranoia, this is called misinformation. Disinformation, I guess you call it. It's manipulating public opinion with a fake buzz."

[NYCGirl]

19. Streep mentioned Noonan and Hughes to Entertainment Weekly

First released in 1962, using the Cold War as a backdrop (and then taken out of release for decades following JFK’s 1963 assassination), the film has been remade under the direction of Jonathan Demme and will hit theaters on July 30. Now set during the first Gulf War era, the new version stars Denzel Washington as Capt./Maj. Bennett Marco (Sinatra’s role in the original) and Liev Schreiber as SSgt. Raymond Shaw (this time as a Gulf War veteran instead of the Korean war hero original cast member Laurence Harvey played). Meryl Streep, cast as Mrs. Iselinin (the role that Angela Lansbury made unforgettable), has disclosed that to prepare for her role as Raymond's evil dragon mother, she watched a string of political talk shows. "Anything with Peggy Noonan Karen Hughes," Streep told Entertainment Weekly. "It’s hard to get more hyperbolic than that."

http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/05/far04017.html

[louis-t]

26. Yeah, if Meryl had put on 30lbs.

she would look just like Hughes!

[Kathy in Cambridge]

9. No, the candidate is a creation of a corporation

which is taking over the government. Very anti-corporatist.

[Terran]

15. I don't think that parties are mentioned in the original film, but

if you see it, it's obvious which characters are supposed to be Republican because the ringer is a Joe McCarthy clone, mindlessly patriotic and crude. His counterpart is mild, soft-spoken, but with high principles and brave in the face of intimidation (and he gets offed by the bad guys, hmmmm...).

It was definitely not a pro-Republican film. Hard to say if it actually had a political agenda, as such; it was a political thriller, wherein people who stood by traditional ideas of political fairness and right were the 'good guys.'

[XNASA]

4. Watch the original for the first time just last night.

What a great movie. Landsbury really gave me the creeps.

[Connie_Corleone]

7. I might have to rent it.

I've never seen it either.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

10. Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being

I've ever known in my life.

[David Zephyr]

11. Wow! I Just Had Said the Same Thing.

How odd.

[WarNoMore]

12. Dean Koontz

wrote a book, "False Memory", that uses "The Manchurian Candidate" as the basis of its plot. It is all too believable and very creepy.

[jedicord]

14. Dean Koontz is Creepy

but man, am I addicted to his novels!

[Autobot77]

43. Same here...

Its unfortunate he's a repuke.

[jedicord]

47. Really? I'm so surprised!

Since his novels are about (basically) the underhandedness of the government, and I truly think he had to do some hardcore drugs to come up with some of his ideas.

Thank goodness I get his books from the library, and don't pay for them. Ick!

[Autobot77]

53. Yep

True, it seems from his novels he would be more libertarian, especially Dark Rivers of the Heart and From the Light of the Moon.However Newsmeat.com shows Dean Koontz and his wife Gerda consistantly contributing to Republican candidiates.

[Tosca]

50. Landsbury really gave me the creeps.

Unbelievable performance. Evil personified.

And from what I hear, Meryl will take the Oscar this time around.

[NeonLX]

6. Hope yer right...

...but I honestly think people are more brainwashed than they were back in the 1950s. The corporate media are much more invasive now than they were back then. A lot of people didn't even have TVs in the McCarthy era; now people own several of them in one house. As an old guy, I've been watching this trend over the years--people actually do seem more gullible to me now than they did even 30 years ago...

[maggrwaggr]

16. from the Hollywood Reporter's review:

And while a conscious attempt has been made not to align Raymond with any particular political party, a number of the film's plot points, including the concept of a manufactured presidential candidate and a compliant media in an era of heightened terrorist activity, will likely bring a smirk to Michael Moore's face.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000580589

[ContinentalOp]

17. Don't forget that the original film was "disappeared".

It was pulled out of circulation and I believe not seen for decades after it's original release. I wonder if that will happen again :)

[LibertyGal]

20. Pulled due to Kennedy assassination

It was pulled after President Kennedy was killed. Too close in content to the actual event. Nothing more than that to it.

[theboss]

22. No, it wasn't

That's the legend that started around the film. Sinatra got involved in a fight over the ownership of the film and kept it out of circulation for years until he got the rights to it.

[VolcanoJen]

27. The film was pulled 13 months before Kennedy's assassination.

The current issue of Newsweek claims it was pulled just weeks after its initial release, as the Cuban Missile Crisis heating up; at the time, shocking images in the film were considered too controversial, such as a knife cutting into an American flag.

[stanwyck]

32. Wrong.

You're thinking of a different movie where Sinatra played an hired killer. I'll have to find you the name...but NOT Manchurian Candidate. Quit listening to rightwing hate radio. Full of errors.

[NYCGirl]

33. The movie you mentioned is called "Suddenly"

[stanwyck]

35. Thanks!

smart lady.

[ContinentalOp]

36. So why was Manchurian Candidate pulled from distribution?

I had heard in film school (not from right-wing radio) that Sinatra pulled Manchurian Candidate from distribution after the JFK assasination. I just did quite a bit of online searching and found a reference that said this story had been debunked but I couldn't find any actual debunking. It's interesting that this exact same story would circulate around another Sinatra film (Suddenly). Is it possible that both films were merely flops and Sinatra found an astute way to create a little long-lasting buzz and mystery around the two movies?

[NYCGirl]

37. Here's some info...

http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200109/0274.html

[nolabels]

52. That really was interesting, thanks

:-)

[LibertyGal]

18. Hillary is toasted

From what I have read, Meryl Streep plays a Hillary look-alike meglomaniac. I think this movie will hurt her, more than Bush.

[NYCGirl]

21. Incorrect — see post #19 (eom)

NT

[jedicord]

23. And #13...

"And I thought, 'Oh my god. So this is how they get Hillary," she said, insisting, "this is so far from Hillary Clinton.

[VolcanoJen]

28. The role was originally of a senator's wife, played by Angela Lansbury.

The only change made between the original script and today's is that the role has been changed to that of a female Senator. Things changed for women between 1961 and 2004, and it would be silly in modern context to have the character remain a Senator's spouse.

Hillary is hardly the first powerful woman in the history of the United States, and it's laughable to think that Streep has no other real-life persons on which to draw her inspiration than Hillary. There are simply no similarities between the character and the current New York Senator, other than their gender.

My guess is Streep drew inspiration from a composite of power-hungry men throughout American history. Is that so much of a stretch?

[Name removed]

29. self edited

self edited

[stanwyck]

31. Wrong.

Karen Hughes, possibly. But Meryl says absolutely NOT Hillary. Sorry. You'll have to go back to hate-radio for your Hillary bashing.

[Octafish]

38. Why does the right HATE Hilary Clinton?

Could it be she is intelligent?
Could it be she can do a better job than any of them ever will be able to do?
Could it be she's a true Christian - one who loves others, even her enemies?
Just askin'.



The only job for which George W. Bush is qualified.
This is not my monkey.

[maggrwaggr]

41. Yeah, I don't get it. I'm a Dem and I hate Hillary

imagine that, something in common with the RW nutjobs.

Hillary's a DINO.

[Octafish]

42. Good point.

So maybe Bill is smarter. And he was closer to a puke than a Lib. But then, that doesn't explain the nutjob's POV.

[LuminousX]

49. That is why the Right hate her

She was once one of them and she left them.

I don't hate her, I just don't think she is the second coming. She is a competent woman doing a competent job. I do feel she is closer to Lieberman than to Kennedy, though.

[Ms. Clio]

40. You wish it would hurt Hillary more than Bush, sweetie

Only 4?

Did you win?

[theboss]

24. I'm still pissed about this movie

I absolutely love the original. I know the cast is good, but why screw with a nearly perfect film? There is simply no way to improve upon the concept.

[ContinentalOp]

30. I'm sure it won't be an improvement on the original,

but at least it looks like they've changed the story a bit. A straight remake would have been even more annoying. At first I instinctively turned my nose up at the idea of a new Manchurian Candidate but after watching the trailer I think I might like to see it.

[villager]

25. new Manchurian Candidate sent by Halliburton!

it seems to be a pretty interesting remake, given the current political climate. I posted some excerpts from the Variety review here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=1431087&mesg_id=1431087

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

56. The ManChimpian Candidate, a Chimp turned into a Puppet Man

[TrustingDog]

34. movie poster.

[fishwax]

48. Nice Poster

And Paul Krugman's Tuesday column "The Arabian Candidate" was, of course, spot on ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/opinion/20krug.html?th

[Octafish]

39. Nice theory you got there, TruthIsAll!

Very nice.



What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
What was Raymond doing with his hands!?!
(WHACK!)
To wipe the smirk off his face.

[clown]

45. you forgot the other line ;)

I just watched it for the first time last night, it was cheap because of the new one, and in that scene sinatra was alternating between 'what was raymond doing with his hands?' and some other line, something like 'how did that woman turn into a russian?'

[Octafish]

46. LOL! Yeah.

MARCO:
How did the old ladies turn into
Russians?! What was Raymond doing
with his hands?! What were you
doing there?! What was Raymond
doing with his hands?! What were
you doing there?!

LOL! That movie's a masterpiece. For everybody involved, from Sinatra and Lansbury and Leigh and Harvey and Frankenheimer and Axelrod...




BTW: A hearty welcome to DU, clown! I really like the moniker! Where ya been?

[clown]

55. thanks :)

well i was lurking for a while, then finally decided to join up, i dont post very often because it seems that by the time i get to a thread, everything has been said, but i still love to read the debates going on

[peacetalksforall]

44. I remember it not so much as a Repub or Dem thing, but as a

'this is what is possible' thing. And we've learned that a lot is possible. In those days it was also a politician-military thing as I remember it. Today it is a politician-corporate-military-banking-preacher thing. I'll go see it. Especially after reading that Meryl had Peggy Noonan in mind. Meryl - good Dem. Peggy - phoney suave. I was going to say something worse about Noonan.

[Spazito]

51. The original "Manchurian Candidate" is awesome....

I had only watched it once, years ago, and it was one of those movies that you remember vividly! Either earlier this year or late last year it was shown on television and I was able to watch it again, it was just as chilling the second time around. I am looking forward to the remake to compare!

[LeftHander]

54. DOn't forget to add moveon.org and Wes Boyd to heros...nt

[RamboLiberal]

57. Sludge is already railing against the movie

Claims Frank Rich of NYT is going to write that this movie is Dem propoganda.

"I cannot recall when Hollywood last released a big-budget mainstream feature film as partisan as this one at the height of a presidential campaign."

So believes NY TIMES's Frank Rich about the upcoming PARAMOUNT thriller MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

"Freed from any obligations to fact, MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE can play far dirtier than FAHRENHEIT 911," writes Rich in a column set for release this Sunday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

"This movie could pass for the de facto fifth day of the convention itself."

MORE

"The American people are terrified," says Streep's villainous senator early on as, John Ashcroft-style, she wields a national security report promising "another cataclysm, probably nuclear." And so we watch her and the rest of the Manchurian Global cabal exploit that fear in any way possible, using the mass media as a brainwashing tool, manipulating patriotic iconography for political ends. "Compassionate vigilance" is one campaign slogan. A televised election night rally features a Mount Rushmore backdrop (as in a signature Bush photo op) and a chorus line of heroic cops and firemen (reminiscent of the early Bush-Cheney ads exploiting the carnage at ground zero)."

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash7.htm

'WHAT WE NEED is more people who specialize in the impossible," said poet Theodore Roethke.
Would it be possible to can all the obvious speculation that Meryl Streep based her senator-villain in the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" on New York's real-life Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton?

The 13-time Oscar nominee has more imagination than that. Take it from me, the two people Meryl studied were Karen Hughes, the former and still-sometimes adviser to President George W. Bush, and Reagan speechwriter and conservative thinker Peggy Noonan.

And as I said yesterday, she added big dollops of her own Streep self. The funny part.

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/liz.htm

Politics and presidential elections were on everyone's lips at Monday's Gotham preem of "The Manchurian Candidate."

"This is a movie about political brainwashing, and we're right back there again now," said director Jonathan Demme. "I hope it has the potential for stimulating people to start thinking about the process because Lord knows we could use some stimulation," he added.

"It raises lots of questions and gets us thinking about assassinations and other things we went through and were traumatized by in the '60s," said Jon Voight, who plays a liberal senator bumped out of the vice presidential candidacy.

Even score collaborator Wyclef Jean and his band, who performed an exuberant set at the swanky uptown Metropolitan Club after-bash, displayed a political bent with his song "If I Was President."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1953&u=/variety/20040721/va_vp/preem_pumps_politics&printer=1

I rented the original after seeing previews for the new version at Fahreneheit 9-11. The original is really spooky and brings back memories of how spooky it must've been when it premiered back in 62 when a month later we would have the Cuban Missile Crisis and a year later JFK's assasination. I'm going to make sure I'm at the premiere in Pittsburgh of this new version. I think it will be interesting how it parallels current events and this administration.

[wishlist]

58. One reviewer said Meryl Streep reminds them more of Barbara Bush!

I had my back turned to the TV so don't know which reviewer and can't recall which network, but they were debunking the idea that Meryl was channeling Hillary.

I can't wait to see it. With this great cast and political controversy brewing, bets lots of other movie goers can't wait to see it either