Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) is attacked in Iraqi-held territory in Kuwait. In a quick flash of nocturnal action, a platoon led by Army Capt. The two works bore deeply into the heads - literally, in this case - of their central characters, to scary effect in both instances.īoth “Candidates” begin on the battlefield, in wars set about a decade prior to their making then it was Korea now it’s the Gulf War. Pakula’s shadow-world suspensers of the ’70s: “Klute,” “The Parallax View” and “All the President’s Men.” By outfitting the superbly insinuating basic story with a battery of up-to-the-minute concerns that readily feed on present fears and suspicions, Demme and screenwriters Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris inject new life into a recently dormant genre - the paranoid thriller - that talented filmmakers might do well to revisit more regularly.Īfter making his biggest career stumble last year with “The Truth About Charlie” (a remake of another cherished ’60s title, “Charade”), Demme has bounced back with a picture that, in unexpected ways, stands as a companion piece to “The Silence of the Lambs.” Both films, in the end, are about mind control and manipulation, about the diverse ways that evil can be instilled in well-intended people. Worryingly superior stuff.Despite its basis in the Richard Condon novel and George Axelrod script that drove the 1962 film, Demme’s picture, with its ambiguous mood and unsettling tension, also recalls Alan J. The performances (especially that of Streep) are spot-on, the script extraordinarily up-to-date, and Demme’s direction – particularly the creation of unease through the subtle use of sound and odd direct-to-camera dialogue – a real return to form after his last film. Nothing surprising about that, really, except that this is a Hollywood genre movie, and it’s terrific, for once, to see a sharp, slick, adult, darkly comic thriller whose more outlandish aspects – brainwashing by implant, say – succeed so well as metaphors for contemporary reality. Here is an America where truth, democracy and proper ethical considerations are imperilled not by Cold War enemies but by unbridled late capitalism itself dynastic ambition, hollow patriotism, meaningless slogans, the fuelling of fear and paranoia, media complicity and puppet figureheads under the influence of shady, self-serving global conglomerates are the order of the day. Suspense and sly humour are again in abundance, as is political relevance.
Happily, this extremely timely entertainment matches, even perhaps surpasses its predecessor. Given the classic status of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 movie, Jonathan Demme, his cast and writers Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris were risking ridicule in taking on another version of Richard Condon’s novel. Marco’s dreams don’t disappear, but Melvin does – at least until he’s found drowned in the Potomac. But only when he’s approached by Al Melvin (Jeffrey Wright) does he realise he’s not alone in his psychic turmoil, and begin to suspect that there’s more than meets the eye to the much-vaunted heroic acts allegedly performed by Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) when they were ambushed in the desert: much vaunted because Shaw, with not a little ‘encouragement’ and ‘help’ from his fiercely ambitious mother, Senator Ellie Shaw (Meryl Streep), is running as vice-presidential candidate in the upcoming elections. Major Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) suffers nightmares, related somehow to his experiences in Kuwait in 1991.