Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The new Manchurian Candidate DVD

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-16-2004, 09:45 PM:

Today, I picked up MGM's new collector's edition DVD release of "The Manchurian Candidate," for quite a bargain. Wal-Mart had it for under $10. $9.67 to be exact, that for a new release that is also on the AFI 100 list of great American films.

When you think about innovative movies in film history, "The Manchurian Candidate" certainly ranks as one of the greats in that regard. You can see this film's influence in movies featuring political intrigue and conspiracy. Even TV shows like "The X-Files" and "24" owe something to "The Manchurian Candidate."

Lots of people don't realize this film was pulled out of circulation for roughly 25 years. "The Manchurian Candidate" was made a year before the assassination of President Kennedy. The parallels between this movie and that tragedy were just too similar and the distibutor pulled it. The film surfaced again in the late 1980's.

Angela Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for her performance of a character miles away from "Murder She Wrote." The acting style in the film is still set in older conventions, and one can argue the character played by Janet Leigh is superfluous to the plot (it's just an underwritten love-interest part for Sinatra's character). The movie makes up for that older feeling with some great one-liners and other moments of great satire. One of the best is the Joe Macarthy-like puppet-Senator Iselin asking his controlling wife if they can settle on one number for how many communists are in the government. She sees his putting sauce on his steak. Cut to him shouting in congress, "there are 57 communists in" and blah blah blah. You get the joke.

You see other elements of more modern filmmaking styles showing themselves. John Frankenheimer was a veteran of directing live TV shows. He runs the gamut from handheld documentary type run-and-gun shooting to executing some very difficult shots. There's one scene early in the film (in the famous dream sequence) where the camera pans around the set and the set changes without any edits. It goes from a group of soldiers sitting amongst what they think are a group of old ladies talking about gardening to room filled with Chinese and Soviet intelligence officers. If a director were to attempt a shot like that today, he would just rig up a computerized motion-control camera system and do two passes. It is amazing Frankenheimer could pull off that shot without all the modern gear.

This new DVD has some other nifty features, but some are recycled from previous releases, such as the commentary track by the film's late director. The interview between Frank Sinatra, George Axelrod and John Frankenheimer reveals Sinatra broke a finger on a table during a fight scene between him and Henry Silva. I figured the table was just a breakaway type of thing. But Sinatra holds up his hand to show off the knot that was still there decades later.

This DVD is also a must buy or must rent title for anyone planning to see the upcoming remake, directed by Jonathan Demme and placing Denzel Washington into the Bennett Macro role originally played by Sinatra. The original had the Cold War and Macarthy-ism as a backdrop and inspiration. From the looks of the trailer, the remake will shift the role of bad guys and brainwashers over to the corporate world. I wish I could be more optimistic about this upcoming release, but I think it will either pass acceptably or fail very very badly. Doing a remake of qualified classic is risky business.

******

A bit about the technical details of the DVD, the movie is black and white and anamorphic enhanced widescreen (the box says 1.75:1 aspect ratio). The transfer looks decent, not quite as good as other black and white DVDs in my collection like "Citizen Kane" and "Schindler's List". The movie has both the original mono track and a new Dolby Digital 5.1 track. For 5.1 stuff, this one has a very front heavy mix. There's a little bit of action in the surrounds for the opening scenes in Korea (such as some gun shots in left-surround, and sounding odd to be there with everything else up front). Not much LFE to speak of either. But, hey, this is a DVD you buy for the content. There's tons of DVDs on the store shelves sporting great video transfers, awesome surround sound mixes, but are still pieces of crap. This DVD is recommended even if it doesn't rattle the air in your chest with sub-bass.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-16-2004, 11:44 PM:

"When you think about innovative movies in film history, "The Manchurian Candidate" certainly ranks as one of the greats in that regard. You can see this film's influence in movies featuring political intrigue and conspiracy. Even TV shows like "The X-Files" and "24" owe something to "The Manchurian Candidate."
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I don't quite agree with that assumptiom. I think we owe alot more to the likes of Orsen Welles for that particuluar style or look if you want to call it that. "Touch of Evil" came along four years before Manchurian did and really set the tone for the pictures of the 60's and then there is Lady From Shanghi with the incredible house of mirror sequence...... and many Welles pictures before 1958 as well. He was indeed way ahead of his time.

Mark

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-17-2004, 01:26 PM:

Like Bobby, I also picked up the DVD at the same price he paid for it. I had the original DVD pressing but I never got it back after I had loaned it to '"a friend". In a way it was a blessing this had happened because the new release is much better than the previous one. I agree with both Bobby and Mark on both John Frankenheimer and Orson Welles's film making techniques.

The picture and sound quality as Bobby had mentioned is not as good as many other recent B&W reissues such as the Marx Brothers or Tarzan films but it is still very good and much ,much better than the horrid VHS tape I once had of the film.

I have seen the trailler for the remake many times and if the film turns out as good in my opinion as the recent "THE STEPFORD WIVES", I will be very happy. From what I saw in the trailer, the film looks very promising.

-Claude

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-17-2004, 06:44 PM:

My favorite John Frankenfurter film is "Seconds" with Rock Hudson. James Wong Howe's cinematography is extremely striking in this film.

Mark