The Manchurian Candidate

2004 film directed by Jonathan Demme

Film · TMDB

6.5

Years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, Major Ben Marco finds himself having terrible nightmares. He begins to doubt that his fellow squad-mate Sergeant Raymond Shaw, now a vice-presidential candidate, is the hero he remembers him being. As Marco's doubts deepen, Shaw's political power grows, and, when Marco finds a mysterious implant embedded in his back, the memory of what really happened begins to return.

Released: 2004-07-30130 minDir: Jonathan DemmeThriller, War

Cast

Denzel Washington as Major Bennett Ezekiel Marco
Meryl Streep as Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (D-VA)
Liev Schreiber as Congressman Raymond Prentiss Shaw (D-NY)
Simon McBurney as Dr. Atticus Noyle
Kimberly Elise as Rosie
Bruno Ganz as Delp

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Ratings

Article

The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American psychological political thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme. The film, based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel of the same name and a reworking of the previous 1962 film, stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier; Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate; Jon Voight as U.S. Senator Tom Jordan, a challenger for vice president; and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, also a U.S. Senator and Raymond's manipulative ruthless mother.

While the name of the novel and the earlier film was retained, the significance of "Manchurian" was changed. In the original, the protagonist was captured in the Korean War and brainwashed by the Chinese army in Manchuria. In the 2004 film, with the Korean War replaced by the Gulf War, Manchurian is instead used as the name of a sinister multinational company.