Tuesday, June 3, 2003

YOU COULDN'T HAVE STOPPED THEM, THE ARMY COULDN'T HAVE STOPPED THEM. SO I HAD TO: Forget about the complaining about Ben and JLo remaking Casablanca. Forget even my complaints that The Great Gatsby is being remade by an N'Sync member and a Hilton sister. That's nothing.

Because now Jonathan Demme is riding on my sacred horse, and I can't stand for it. Demme is remaking The Manchurian Candidate, and Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep have already been cast in the Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury roles.

Look: I love Denzel Washington. I like Meryl Streep, and it's a good role for her. I think Jonathan Demme's on a bit of a downward spiral with The Truth About Charlie and Beloved, but I'm not going to pour any HaterAde on the man who also made Silence of the Lambs, Married to the Mob and Stop Making Sense.

But The Manchurian Candidate is one of those movies that should not be touched. Ever. By anyone. It is a perfect piece of filmmaking by John Frankenheimer, a frightening depiction of brainwashing, ambition, paranoia, and Oedipal issues. It is chilling. It is a brilliant reflection of its times, and ought not be remade in our own.

If you've seen it, you know. If you haven't seen it, rent it tomorrow night and watch it after Fame.

(Tonight, of course, is an AFI 100/100 Night, and there are few better ways to let three hours pass than by admiring and criticizing the Institute's choices. I mean, if Angela Lansbury doesn't make the cut for her Manchurian performance . . . )

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