I will freely admit that I have little faith in remakes. I will also admit that this remake when I first heard about it made me angry. I’m quite a fan of the original and thoughts of Van Sant’s PSYCHO went through my head. I also hated the idea of changing the setting to the original Gulf War. Brainwashing just seemed more feasible when Communists were involved.
However, what I got was an ode to current political paranoias like the original one was on fears of the 1950s. Director Jonathan Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) has constructed a tight thriller with a lot to say about the current geo-political climate. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, TRAINING DAY) is a decorated military officer who has been having dreams about an incident in Iraq just prior to the first Gulf War, which lead to Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, A WALK ON THE MOON) being decorated as a war hero. Now Shaw is the vice-presidential candidate and things don’t seem right to Marco, who tries to convince anyone who’ll listen that he isn’t crazy.
He meets Rosie (Kimberly Elise, BELOVED), who says she works at the grocery store, which seems to sound a little more fishy the more we see of her. There’s even a senator named Thomas Jordan (Jon Voight, COMING HOME). Behind Shaw is his mother Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep, ADAPTATION), who is a major player in her political party.
One thing that the film gets so right is that it never once names the political party of the Shaws. You can read it both ways if you want (even though the appearance of Al Franken makes things lean to the left). In this version, a corporation wants to put their man in the White House. The film deals with issues of lobbyists, private contracted military personnel and multinational conglomerates infiltrating government.
Great performances and timely issues make this an above average thriller. There are even enough changes from the original that fans will find new things in this film. Washington is stellar as usual, same as Streep. The wonderful Jeffrey Wright (ANGELS IN AMERICA) makes a great turn in a small role as a mentally disturbed soldier.
This remake is a new take on a classic tale. I’ll still say the original is better, but I couldn’t really tell you why. Maybe it’s the black and white photography. Maybe it’s the Communists. Maybe its just Frank Sinatra. I’m not quite sure. However, it doesn’t diminish the successfulness of the new version. Sometimes being wrong is a great thing.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
