Living in Washington, D.C. has, of course, made me much more aware of politics, although there's something about getting older that has something to do with it as well. Browsing the video store racks the other day brought up this classic, which neither of us had seen, although I had tried to catch it at the AFI Silver Theater last year.

Labeled as film-noir, The Manchurian Candidate is actually a bit of science-fiction, albeit of the psychological/sociological 1970s type rather than the 1950s/1980s big idea type or the 1980s/1990s we're all living in the grimy future type. Laurence Havey plays Raymond Shaw, a stuck-up sticky-beat of a 'Nam Sergeant, whose company dislikes him, even his second in command, Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra). But when Shaw brings in most of his company from deep behind enemy lines, Marco puts Shaw up for the Congressional Medal of Honor. His homecoming is greeted with fanfare, as much choreographed by his mother for her own purposes of keeping Shaw's stepfather in the limelight as he's up for re-election to the Senate next year. But something's wrong, because Marco's having nightmares about that time spent behind enemy lines, and it may have something to do with Shaw.

To write anything more about the plot is to give some of the mystery away, and while it's not that hard to figure out by modern audiences, now blaise from the trickery of more recent films like L.A. Confidential, The Usual Suspects, and Memento, it works toward a solid conclusion with some nice twists along the way. There's a bit of a red herring involved in a sudden and strange romance for the main character, but the writer remains honest with the audience for the most part. Everyone sweats a lot here: Sinatra actually can act, and Angela Lansbury gives one of the best performances as the grasping mother that puts Joan Crawford to shame.

I see from the Internet Movie Database that Jonathan Demme is remaking this movie, with Denzel Washington in the Sinatra role and Meryl Streep as Shaw's mother. I hope it's not a straight remake and that the new film plays upon the deeper cynicism that we have today. This 1962 version made a strong statement about McCarthyism; perhaps a 2004 remake could point out some of the similar neoconservative, "Patriot Act" flaws?