Same As It Ever Was

Paramount Pictures

Welcome to the corporation: Denzel Washington in 'The Manchurian Candidate'

Related Content

• Corin Tucker on her band, feminism, and Portlandia
  September 13, 2012
• New Year's music is far better than Christmas music
  December 31, 2012
• Tony Bennett at State Theatre, 1/20/13
  January 21, 2013
• Up in the air: How Minneapolis became a flyover city for major rap artists
  January 13, 2012
• Gossip at Fine Line, 10/6/12
  October 8, 2012

More About

• Jonathan Demme
• John Frankenheimer
• Frank Sinatra
• Wyclef Jean
• Raymond Shaw

"I ain't no millionaire's son," Jean sneers over the opening shot of soldiers, skins of every hue, playing cards in a crowded vehicle, small in the Iraqi desert. All of them will be dead before the movie ends. At one point, a rogue scientist tells Marco that brainwashing requires no expensive technology: just electroshock and sleep deprivation. In other words: our constant media noise. A scene at a political convention shows a spectacle of music and video, the crowd orchestrated into a frenzy. Even the "good" guys manipulate image. How do we, the brainwashed, learn to distinguish between what is real and what is not? According to the cost, says Demme. And he's not talking about the cost in dollars.