The Manchurian Candidate Old & New
1962 & 2004
Manchurian Candidate is a political thriller novel about a son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for the Communist Party. However there's two version of this film,the first one was written in 1962, it was filmed in black and white and there was less scene with blood in it, most of the violence was suffocating people possibly because they hadn't discovered ways of making scene of false blood. The characters all fairly looked the same the men all have dark hair fairly tall.The background music is very predictable, there's less diegetic sound in the older version than the newest one made in 2004
The new version was released in 2004, it's significant because it shows how time has changed, first of all a black man is the front cover of this film which wouldn't of been acceptable in 1962, the actor Denzel Washington is one of the main character and he's black not only is he the only black person in the film but also a police officer in the film. In the original, there was a lot of background on Shaw's relationship with Jocelyn, and you actually developed sympathy for him; but mainly, Laurence Harvey was an outstanding actor. The heartfelt love between Raymond and Jocelyn was expanded upon much more, in addition to the warmth Raymond shared with her father, Senator Jordan. As a result, the girl's and her father's murders in the 1962 version was much more horrifying. In the remake, there's no underlying emotion when he kills them. As a result, we, as the audience, really don't care.
As you can see, the films have changed in different areas. The most recent one is more fast paced and current. It is more aggressive and gritty. Another change is that the most recent film is in colour. This is very helpful as the original film's black and white feature is not as appealing. more colour means more clarity.
Overall, I believe the remake is much better than the original because there is more action, red herrings and cliffhangers.
