Well, dear readers, I enjoyed my day off yesterday but am ready to get back to the show today. We’re in the home stretch now and every moment counts. Did you know that every moment counts? Every moment does this all day long – it just counts and counts, sometimes up to fifty. In any case, today we have a run-through at three and our first time in front of an audience at eight. I know that many cast members from the tour of The Producers will be with us tonight. I’ve been told that all the little touchups that needed to be done, set and lighting-wise, were completed yesterday, and the floor has a new coat of paint. We have to run a couple of light cues a few times, since new elements have been added and we need to make certain they work the way we want them to. I’m hoping Susanne will just fit right back into the energy of the show after having been away for the weekend. I will, of course, have a full report for you, but do send us all your excellent hainsies/kimlets vibes and xylophones.
Yesterday, I saw a motion picture entitled The Manchurian Candidate. Of course, I have seen The Manchurian Candidate many times, but this time I saw a film masquerading as The Manchurian Candidate – a Manchurian Candidate poseur, as it were. I’ve been reading reviews of the film and I must say the usual suspects are falling all over themselves to cut Mr. Jonathan Demme some slack, as they always do, even after his horrid remake of Charade. They trot out the usual hyperbole about how Mr. Demme hasn’t so much remade The Manchurian Candidate as reimagined The Manchurian Candidate. Note to usual suspects: Mr. Demme is not the screenwriter of this film, hence he did not reimagine, reinvent or re anything regarding the script. What the writers did was simply rewrite The Manchurian Candidate (from both Mr. George Axelrod’s original script and the book by Richard Condon), only they rewrote it using the Robert McKee/Syd Field formula – in other words, not very well. It’s been tarted up with all manner of silly twists which have nothing to do with anything and which harm any chance the film had at being interesting. That’s the mantra of film today – it’s all about twists and turns instead of storytelling. The original had a few twists but that’s not what the film was about, that’s not what made it great, and that’s not what made it unique. There is some very risible dialogue in the remake, each scene is two pages long, and all the bite has been taken out of it. The changes are all for the worse. The most egregious for me is the total neutering of the Senator Jordan and his daughter Jocie subplot. If you’ve never seen the original, skip to the next paragraph please. In the original, Miss Leslie Parrish’s performance is so wonderful, and you care so much about her and her positive influence on Laurence Harvey, that when the big scene with Mr. Harvey, Mr. McGiver (as Senator Jordan) and Miss Parrish occurs, it is one of the most coldly shocking scenes in all of cinema. Here, you don’t know anything other than a passing reference to Jocie and Raymond Shaw’s relationship, so the big scene has no impact whatsoever, and it also makes no sense in the context of the way the new film changes things. In fact, it’s so incredibly stupid that you just sit there and scratch your head. Meryl Streep takes a totally different approach to Raymond’s mother, the role played to perfection by Angela Lansbury in the original. Miss Streep is fine, but the way the character is written is not so hot and there’s no chill to it at all. Several critics have said that Miss Streep will be taking home the Oscar that Miss Lansbury so richly deserved. I say not. The critics are also comparing this film to The Parallax View – it should be so lucky. In fact, I’d wager that The Parallax View is mentioned in the press kit, because literally every review I’ve read has mentioned it, and we do know some of these reviewers most likely don’t even know what The Parallax View is. I find Liev Schreiber unconvincing, but he’s better here than I’ve seen him before. Denzel Washington is fine, and the film is littered with little Jonathan Demme in-jokes, like performances by Roger Corman, Charles Napier, and on and on. The film looks fine, but it’s just bad on so many levels – none worse than the by-the-numbers script, making it a real film for “today’s generation” – whatever the hell that means. That was actually something I read in one of the reviews – that this Manchurian Candidate was for today’s generation. Heaven help us. Leave the classics alone, say I, and try to actually come up with a new idea or a new slant on an old idea. I wouldn’t think quite so little of this had they called it something else.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, after all, we’re in the home stretch.
I just stretched in my home in honor of being in the home stretch. It was fun, and then I cracked my toes. Don’t forget, Donald has a new radio show up for you to listen to, so check it out.
I finished watching the DVD of The Counterfeit Traitor. As I said in yesterday’s notes, I really like this movie a lot (I saw it four times on its original release). There have been many complaints about the transfer, but it’s not the disaster you’ve heard. The colors are accurate and lively, but the whole print is slightly out of registration, resulting in a less-than-sharp image. But I’ve seen much much worse, and I’m thrilled to have this in its proper ratio and enhanced for widescreen TVs. I love William Holden, and he’s excellent here, as is Lili Palmer and a terrific supporting cast. There is also a great score by Alfred Newman. I’m now watching Judgment at Nuremburg, which I’m enjoying. More about that later.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must do some morning errands, I must rehearse, I must run light cues, and I must prepare for our first invited audience and our final dress rehearsal tonight because, after all, we are in the home stretch. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movies with a political theme – thrillers, comedies, dramas. I’ll start – obviously the original The Manchurian Candidate, The Parallax View, All the President’s Men, Advise and Consent and quite a few others. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, as we enter the home stretch.