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"Manchurian Candidate Kills Bill" posted April 19, 2004 at 09:47 PM

I saw two movies this weekend. At home I watched "The Manchurian Candidate." In the theater, I saw "Kill Bill Vol. 2". Both are brilliant.

"The Manchurian Candidate" is from 1962, but it's amazingly appropriate to today's politics. I always forget what a good actor Frank Sinatra was--even though "Anchors Away" is my favorite old movie musical--and he's really great in this paranoid political thriller. He looked older than I'd expect for 1962, same year as his Strangers in the Night album. Anyway, he and Laurence Harvey play Korean War vets who were brainwashed by a vast Asian/Russian Communist conspiracy. (Don't learn too much about the plot before seeing it, as it has twists that are wonderful). Angela Lansbury plays Harvey's overbearing mother, who is on a Commie witch-hunt. At one point she recites a speech that sounds like it came right out of George W. Bush's mouth: She says the current political situation is a war and "it will get worse and worse until every man, woman, and child in this country will have to stand up and be counted, to say whether they are on the side of right and freedom or on the side of the Thomas Jordans [her politcal opponent] of this country. I will go with you to Washington, tomorrow if you like, and I will show you documented proof that this man stands for evil, that he is evil, and that his whole life is devoted to undermining everything that you and I and Johnny, and every freedom-minded American..."....it fades out as her son covers his ears! Lansbury steals every scene she's in. Also, weirdly, while I was watching it I thought there were obvious references to Lee Harvey Oswald, except of course that this is 1962 and Kennedy wasn't assassinated until 63. (I read later on the web that rumors circulated that Oswald had watched this movie...).

"Kill Bill" is so stylish and over-the-top. I think most of the critics I've read are right: the first one was the Samarai movie, this one is the Spaghetti Western. Uma Thurman rocks. Ethan Hawke must have something wrong with him for cheating on her. My assistant said today he wanted a little less talking, but I loved the weird dialogue. Tarantino writes the characters like they've known each other for years and they know what they're talking about but we're left to pick up on the inside jokes and lingo. True, nothing in Vol. 2 made me feel like I was about to fly out of my seat with excitement like some things in Vol. 1 did. But this one is purposefully slower, so I slowed down with it. The soundtrack is amazing too--with tons of Latin music, country songs, and weird trumpets popping up all over the place.


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