This movie was yet another one of Demme's movies that I have come to appreciate. The way the movie starts reminded me somewhat of Apocalypse Now with its colors and great war scenes, and while it did get dull at some points in the middle, the last thirty minutes of this picture are truly something to enjoy. While this movie was completely different from the previous I watched, Silence of the Lambs, there were numerous characteristics of Demme's work that I noticed in both. One being how he creates suspense and the other the cinematography that is used in both movies.
Like in the previous movie I really enjoyed the way that Demme played suspense into this film. While there was in my mind quite a bit of boring stuff until I was actually intrigued, once it started to get good I was into the movie more than most other movies I've seen. The biggest point of suspense in this picture in my mind is when Denzel Washington is supposed to assassinate the president during the presidents victory party. This simple idea is played out for several minutes and a lot of suspense and mystery is put on whether or not he is going to do it and if he doesn't what's going to happen and what will happen to him. I think all these questions that I found myself asking myself during this sequence were really what makes the suspense so good. Because I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone that hasn't seen it, I don't want to go into any more detail as to what happens but the big twist that is put in the movie at this point is really eye opening.
As far as the cinematography goes the main thing that I noticed in both movies are a lot of close up shots of the actors faces. This occurs primarily when they are talking to each other but also throughout the movie by themselves and at other times. These shots add a sense of "better understanding" as to what is going through the characters mind and his emotions at that point in time. Demme would do this a lot with Hannibal in Silence of the Lambs making him look crazy and he also did it quite a bit with Ben Marco, the ex-army Captain played by Denzel Washington. There were also other close ups that involved the second most important character being Raymond Shaw played by Liev Shrieber.
With the cinematography and the way that Demme orchestrates suspense into his movies, I can't wait to see if the last film of his I choose to watch is similar, or falls short of my new found expectations of this director.
2 comments:
This movie was O.K. but it seemed so weird seeing Demme's Manchurian Candidate over Silence of the lambs. The movie was so different and I would rather see Demme direct more suspense and horror films rather than this film.
This movie was just okay because the plot wasn't the greatest. I thought that Denzel Washington did a great job of playing the psycho crazy guy, which brought the movie up a notch. It's always fun to watch a movie about a psycho guy, just as in Silence of the Lambs.
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