The bad guy is ... (yawn) ... a corporation

For the latest in my continuing series of providing movie spoilers (two is a series, right?) I look at the Manchurian Candidate, which also opened this weekend. No hidden text this time, because I don't think there's really any secret here -- the evil force trying to gain control of the White House is a corporation, Manchurian Global, instead of the Reds.

It's very strange that in these days when the Western world is threatened by Islamic terrorism, Hollywood is unable to make a movie that implicates Islamic terrorists as the villains. The idea probably came up as the screenwriters worked on updating the plot of the old Manchurian Candidate to modern times, but they rejected it. To un-PC, I guess. Too dangerous a subject. Better to keep their heads buried in the sand.

But a corporation! Really, could there be any more of a clichéd enemy in movies? White guys in suits, smoking cigars and holding meetings in wood-paneled offices. But that's Hollywood shorthand for evil these days. Not a scarred face and bad teeth, but a cell phone and shiny black shoes. As part of the promo for the movie, they created a website for Manchurian Global. It's pretty well done -- at first I thought it was a real company that had the same name. But when you look a bit, you find the standard friendly business-babble twisted in with the paranoid fantasies of the wackier fringes of the left:

"Imagine a world beyond borders, where global commerce is free to flourish, where resources are available to those who are willing to work hardest. Imagine the future of Manchurian Global. Be part of it."
-- Jonathan Bai, Senior Advisor

"Skill, intellect, and a keen eye for the unexplored will propel Manchurian Global beyond all others in the quest for the world's finite economic resources."
-- Marcus Bollen, Senior Counselor

Clever.

Mistrust of corporations has always been around, but it seems more widespead and acceptable nowadays. Significant portions of the population believe the war in Iraq was cooked up by a secret cabal of oil companies and defence contractors. All you have to do is say the name, 'Haliburton' to some people to set them off ranting about their latest conspiracy theory. I really wonder what it'll take to wake people up to who the real enemy is.

Posted by Bruce Gottfred at August 2, 2004 11:01 AM | TrackBack