The Manchurian Candidate (1962 & 2004)

Continuing the themes we began exploring with last week's Videodrome, we dive more directly into considerations of political turmoil, election interference, and manipulation of our collective perspective. In 1962, John Frankenheimer's haunting film THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE painted a bleak picture of the ways people in power would take drastic measures to ensure they maintained that control. Starring Frank Sinatra, it told a tale of soldiers who were kidnapped and "conditioned" into becoming cold-blooded assassins in order to eradicate political opponents. It was remade by director Jonathn Demme in 2004, starring Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Shreiber, and a host of other recognizable faces.

We're joined by pastor and pop-culture maven Sonya Brown this week to examine both of these films and to reflect upon the terrifying ways their stories comment on our present moment. It's a thoughtful and remarkably hopeful conversation this week that we really hope you enjoy.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts here..

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