His ruthless mother, Virginia Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, uses her influence to secure his nomination as a vice-presidential candidate over the favorite, Senator Tom Jordan. In a dystopian near-future (implied to be 2008), America has become defined by xenophobia, de facto martial law, environmental degradation, and increasing corporate control Shaw is a famous U.S. For his role in that mission, Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw was awarded the Medal of Honor for single-handedly defeating the enemy and rescuing all but two of his men. Major Bennett Marco commanded a famous U.S. In the 2004 film, with the Korean War replaced by the Gulf War, Manchurian is used, instead, as the name of a sinister multinational company. In the original, the protagonist was captured in the Korean War and brainwashed by the Chinese in the actual Manchuria.
While the name of the novel and the earlier film was retained, the significance of "Manchurian" was changed. Senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw. Senator Tom Jordan, a challenger for Vice President, and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Prentiss Shaw, also a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate, Jon Voight as U.S. The film, based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel of the same name and a reworking of the previous 1962 film, stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier, Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American neo-noir psychological political thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme.