After an ambush of American Soldiers during the Gulf War, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), a seemingly friendless and detached sergeant, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for fighting off the enemy for three days, and saving his comrades.

Shaw is now in his second term as a US Congressman. Also in the present day, his former commander Captain Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) speaks to a group of Boy Scouts about what happened in the now famous Gulf War battle. Corporal Al Melvin (Jeffrey Wright, in a startling and realistic performance), from the back of the room, asks Marco how he would feel if he had been the hero rather than Shaw. Melvin is clearly having some mental problems as he confronts Marco after the speech and thrusts a tattered notebook full of horrific drawings into Marco’s hands and asks him if he too is having nightmares. Marco denies it, but he is having confusing thoughts about what happened. The military is willing to tolerate Marco’s paranoid behavior because of his service to the country and it wants to look out after its own.

Congressman Shaw’s mother is Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep, at her take charge best). A power broker and whip cracking leader, she pushes for her son, a neophyte politician, to replace the front runner and seasoned Senator Thomas Jordan (Jon Voight), as Vice President on the Presidential ticket. Eleanor Shaw steam rolls over the opposition to this notion, behind closed doors (while not breaking a sweat), and at the party’s convention her son is indeed the VP candidate.

Marco goes to Melvin’s apartment and he realizes that some information that the surviving soldiers have told the world appears to be repeated, as if by rote. Is it possible that these captors were brainwashed by the Iraquis? When Marco approaches Congressman Shaw to discuss his concerns, Shaw at first offers up only the polite recognition of those who were army buddies but no longer have a meaningful friendship. As Marco learns more about their past, he becomes increasingly suspicious about the future. Why have all the surviving heroes died, except Marco, Melvin and Shaw? Do they have an unfilled mission after so many years?

We learn that power brokers want to have their man in the White House. So what else is new? Young Shaw looks good in a suit and is a decorated war hero. The question becomes just how far will they go to change his status from VP to Commander-in-Chief without the benefit of an election. Is assassination one of their options?

Jon Voight is a good politician (we’ve debated as to whether this is an oxymoron). He is a man with his own convictions, beholden only to the influence of a broad base of corporate donors as compared to effectively having a hidden boss, for whom he does whatever is commanded. Denzel Washington has a lead role but participates very much in an ensemble cast, as the movie is much more than his thoughts on a sinister conspiracy not being believed. Kimberly Elise as a grocery store cashier and confidant of Denzel ties it all together with her investigative skills.

Expectations of Washington and Streep in this remake of the John Frankenheimer classic with Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh may color how you feel about the film. We recently watched the 1962 version and have concluded that director Demme has done a great job of maintaining the story line and spirit of the original film while updating the plot to reflect modern day politics. The story is not dated.

Combine the current war time activities in Iraq with some recent hard hitting documentaries in theaters, such as "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Control Room" and "The Corporation," and what is delivered as a fictional political thriller assumes the feel of reality. It shows us that we may be closer to what is depicted in the film than we would have otherwise thought possible. This is fiction that we don’t ever want to become truth. Some will think its farfetched while others will argue the essence of the story has already taken place…maybe more than once. Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not after you.