THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
Updated: Apr 25, 2021
An Amazingly Crafted Political Thriller
Grade: A+
A cross between a Cold War drama and a conspiracy film, John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate begins and ends with a man serving his country. The audience travels with this man all throughout his nightmarish journey of espionage, brainwashing and betrayal. The enemies pulling him along on his journey are both foreign and domestic. The movie’s structure, direction, script, performances, and editing combine to create one of the best examples of a political thriller I have ever seen.
Set in the 1950s, The Manchurian Candidate opens with a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Korea being captured and airlifted to an unknown destination. Later, after returning home, some of them-including Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra)-have recurring nightmares about the platoon being brainwashed by Communist forces into believing they are in a Ladies’ Garden Club. Believing something sinister is afoot, Marco sets out to find the platoon’s leader, Lieutenant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), and gradually learns that Shaw is a puppet in an international conspiracy that threatens the future of the United States.
The Manchurian Candidate creates intrigue in its opening moments when the platoon is captured, followed by suspense when we see Marco’s dream sequence set in the Ladies’ Garden Club. The platoon members are first shown to be seated near a woman giving a lecture on hydrangeas. The camera makes a 360-degree shot of the room which ends back at the platoon members who are now seated near a Chinese agent, and the next shot shows that they are actually seated before a communist council. The rest of the scene alternates shots between the council and the club; sometimes there are combinations of the two, with council members appearing in the garden club settings.
We in the audience know long before the main characters that something is terribly wrong. In some stories, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), we learn about the villains’ plot along with the hero. In The Manchurian Candidate, we are on the outside looking in; even though we don’t yet know the full extent of the conspiracy, we can put it together as the story goes along. The more the story develops, the more evil and horrific the scheme is revealed to be. When Marco starts to investigate, we are already far ahead of him and are silently rooting for him to catch up with us so he can save the day.
The performances by the main actors are superb. Frank Sinatra expertly conveys the dread and exhaustion Marco is feeling before he begins to understand the communists’ plot. On the train ride to visit Shaw, he is visibly sweating and cannot even hold onto a cigarette long enough to light it. Angela Lansbury is perfect as the cold and calculating mother of Shaw who is pulling the strings; her portrayal earned her an Oscar nomination. But it is Laurence Harvey who gives the most vivid performance in the film. When he is under the effects of the brainwashing, he is stone-faced and passive, but when he remembers his time with a girl he loved before his mother forced him to leave her, he is filled with unspeakable grief. Harvey’s performance, along with the terrible ordeal his character goes through, make Raymond Shaw the most tragic figure in the movie.
If there is one major flaw with The Manchurian Candidate, it may be that the passage of time might have made the climax predictable to modern audiences. At a political rally, wherein Shaw’s stepfather is the vice-presidential nominee, Shaw is getting a sniper rifle ready in a light booth, presumably to kill the presidential nominee as his mother ordered him to. Marco sees the light visible in the booth, deduces what is happening, and races to stop him. Viewers in 1962 might have been as surprised at what ultimately happened as the filmmakers intended. With that said, the editing still makes the climax a riveting and ultimately tragic sequence.
The Manchurian Candidate contains symbols and metaphors that film scholars can look over and dissect to find their meaning, and I am sure many already have. I will focus on just one in particular. In the office and home of Senator Iselin, Shaw’s senator stepfather, there are many images of Abraham Lincoln, one of the biggest icons of American freedom. To visitors, this may illustrate Iselin’s love for his country, but he is in fact a pawn whose wife is instructing him in his campaign as part of her scheme. It is an ironic contrast which further adds to the movie’s depth. The Manchurian Candidate may have been made during the Cold War, but is still just as potent as ever, thanks to the enormous amount of talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Producers: George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer
Screenplay: George Axelrod (Based upon the novel by Richard Condon)
Cast: Frank Sinatra (Maj. Bennett Marco), Laurence Harvey (Raymond Shaw), Janet Leigh (Eugenie Rose "Rosie" Cheyney), Angela Lansbury (Eleanor Iselin), James Gregory (Sen. John Yerkes Iselin), Henry Silva (Chunjin), Leslie Parrish (Jocelyn Jordan), John McGiver (Sen. Thomas Jordan)
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