Profound, Introspective Movie on Assassination Politics

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	• Manchurian Candidate [VHS] Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey MGM (Video & DVD), 1996 average customer review:based on 208 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Classic

This is one of the great Cold War thrillers.

It features Laurence Harvey as Raymond Shaw, Frank Sinatra as Major Bennett Marco, Angela Lansbury as Shaw's mother, Mrs. Iselin, and Janet Leigh as Rose.

Although the story is familiar to most people, I'll recap it briefly. Shaw, Marco, and several fellow soldiers are captured during the Korean War. They are transported to China where they undergo intense brainwashing. When they come back, they are all convinced that Shaw (who is well connected politically - his stepfather is a U.S. senator) singlehandedly wiped out countless numbers of the enemy and saved them all. He is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor based upon their testimony.

After his return to the States, his handlers intend to use him as a political assassin. Prior to that, Marco and some of the others start having nightmares making them think that everything is not as it seems. Maj. Marco is intent on finding out the truth.

I will refrain from telling anymore to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say, there are lots of psychological machinations and some intense action. This film is very well done. It was made in 1962 so the viewer should not expect lots of special effects, etc. In spite of that, I think that this version is far superior to the more recent one. For those who want to see the movie and don't know which one to get, this is the one.

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MAYBE THE BEST POLITICAL THRILLER EVER MADE

Top-notch political thriller about the consequences of a war veteran's strange decoration and his mother's plan to take her abominable husband to the presidency of the United States. Even though the story may be dated by now, the adaptation of Richard Condon's novel was executed flawlessly. Sinatra and Harvey shine in a great cast but it is Lansbury who walks off with the movie, stealing every scene she's in. In every way, an exceptional achievement. Superb entertainment. Don't miss it.

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Some basis in fact

I don't know if I can add much insight to the already over 200 reviews here, but I did want to make one comment about the brainwashing procedure--the most important and sinister idea in the whole movie--and without which there wouldn't have been a film.

It turns out that there was at least some small basis in fact for this. The Manchurian Candidate came out in 1962 (not sure of the exact date), but anyway, 10 years later I was in college and happened to take an intermediate sociology class in which the subject of brainwashing by social coercion and other methods was discussed. My professor had us read a paper or two on this procedure based on what was known in the west about it at the time.

Mainly, it was used by the Chinese authorities to reprogram individuals who were labelled as incorrigible anti-revolutionaries, and some details of the procedure, known in Chinese as tzu tzing kuo tsau (not sure of the exact transliteration anymore), were known. Chiefly, these involved solitary confinement, techniques to disorient the individual (preventing sleep, interrogations at all hours of the night, etc.) and social pressure and social rewards to break down the individual's personality structure and reprogram them as desired. They were supposed to have achieved some success with these methods.

However, it was not considered possible to create "sleeper assassins" using these methods, as depicted in this movie, despite the concerns in the west about the possibility of developing such a technique. And methods like hypnosis don't work, either; later in college I had the opportunity to take part in a hypnosis experiment where I was hypnotized, and the instructor again mentioned in his lecture that it was not possible to get anyone to do anything against his moral principles using hypnosis.

Anyway, just a few comments on this aspect of the movie since none of the other reviews had discussed the subject in any detail.

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CLASSIC THRILLER WITH FEW FLAWS

.....The original Frankenheimer version was a Classic and never should have been re-made. The Denzel Washington, Merly Streep politically correct version was twisted around to beat up on Corporate American Capitalism and was manipulative. I for one refuse to be manipulated by Hollywood agendas so I ignored the re-make and treated it as pure gargage.

.....The only fly in the ointment, and what keeps this from being a perfect movie, is the role played by Janet Leigh and this is the reason I only give the movie 4 stars. I don't know why the brain trust in Tinsel Town think that there has to be a love interest for a movie to be commercially succesful. The relationship between Sinatra and Leigh was unecessary and only interupted the tension and suspense generated by a great plot. It would not have been so bad if it had been introduced in a way that was more believable and pertinent to the story (ie: Edmund O'Briens love interest in D.O.A).

......Ignoring those unnecessay scenes with Leigh, Sinatra turns in one of his better performances as a tormented Army Major who knows something is wrong but has nothing to go on but a reccuring nightmare.

.....Angela Lansbury is perfect as the evil behind-the-scenes manipulator and Lawrence Harvey is good as the hapless victim bringing just the right amount of robotic woodenness to the role.

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Profound, Introspective Movie on Assassination Politics

The 60s and beginning in the 50s, was the age of political assassination. So many countries including foreign governments used assassination as part of controlling world and national politics. This makes the movie fascinating. There were also instances in the Korean War of attempted brainwashing. All governments were fascinated by the potential of psychological torture and warfare. The Manchurian Candidate is a wonderfully made film about a group of soldiers taken prisoner in Korea then brainwashed into being Communist agents without their knowledge. The American operatives then take hold of them to carry out an assignation of a political leader to gain power. Very clever, wonderful performances and held back from public view for years after it was released. Great film.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

You will never find a more chillingly suspenseful, perversely funny, or viciously satirical political thriller than The Manchurian Candidate, based on the novel by Richard Condon (author of Winter Kills). The film, withheld from distribution by star Frank Sinatra for almost a quarter century after President Kennedy's assassination, has lost none of its potency over time. Former infantryman Bennet Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by nightmares about his platoon having been captured and brainwashed in Korea. The indecipherable dreams seem to center on Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), a decorated war hero but a cold fish of a man whose own mother (Angela Lansbury, in one of the all-time great dragon-lady roles) describes him as looking like his head is "always about to come to a point." Mrs. Bates has nothing on Lansbury's character, the manipulative queen behind her second husband, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), a notoriously McCarthyesque demagogue. --Jim Emerson

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