Student Essay on Plot Summary and Review of "The Manchurian Candidate"

Plot Summary and Review of "The Manchurian Candidate"

Summary:   The suspense thriller "The Manchurican Candidate" was, in part, a critique of sociopolitical messages from the early '60s Cold War era. The movie is about a government conspiracy involving a former Korean POW, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, who was thought to have been brainwashed by the Communists to be an assassin.

The suspenseful thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, was directed by John Frankenheimer, and written by George Axelrod. The movie is based on a 1959 novel written by Richard Condon. It was released in 1962 but was pulled after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, only to be re-released in 1987 and remade in 2004. The Manchurian Candidate is a movie about a government conspiracy mainly involving a former Korean Prisoner Of War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, played by Laurence Harvey who was thought to have been brainwashed by the Communists to be an assassin. A battle to find out exactly what is going on is fought by another former Prisoner Of War, Captain Ben Marco, played by Frank Sinatra.

At the time of the first release of the movie in 1962, the United States had been engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and American morale was low. The United States was on a mission to contain the communist government of Russia and any Hollywood release that may pose questions or raise anti-American thoughts was against "national policy" and forbidden. This is why the Manchurian Candidate was pulled for many years, and in this lies one of the sociopolitical messages of the movie; Americans support America and hate Communists. From the movie we also learn that during that time period there were obviously questions about the validity of government and politicians as there still are today.

The filmmaker portrays the topical time period well. The beginning of the movie showed the American Prisoners Of War being captured in a war like setting, which would make the topical time period somewhere between 1950-1953, which are the dates of the Korean War. It also showed a saloon with jazzy music and soldiers who were drinking and being aroused by Korean women. The appearance of the microphones, the way they sent long distant messages to each other, the hair styles, the cars, the clothes, the television, and the lack of security at the National Convention, were all indicators of the time period as well.

There are specific messages portrayed throughout the movie, mostly by characterizations. I happened to notice that when Ben Marco was having his reoccurring dream, the audience was white and so were most of the people. When the African American man was having the same reoccurring dream, most all of the people in it were African American. Mrs. Iselin's admiration for Abraham Lincoln in my own opinion is due to the fact that he was a Loyalist and not a Communist, and she hates Communists, and he was also a great and powerful leader of our nation. These were her goals not only for herself but also for her son and her husband. She even made her husband dress up as Abraham Lincoln for the costume party she hosted and she had a huge picture of Abraham Lincoln hanging over her fireplace in her home, as well as in her dining room. The message the audience gets about politicians and politics of that time period are that they may have been a bit corrupt. She and her husband were not playing by fair rules to win his nomination, and they were even going to the extent as to have his opponent killed. Ironically, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, this movie probably contributed to the different conspiracies of his death because of the parallel of the winner of the presidency in this film being shot. You also get the idea from Mrs. Iselin that a rich American politician will betray their own kind and side with their enemies, even if only for a short while, to gain power and authority.

The artistic intensions of this film in my opinion were most noticeable through the fighting scene between Ben Marco and Chunjin, the musical themes such as the jazzy music that was played at the beginning of the film in the saloon, the costumes worn at the costume party, especially Jocelyn's queen of diamonds outfit, and through the appearance and authenticity of the set up of the National Convention relative to the 1950's. They were also portrayed through the movement of the camera as well as the scene changes. I notices some theatrical diagonal shots as well as some close ups of people to identify the state they were in. For example, when the guy at the beginning of the film got knocked out it showed a close up view of his face to show that although he was being transported by those men and although his environment was quite noisy, he remained knocked out cold. The camera also did close ups of the men from below their faces as they were dreaming to show the movement of their eyes under their eyelids, their emotions, and the fact that their dreams were so intense that they were perspiring. When we got to go inside of their heads to see their dreams, the filming technique was used were it dissolves the scene to make it seems more dream-like. I also really enjoyed the beginning of the film as they incorporated the queen of diamonds into the credits because it helped me catch early on in the film that she would play a major role and I watch for her to appear in the deck. This helped me piece the film together before the actual ending. The artistic disciplines flowed together well, but I think the most dominating one was not necessarily the actor performance, but the characterizations of the actors and the roles each of them played.

There really is not much of a historical time lag considering that the Cold War has only been over for about a decade after having been going on for four decades. Anyone who has had US history should understand that time period and therefore get the underlying point of the movie. The target audience in my opinion would probably be an older American public because of the violence and the historical references in the film. I stayed interested during this movie, but due to all the violence, especially when Sergeant Shaw killed the love of his life, Jocelyn, I would not be interested in having it in my own collection of films.