The Manchurian Candidate (1952) For International Life

This week marks the re-release of John Frankenhemier’s, 1962, political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate. This is the film’s second re-release having also been distributed in 1988. A modern remake also hit cinema’s in 2004 with Denzel Washington staring as damaged soldier, Ben Marco.

Based on a novel by Robert Condon, the original screenplay adaptation lists the likes of Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, Lawrence Harvey and Janet Lee as its stars.

Released in the pre Kennedy era, The Manchurian Candidate was an eerie almost prophetic vision of what was to come for America off screen. Largely unappreciated in its time, this weeks re release will have an audience much more accepting of the film’s conspiracy theories.

Raymond Shaw, an escaped Korean War POW, is given a heroes welcome on American soil by the adoring public and his overbearing, dominant mother played by the Oscar nominated, Angela Lansbury. He is awarded the Medal of Honour for his services in the field where he supposedly rescued his unit from behind enemy lines.

His commanding officer Bennet Marco (Sinatra) is plagued by nightmares of his time in Korea, recalling how he was subjected to numerous mind control experiments. He soon begins to doubt his memories from the war and also begins to wonder about the legitimacy of Shaw’s rescue.

1962 was dominated by the supposed threat from communism and this fear is heavily exploited in the film, particularly by Lansbury. Her character is a right wing caricature, relentlessly hounding communist ideals at every turn.

The assassination plot has particular resonances since the murder of former President John F Kennedy. Very few public showings of The Manchurian Candidate were screened following those events. Recently it has been discovered that Kennedy’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, regularly made trips past a Dallas theatre where the film was shown. Oswald also bought a rifle similar to that shown in the film. The disturbing parallels between the chilling final scene and the assassination of Kennedy severely curbed the film’s popularity in the subsequent years of its original release. Rumours that Sinatra used his influence to cut the film’s circulation are unsubstantiated with Michael Schlesinger, who helped re-release the film in 1988, saying it was more to do with a share of studio profits than the death of JFK.

Clearly dated in terms of its pacing, cinematography and acting, the film does however quickly become captivating. The stern, structured voice over gives it a stiff nostalgic tone. Frankenhemier creates tension and confusion by splicing images and memories together which elevates the already sky high levels of paranoia.

In the world of 2010, MGM’s cinematic re-release of The Manchurian Candidate will still be relevant to audiences as it has been in the past. The threats to the western world are now so numerous, ranging from anything between, South Korea, Afghanistan, global warming and Facebook. We are now told to be paranoid about so many things, it is nice to see how little humanity has changed in over 40 years.