The Manchurian Candidate

I was looking forward, though somewhat timidly, to viewing this film. I've seen the remake with Denzel Washington and Liev Schrieber, and I enjoyed it. One of the questions I had going into the film was whether or not the film was going to contain the secret military base on an island where the soldiers were tortured and brainwashed (this was something I remember well from the remake). I really like that strange, 1950s mad scientist type imagery, and was hoping I'd get to see some of it, but alas, it was not included in the original version. I also had not known, prior to watching this film, that Frank Sinatra had an acting career, and I have to say, his performance was very well done, and I kept thinking of him singing one of his dramatic, slow paced love songs the entire time, which was slightly amusing.

One of the main things I noticed about this film was the incredible frequency of Abraham Lincoln imagery. It seemed as if nearly all of the scenes involving Shaw and the Iselins were rife with statues, paintings, etc, all containing images of Abraham Lincoln. I'd noticed this very early on in the film and was again confronted with this during the costume party, in which Mr. Iselin was dressed up as Abraham Lincoln, and acting in a buffoonish way. The sheer frequency of this imagery is indicative that it means something, though I can't pinpoint exactly what it is. I do have several theories, however. Abraham Lincoln was a president who was threatening to change the way of life for nearly half of the country, this could be said to relate to the fact that the widespread fear of communism in the film, and in the country at the time the film was made, was caused primarily because of the artocities it had lead to in many other nations, but also because Americans were starting to get white picket fences and Cadillacs, and were becoming, more or less comfortable with that way of life. One begins to see how people could fear Communism so vehemently, as it directly threatened the American way of life. Another reason I came up with for the inclusion of so much Abraham Lincoln imagery was that it was including to directly mock Mr. Iselin's selfish ways and desire for limitless power. Abraham Lincoln has been revered by many as a great man, one who loved this country dearly and made decisions to genuinely benefit it, and the fact that someone as ruthless and evil as Mr. Iselin chose to surround himself with images of what many people believe to be one of the most noble men ever to hold the seat of the US presidency is a direct mockery of Mr. Iselin's arrogance.

Interestingly, I found myself sympathising a great deal with Raymond Shaw. Though it is true that he was a bit curt and abrasive at the start of the film, it seemed to me that it was caused by his mother and his stepfather's behavior towards him. They ruined his relationship with the love of his live, and then brainwashed him and caused him to kill both his girlfriend and her father. Act every corner he was being victimized, to a certain extent even at the end of the film, when he murders the Iselins, and I genuinely felt bad for him.

The Manchurian Candidate is one of my favorite films we've watched so far, and I really enjoyed comparing it with the remade version of the film. For some reason I find that paranoia in American society can often be a great plot device for keeping one entertained, and then are many examples of this in drama and film, such as The Crucible, etc.