When I was a little kid I was so frightened when I found out that The Elephant Man was real that it left a scar on me that very few people would ever believe. Meanwhile, I would unflinchingly watch horror films and slasher flicks and sleep like a baby that night. I guess I have always been more creeped out by things that have the potential of actually happening than things that are more fictitious.
The whole concept of “The Manchurian Candidate” speaks to my paranoid nature and jaded view of what the government won’t tell us. Not that I am some kind of conspiracy theory nutjob like Jesse Ventura, but I’ve read enough George Orwell books and subsequently watched them unfold in real life that I am no sucker. I know there are things going on “behind the scenes” that we will probably never even know about.
“The Manchurian Candidate” takes place in the years following the Korean War; the ugly, paranoid Cold War years. Raymond Shaw, a soldier who is back from the war is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is corralled into a dog-and-pony-show type of ceremony with which he is clearly uncomfortable. As it turns out the ceremony was set up by his diabolical mother (Angela “Murder She Wrote” Lansbury) who is married to a prominent US Senator who is clearly a caricature of Joe McCarthy, as is evidenced by a ‘greatest threat to national security’ parody speech he delivers in the same booming monotone as the disgraced Senator himself. Not only does he recklessly accuse other members of congress of Communism, but he can’t even keep his list of “confirmed” Communists straight- finally and hilariously deciding on 57 given his fondness for Heinz products.
Shaw himself seems to question his own heroics, seeming more confused and detached from his accolades rather than proud or even deserving. Meanwhile, his former commanding officer Maj. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) is starting to question Shaw’s heroics as well. After a series of disturbing dreams and flashbacks that become progressively more vivid, Marco is convinced that something bad happened to their squad in the heroic maneuver which allegedly led to Shaw’s Medal of Honor. His visions seem to indicate that they were taken to Manchuria and hypnotized. In fact, other members of their platoon start having the same memories- including some disturbing recollections of Shaw killing several subordinates on command. Non-coincidentally, the ones they remember Shaw killing are the same ones who allegedly died on the same combat mission for which he was awarded his Medal of Honor. Investigative evidence reveals that the whole mission never really happened; it was just an experiment to ensure that the hypnosis has worked.
The façade soon begins to crumble as each memory and secret reveals a new truth. Not only is it true that Shaw has been trained to kill without remorse through military hypnosis, but the ones behind the horrific deed aren’t even the Army brass- rather his powerful mother and stepfather. The ultimate goal being to stage the execution of the unnamed political party’s Presidential nominee at their convention at Madison Square Garden, thus clearing the way for Shaw’s stepfather (the Vice-Presidential nominee) to take the nomination himself, The reason this has to be done is because Shaw’s stepfather is an influential senator but he does not quite have enough momentum to win an election single-handedly unless a major catastrophe can be staged in order to make him appear to be a hero. Seriously, am I the only one who was thinking of September 11th at this point??
Marco eventually discovers that the trigger mechanism for making Shaw carry out orders is seeing the Queen of Diamonds playing card. He uses this breakthrough to begin deprogramming Shaw and free him from the grasp of his mother. In a thrilling climax it appears as though Marco’s efforts have failed as Shaw aims his sniper rifle at the stage only to turn it on his mother and stepfather. Finally believing he has earned his Medal of Honor, he places it around his neck before turning the rifle on himself. The film concludes with Marco eulogizing his friend for his actual heroics rather than his made-up ones.
The real artistry of “The Manchurian Candidate” lies in its’ ability to make you think. Not analytical thinking, rather the kind of thinking that keeps normally rational people awake at night. The kind of thinking that makes you wonder exactly how much is going on in the world that we don’t know about. The kind that makes you wish it was just thought provoking because at the end of the day the thought of any of this being true or possible is scary as hell. Unfortunately the film is not without its flaws.
There are too many things that can be left open to interpretation, which ultimately makes the movie suffer because of its unwillingness to fully commit to plot devices. At one point Shaw’s mother confesses to having been behind the hypnosis ploy but professes that she never knew her own son would wind up being the guinea pig. This seems unlikely since it turns out she has been manipulating him her whole life, and she immediately follows this claim by awkwardly and creepily kissing her son in a very Oedipal way. Not only is the kiss not explained, but it is never confirmed whether or not she is lying- since it is almost certain that she is, not fully committing to her sadism doesn’t make her as clear-cut an antagonist as she should be. Though to her credit, Angela Lansbury plays a phenomenal creep.
“One of your mother’s endearing traits is the tendency to refer to anyone who disagrees with her as a communist. I once found it necessary to sue your mother for defamation of character and slander. I think what hurt her more than the money was the fact that I donated it all to an organization called The American Civil Liberties Union.” (Senator Jordan “The Manchurian Candidate”)
Another seemingly pointless device employed in the film is the expansion of storylines in terms of love interests. Marco develops a relationship with a woman he meets on a train and subsequently marries her, a big step for him as he has clearly devoted his life to his military career but also a relatively pointless plotline. Also there is the expansion on a story relating to a past relationship Shaw had with a rival senator’s daughter that is rekindled. He marries her and subsequently kills her and her father. I realize that this was meant to illustrate how remorseless Shaw’s killing is, but it is a long and complicated way to make a point.
For all the little nitpicks I may have with “The Manchurian Candidate” the thing I keep going back to is the fact that sometimes the things we want to hear and the things we need to hear are often two very different things. The fact that the Kennedy Assassination occurred so soon after this film was released and the Government still doesn’t want us to know the findings is just one tiny example of life imitating art and vice-versa.
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