 The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Directed by John Frankenheimer Upon this viewing, however, I sincerely question my ability to think during that time period. Perhaps the blood flow to my brain was restricted due to my wearing shirts buttoned up to the neck, in loving imitation of David Lynch. Christ, how "freshman year of college" of me. Or perhaps I had been subliminally dogmatized by the fatuous burpings of Siskel & Ebert (remember Sisskel??? You MUST be a child of the 80s! Ha, ha). Either way, I was dead wrong. The Manchurian Candidate is almost 100% boring, 99% lacking in suspense, and 98% full of shit. Sorry, film puritans. It ain't that good a movie, and it hasn't aged well at all. The plot tracks a platoon of soldiers in the Korean War (lame) who are abducted by multinational Commies and reprogrammed en masse so that Lawrence, the stepson of a would-be presidential candidate can be his hated stepfather's unwitting assassin. The mechanics of the plot are belabored and generally pointless – the candidate is a total idiot, thereby unworthy of such an elaborate scheme, and there's no reason Lawrence needs a Medal of Honor to have access to someone he sees almost daily (the Medal of Honor seems to be a cornerstone of the Commie plot). Sinatra plays the former commanding officer of the platoon, now working intelligence and beset by horrible dreams of their time in captivity, which they've all been programmed to believe was a lost week of fighting during which Lawrence single-handedly saved the platoon. The reality, which starts to poke through Sinatra's vivid and entertaining dreams, is that they all sat by calmly as Shaw murdered two of them under the direction of their captors. The dreams are pretty cool, intercutting the reality of the men in the center of a Commie laboratory with their controlled perception of them sitting in a cozy New Jersey hotel with a bunch of old ladies discussing flowers. Those scenes, and the ones with Angela Lansbury (who plays Lawrence's controlling mother), are the best in the film, and provide the only tension in an otherwise lackluster movie. A few attempts at humor fall flat, and the conclusion of the film is telegraphed from Western Union by none other than Phillip Morris Code himself. As for the acting, it's typically wooden for an early 1950s sci-fi film, yet this is an early 1960s political thriller. At first I thought Sinatra was really good in the role, but my wife quickly convinced me otherwise, and I'm now certain he gives one of the lamest performances in motion picture history. (See, I've traded programmatic dogma from Siskel & Ebert for programmatic dogma from my wife.) Totally clammy and devoid of emotion. Yes, I am talking about Sinatra. It's all a bit sad and disappointing, as I've been trying to rediscover the old-fashioned political thriller, and so far I'm 0 for 2 (Frankenheimer's The Holcroft Covenant nearly put me off the quest entirely). The topics of mind control, Communist plots, and assassinations are all interesting, yet sadly they are just not presented in an interesting manner here. I intend to scour the video store for a good political thriller, that I promise you, dear devoted reader. Perhaps a re-view of The Conversation will do the trick, as you are probably awaiting my review of that film like a fattie for a date. In the meantime, don't bother with The Manchurian Candidate unless you are an intensely boring person with absolutely nothing better to do, in which case, hey, you know, whatever makes your droppings float, fattie. Actually, come to think of it, if you have read this review from start to finish, you will probably love The Manchurian Candidate. Hey, gimme props. It's not often you read a review that goes this far out of its way to insult you.
Review by Crimedog |