There is a sort of chill that consumes me whenever I think about this movie. It's shocking, it's thrilling, it's surreal, it's sad...just about everything. I didn't know that Frank Sinatra could act so well. He gave an outstanding performance here. His range was remarkable. He goes from loud to reserved to confused to depressed to in love, etc. All the acting here is just top notch.
Laurence Harvey's Raymond is cold, angry and very bitter. Consider one of the earlier scenes with his mother in the airplane, where he doesn't even try to mask his contempt for his mother and step-father. When asked what he and his employer have in common by he replies: "We found that we both loath and despise you and Johnny!" However, he isn't as cold as he seems. There is a dark secret inside him, one so dark he doesn't even know it himself. He has been brainwashed to be a killing machine. Whenever he plays solitare and sees the Red Queen, he goes into a trance where he'll kill anyone they want him to and have no memory of it, and therefor, no guilt. Now, hard as this may be to believe, there is also a very soft side we eventually discover. "I'm not lovable. But to her I was." He's referring of course to Josie, the love of his life, which his mother destroyed. He then becomes sad and depressed over his lost love. I could talk for days simply on his character because there are so many levels to him, so many chambers of his mind that I could explore.
As a political thriller it works brilliantly. The corruption of the Johnny, the fear of communists infiltrating the government, the lies, the under the table deals, the scams. All of it makes for an intense thriller. What makes it even greater is the threat and suspense created by Raymond, because we don't know who they'll have him kill next, and who's telling him to kill whom. But for me, what pushes this movie over the top is the Angela Lansbury character. This isn't some nice tea pot, or the crafty old woman from "Murder She Wrote." The thing that is so great about this character is that while the character of Noah Cross in "Chinatown" will forever remain as the most chilling father figure in a film (a good runner up would be the Donald Sutherland character of 2000's "Panic") Lansbury's character is the most despicable, horrid mother character I've ever seen. No question. Imagine if the two of them had married, what kind of a family they might have produced. But she alone is enough to make us cringe all throughout this film.
"The Manchurian Candidate" is a magnificent political thriller, yet it is so emotional and the characters so interesting, so varried and so well acted by everyone in the movie, it is simply one of the best films of all time. Once you see this movie, you will not be able to get it out of your mind because of how rich the dialogue is, all that is lost in it, all that takes place, and all that is represented here.
Laurence Harvey's Raymond is cold, angry and very bitter. Consider one of the earlier scenes with his mother in the airplane, where he doesn't even try to mask his contempt for his mother and step-father. When asked what he and his employer have in common by he replies: "We found that we both loath and despise you and Johnny!" However, he isn't as cold as he seems. There is a dark secret inside him, one so dark he doesn't even know it himself. He has been brainwashed to be a killing machine. Whenever he plays solitare and sees the Red Queen, he goes into a trance where he'll kill anyone they want him to and have no memory of it, and therefor, no guilt. Now, hard as this may be to believe, there is also a very soft side we eventually discover. "I'm not lovable. But to her I was." He's referring of course to Josie, the love of his life, which his mother destroyed. He then becomes sad and depressed over his lost love. I could talk for days simply on his character because there are so many levels to him, so many chambers of his mind that I could explore.
As a political thriller it works brilliantly. The corruption of the Johnny, the fear of communists infiltrating the government, the lies, the under the table deals, the scams. All of it makes for an intense thriller. What makes it even greater is the threat and suspense created by Raymond, because we don't know who they'll have him kill next, and who's telling him to kill whom. But for me, what pushes this movie over the top is the Angela Lansbury character. This isn't some nice tea pot, or the crafty old woman from "Murder She Wrote." The thing that is so great about this character is that while the character of Noah Cross in "Chinatown" will forever remain as the most chilling father figure in a film (a good runner up would be the Donald Sutherland character of 2000's "Panic") Lansbury's character is the most despicable, horrid mother character I've ever seen. No question. Imagine if the two of them had married, what kind of a family they might have produced. But she alone is enough to make us cringe all throughout this film.
"The Manchurian Candidate" is a magnificent political thriller, yet it is so emotional and the characters so interesting, so varried and so well acted by everyone in the movie, it is simply one of the best films of all time. Once you see this movie, you will not be able to get it out of your mind because of how rich the dialogue is, all that is lost in it, all that takes place, and all that is represented here.