The Manchurian Candidate

Wednesday October 24, 2012 & Monday October 29, 2012

     Today we began watching The Manchurian Candidate; a movie from 1962.  The movie was adapted to from Richard Condon's novel that he wrote in 1959.  The movie stars Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh.  The movie focuses on a rich and powerful right-winged political family who's son had went to Korea, but had been taken as a POW and then brainwashed by Communists.  The film was released on October 24, 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  2012 marks the 50 year anniversary.  Frank Sinatra was very good friends with President Kennedy and when he was assassinated, Sinatra pulled the movie from theaters and it was not seen again for decades.
      During the war, Soviets capture Raymond Shaw and his platoon and take them to Manchuria, China.  While there, the men are completely broken down and reconstructed to not remember what happened and to think that Shaw was a big war hero who saved the platoon, a title which earns him the Medal of Honor upon returning home.  All men that were in the platoon were trained to say that, Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."
     Also upon returning home, men from the platoon, including Major Marco (Sinatra) begin to have terrible nightmares in which they see Shaw kill other men of the platoon - men who were thought to have died during action in the war.  When Shaw is killing these other men, the whole platoon is sitting in front of a group of people from different communist nations, such as China and Russia.  Since Marco became a Major upon returning home, many of the men confide their intense dreams to him, explaining in great detail.  Marco is somewhat concerned that all of the men had the same dreams, but Army Intelligence will not support the matter, so Marco just collects evidence on the matter himself.
     The other major problem in the movie is the conflict between Raymond and his mother, Eleanor.  His mother, similar to Mary Todd Lincoln, is trying to get her new husband (Raymond's step-father), Senator Iselin, to emerge as a political leader.  In order to advance Iselin, Eleanor uses him as a puppet and makes him state that there are communists in the American Federal Government (this is totally a stab at McCarthy!).  Throughout the movie, everyone thinks Iselin is a crazy man because every time he is asked how many communists are in the government, he comes back with a different number.  That is, until Eleanor finally settles on one number, 57, that Iselin can remember because that is the number of different pickle varieties that the Heinz Company owns.  Eleanor's plan is to get her husband to run, and win, the U.S. Presidency, so she can really be in control.  It is not until the end of the movie that the audience figures out that Eleanor is actually a Communist spy who is working under cover!  It was even Eleanor who asked her communist "friends" to train her an assassin that she can use to kill the competition so her husband can win.
     Unfortunately, the assassin that is created is Eleanor's own son, Raymond.  The "trigger" that puts Raymond into a state in which he will do anything is the queen of diamond from a deck of cards.  So, when Eleanor wants Raymond to do something, she hands him a deck and tells him to play Solitaire.  When the queen appears he transforms, she tells him what needs to be done, then he goes and does it.  Raymond does not really remember what happens before he goes into this state and doesn't remember anything while he is in it, therefore, he could kill someone and not remember it or be held accountable for the murder. 
     The movie jumps around a bit, which is confusing, but after watching the entire movie, or even watching is a second time, things become more clear.  As the movie progresses, Major Marco discovers more about what actually happened in Manchuria and how it affects the men that were there.  Marco also finds a love interest while taking a small vacation.  The woman even leaves her fiance and bails him out of jail for their "second date."
     The brighter side of the movie is the romance between Raymond and Jocelyn.  The two met a few years before and fell in love.  They were actually engaged, but, as it happens, Jocelyn's father was a senator and Iselin's rival.  In the end, Eleanor made Raymond break off the engagement (in rather a rude way), then Raymond joined the Army.  Upon returned home, the two meet again and the romance is rekindled.  Knowing that Raymond is trained to kill, Eleanor now lets the two be together and they eventually get married.  VERY shortly after the wedding, Eleanor conditions Raymond and has him kill his new bride and her father.  This leaves only one other person running for vice-president besides Iselin - eliminating the competition.  After coming out of his hypnotic trance, Raymond is grief stricken and can't think of who would want to kill his new family. 
     Around the same time, Marco finds out that Raymond is not a war hero and it is the queen of diamonds that triggers him.  Using his new found knowledge, Marco makes a deck of cards that only have queens of diamonds.  He goes to see Raymond and is able to get all the information out of him such as who killed the Senator and Jocelyn, who brainwashed the platoon, and if the men who died really died from the war or if it was friendly fire.  Marco also finds out that it is an American operator that is controlling Raymond.  He orders Raymond to break all ties and tells him that the queen of diamonds will no longer have an effect on him.  Raymond is free, but to the audience it doesn't really seem like it.  Raymond goes to see his mother/operator where she tells him that at the presidential candidate nomination convention Raymond is to shoot the other opponent, leaving Iselin running along.  Eleanor, thinking Raymond was still under her spell, tells him about how she is a communist and all her plans.  She even plants a very nasty/strange kiss right on his lips! Talk about gross....!  I thought it was kinda funny though because it was have been VERY hard for Raymond to act like he was under her spell and listen to her plans and let her kiss him like that.  The only good thing that comes out of this little conversation is that Eleanor swears once she is in power she will get back at the people who screwed Raymond up.  This is actually the only time during the whole movie where she actually seems like a real mother.
     So at the convention, Raymond is to snipe the other candidate while being disguised as a priest.  At this point the audience still thinks Raymond is under the spell because he is still walking and acting like a zombie.  Marco figures out what is going on and also shows up...right after Raymond shoots his step-father and his own mother (initially saving the country from communism)...finally breaking free from their spell completely.  As Marco enters the room Raymond turns the gun on himself and commits suicide, while wearing his ill-gotten medal of honor. 
     I, personally, was not surprised that Raymond came out of the trance and killed his mother because, like previously mentioned, this movie was created around the same time as the Cuban Missile Crisis, and there is no way that Hollywood would produce a movie in which the communists win!  This movie actually is one of my new favorites because I have some personal feelings toward it.  First, my grandpa served in the Air Force during the Korean War, so it was nice to see the time period in which he would have been returning home and living in.  He is still alive, but doesn't like to talk about it much.  Second, Timothy, my boyfriend, is currently in the Army as a Warrant Officer (WO1).  Last February Tim went through extensive training, though he is not allowed to talk about the details, I can only image what he had to go through.....some of his training probably deals with similar issues like those from the movie.  This movie also shows that the threat of communism was a real thing and that people were willing to do anything to gain political power during the time.  As one who hopes to join the history profession, this movie will certainly go on my list of excellent movies!