|||

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian CandidateOne of the fascinating things about looking at older political thrillers is to see how the political world of the film has changed. Common knowledge and assumptions no longer hold. Assumptions about race, class, and gender have shifted and our view of what works and what doesn’t changes as well. That being said, John Frankenheimers The Manchurian Candidate holds up very well. I’d seen the remake before the original, and I was surprised at how shocking the original was at times. Firmly set during the Cold War, the film shows a Korean War hero who has been brainwashed by Communists. Angela Lansbury is great as the domineering power behind her husband the senator and her son, the war hero. The cynicism of the film was surprising to me, and I wondered if the film stood out dramatically from other films of the time or whether it fit in to an undercurrent. I checked out what other films were released in 1962 and found Lolita, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Lawrence of Arabia… so I guess that a cynical political thriller kind of fit in to a somewhat controversial view of the world. One of the neat things that I noticed in The Manchurian Candidate” was that video was used effectively in several places. A press conference features a room full of cameras with Frank Sinatra conducting the press conference. The camera pans across a room filled with cameras to Angela Lansbury standing beside a television showing the press conference as the scene unfolds. The film moves along quickly and while I generally knew what was going to happen since I’d seen the remake, I was surprised when it actually happened.

Up next Hacking and Making Stuff Hacking is moving into the mainstream. O’Reilly has their successful “Hacks” series of books and people just can’t resist finding out how things Blogger I’ve been using Blogger to create a new Screen Arts blog and I really like it. I tried out Blogger when it first started and had a bit of the usual,
Latest posts Favourite Films of 2020 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2020 Galas FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2020 Preview My Favourite Films of 2019 Best of the 39th FIN Atlantic International Film Festival FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2019 Fiction Features 2019 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival Galas The Films of Agnès Varda Archiving Moving Hosts Best Films of 2018 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2018 Documentaries, Features, and Special Presentations FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2018 Preview, Galas, Restored!, and Extreme Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival 2018 Preview How and What I Watched in 2017 Favourite Films of 2017 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 FIN ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2017 PREVIEW PART 3 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 Preview Part 2 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 Preview Part 1 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival 2017 Gala Preview 52 Films by Women Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival 2017 Favourite Films of 2016 Breaking a Streak Day 8 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 7 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 6 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 5 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 4 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016 Day 3 - Atlantic Film Festival 2016