Cheap The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition) (DVD) (Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey) (John Frankenheimer) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition)

Made in the height of the Cold War in the early '60's, The Machurian Candidate fits perfectly in that time-frame. There are heavy overtones of McCarthyism, as portrayed by James Gregory as a slimey Senator who has the presidency as a goal. However, the most ambitous of the characters is Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Iselin, who is the true driving force behind the man. It is interesting that Laurence Harvey, who plays Angela Lansbury's son, Raymond Shaw, was in reality only 3 years younger than she was. Frank Sinatra gives a good performance as Colonel Ben Marco, who surmises that something is "wrong" after Shaw wins the Medal of Honor, and Sinatra tells everyone how "wonderful" a person Shaw is, although he deep down knows that to be false. Marco finds out he shares the same dream/nightmare as another soldier in his squad which was captured in Korea.

Although the brainwashing technique portrayed in the film is pretty far-fetched, the presentation is stunning and one of the most memorable scenes in film. Other scenes have heavy symbolizm as well.

What does it all mean? You have to watch the film to find out.

The reasonably-priced DVD contains both full screen and wide screen versions of the Black-and-white movie, a good commentary by director Frankenheimer, a fair interview with Sinatra and producers Frankenheimer and Axlerod, trivia and production notes and a trailer. The upcoming special edition has 2 more interviews.

Truly a film that should not be missed. Frankenheimer's next film, "Seven Days in May", might even be better.

Chilling, bizarrely surreal political thriller...
There are elements in this eerie thriller that verbally challenge description. Angela Lansbury fascinates as a RED QUEEN-like woman utterly driven by Will-to-Power. Her son, her husband...and the nation itself... are pawns in her Luciferic self-apotheosis in betrayal. Laurence Harvey is equally engaging as gnomic, anti-anti-hero brain-washed by Red Chinese inquisitors, and programmed to be a master assassin. Harvey's character is portrayed as so humorless, and woodenly robotic that one feels the Commies's only had to frost an already well-baked "cake". Frank Sinatra is excellent as Major Marco whose nightmares about a Korean combat action...which "earned" Harvey the Medal of Honor...prod him to explore inconsistencies which unveil a conspiracy of staggering import. James Gregory is marvelously repugnant as Lansbury's dufus demagogue of a husband whose McCarthyesque antics are prepping THE PEOPLE for his violent ascension to the (puppet) PRESIDENCY. Director Frankenheimer has produced a fantastic cinematic excursion into political schizophrenia and rampant paranoia. Many "reality" sequences (Harvey literally "jumping in the lake" in response to a deep-seated hypnotic trigger; Lansbury's Malice-in-Wonderland Garden Party; a Clouseau/Cato-like Karate brawl between Sinatra and Harvey's Communist "plant" valet) are as disturbing as the film's classic BRAIN-WASHING segment. (Here the Communists are "perceived"... by Sinatra/Havey's hypnotized-drugged Korean combat platoon... as silk-and-laced dressed to the 9's Club Ladies attending a garden party explaining the cultivation of hyacinths under "adverse" circumstances.) The scene ends with Harvey, as Sergeant Shaw, strangling one man and blowing-out the brains of a smiling boy-Private at point blank range...splattering a picture of Comrade Stalin with bloody gore. (This is all effected with delicacy and grace to demonstrate to "The Ladies" that the American Pawn, their MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE has indeed been cultivated and ready for deadly action.) Black-and-white color-lessness of the film accent the bizarre "reality" of the story while blurring the distinction between what happens; what is imagined and what is recalled to have happened. An ambience of insanity and menace permiates the entire film, radicalized by the epicene quality of Harvey's character and the overt Freudian elements that the film exploits. It is said that Tragedy recapitulates itself as farce and nothing human is beyond demonic malice. When this film was first released its parallels with McCarthyism were its obvious signum. Today the viewer may be treated to a PARALLEX VIEW. Again the focus returns to Angela Lansbury's UBERFRAU, Mrs. Shaw-Iselin. One might wonder who THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE now satirizes as target of its bizzare and nightmarish SURREALITY......

I wanted to love this movie
I wanted so badly to love this movie, and on some level, I do. My first viewing (on DVD since I didn't get to see it when it originally came out) wasn't the best experience. I got lost. Oh, I understood the basic plot and thought it was one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen, but I missed some things. On a second and third viewing, I STILL didn't get some of the connections. As I said, I got the main idea and thought this brilliant, but some of the writing failed to connect the dots. Even if you don't like every line/connection/piece of the plot, you have to like the acting. The ending will (sorry for the pun), blow you away. Can't wait for the remake.