The Manchurian Candidate

A radically conservative candidate for the presidency gains a foothold by inflaming a prejudiced nation's predilection for witch hunts. An international conflict leaves a generation of soldiers warped by visions and traumas that they can't even hope to understand. War games and murder make their way stateside, where elected officials conspire to harm each other all for gains more personal than political. In fact, the entire American political system is revealed to be as fragile as a deck of cards. The film is "The Manchurian Candidate", directed by John Frankenheimer in 1962. Criterion's own Blu-ray release labels the film as "heart-in-the-throat filmmaking ... [a] quintessential sixties political thriller." Legendary New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, for her part, said "it may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood." We suppose that the conflicting designations-thriller or satire-probably depends on the political climate you're watching it from. As likely goes without saying, right now it might as well be nonfiction.

Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) is one of many soldiers who was apparently saved by Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) during a Korean War conflict. Tellingly, he's only promoted to Major after he's saved by Shaw. Like everyone else in his troop, he's returned home with eerily positive feelings towards that man-who happens to be the son of a vice presidential nominee's wife (Angela Lansbury), meaning the supposed war hero is now in a position to make waves during election season himself-despite having no truly positive memories to back them up. The film then begins to reveal one of the more iconic conspiracy plots in cinema history. What slowly unfurls alongside it is a cross-section of competing political influences, where ideology is constantly trumped by power: the most conservative capitalists running schemes with the most radical enemies to their state, with both parties somehow convinced they'll come out the better for it.

Criterion's Blu-ray release of Frankenheimer's long-revered film includes a number of special features, some young and some old: one is from 1987, a short featurette documenting a "reunion" between Frankenheimer, Sinatra, and screenwriter George Axelrod (about ten minutes of their conversation is featured.) Then there's an audio commentary featuring the late director, originally recorded for a different home video release in 1997. To that Criterion has added a few new productions: an interview with Angela Lansbury (it runs for roughly ten minutes, and features Lansbury speaking about the working relationship she and Frankenheimer created across multiple films,) an interview with historian Susan Cruthers (who speaks about the general perception regarding "brainwashing" during the time of the Cold War,) and finally a conversation with nonfiction filmmaker Errol Morris (who helpfully contextualizes the film with highly-specific notes on the sociopolitical climate circa 1962.)

And the transfer looks entirely accurate, film-like and textured, bringing a distinct sense of gravity to Frankenheimer's askew compositions. "The Manchurian Candidate" is structured from moments seen both high and low: the view from a sniper's perch up high, or the sight of violence as seen from a low angle. As the competing figures push themselves further into comical political extremism, the camera follows them, finding extremes of its own. Frankenheimer's frames become radicals of their own, imbuing the most off-putting moments with horrors of the angular variety. As far as paranoid experiences go, it may rank alongside American life itself.

"The Manchurian Candidate"
Blu-ray
Criterion.com
$39.95