The Manchurian Candidate - Movie Review Example

?Younghoon An Prof. Mead ENG4500 12/03 The Manchurian Candi The Manchurian Candi in a movie about the Korean War set in the year 1952. The movie portrays a typical American war, where the liberal and free America fights against the unjust communists. It tells the story of a platoon of the United States Army, which is caught during action in the Korean War by the Soviets and taken to Manchuria in Communist China. A few days later all but two of the platoon members return to safety from behind enemy lines and the platoon Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw is accredited with getting the platoon back to safety and in the process taking out a full company of enemy infantry. Shaw is shown as the gallant hero who fought for humankind and due to his strength and determination a major step forward was made in the war. Raymond Shaw is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour upon the recommendation of the platoon’s commander, Captain Bennett Marco. He’s shown to be a really important person as generals are made to salute him and there’s a whole parade upon his arrival. When Marco and his fellow platoon members are asked to describe Raymond Shaw, they automatically use the following phrase to describe him: “Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.” But as Marco himself says it deep down they know that Shaw is a cold, sad, unsympathetic loner. After returning to the United States, the newly promoted now Major Marco starts suffering from a string of the same nightmare in which he sees a hypnotized Shaw, easily and without a single moment of hesitation murdering the two members of his platoon that had earlier not returned with. He does this in front of the top Brass of the Communist regime during a demonstration of the Conditioning done by the soviets to allow them to control Shaw at their will. Marco is very disturbed by these nightmares and he has trouble sleeping at night. He knows inside that there is something “Shady” about this whole incident. Marco wants to investigate this matter but due to the lack of substantial proof, he gets no help from the Army Intelligence but is transferred to the public relations department. Marco however, learns from another officer from the same platoon, Allen Melvin, that he has been having the same nightmares as well. Both Melvin and Marco separately identify the same people as the top brass they see in their dreams and thus get the support of the army to help Marco investigate. On the other hand Shaw’s mother, who is now remarried to Senator John Yerkes Iselin, runs the political campaign of her husband as he is nearing re-election to the senate. The senator himself is widely regarded as a fool. The senator runs on the political agenda where he regularly states that there are a number of communists working in the Department of Defence. What Raymond does not know is that his mother, Mrs. Eleanor Iselin, is in fact a communist agent with the plan to have the presidency under communist influence. Raymond Shaw is first introduced to the audience before the credits where he enters a Korean brother-bar to curtail the late night carousing of his troops. From the beginning scene the audience gets the idea that he is not a man liked very much by his fellow soldiers. During the scene where his brainwashing is occurring he is asked “Whom do you dislike the least in your group?” showing to us that he is a rather lone character who has not formed any sort of friendly ties with his platoon. And it is further shown in the same scene that Raymond is always “drawn to authority”. He is shown as a man who is distanced and follows the rules. He is shown to be withdrawn from his mother and his gestures have gone as much towards hating her as possible without actually doing so. As mentioned in the question itself, the major themes of this movie are “political paranoia and conspiracy specifically, about cold war paranoia and the fear of communism”. These themes are very much evident in the character of Raymond Shaw as his mistrust of Senator Iselin and his mother is clearly shown since the first scene involving them. He despises being used as a tool for forwarding the Senator’s campaign and thinks it’s not in the benefit of his country, the United States of America. He accuses his mother of doing all this. Furthermore, when his mother tells him that she wants him to fly with them to “home” he clearly tells her that he has other plans and he would be taking up his new job over at a newspaper in New York. Shaw has said previously goes by the book and hence he does not agree to him being used in his step-father’s campaign. The theme of brainwashing is seen throughout Shaw’s character. He is manipulated as so feared by the public at the time of the Korean War. The general idea of that era was that brainwashing would allow you to have the person completely submit control over to the person who is carrying out the brainwashing. This is shown when the Shaw is asked to strangle one of his fellow platoon member’s and he does so without any questions or any hesitation and not only that, the other platoon member’s present there did not try to stop it or even raise a single objection against it. Raymond Shaw is seen struggling with his repressed urges throughout the movie, both induced due to the conditioning that the communists had done and also those that were previously present in him, although his hypnotic urges are far more difficult to confront. These struggles are most clearly shown when Raymond Shaw remembers the short time that he had spent with the love of his life Jocelyn Jordan. Raymond experiences the pleasures from his love object by becoming less “up-tight” and repressed, and enters a period of his life when he felt “I was lovable . . .” This goes on to show the general perception that things which truly make you think, such as the love of one’s life can really make you suppress and fight against this brainwashing. The fear of communism is shown by portraying that communists can be anyone, even you. The use of hypnosis allows the communist to transfer their ideas into anyone, even the unwilling. This creates a much more elusive enemy against which one cannot truly be on-guard, because no behavioral cues or lie-Detector tests can reveal their true motivations. Senator Iselin is portrayed as a man who has not got much opinion of his own. He is shown as a “regular john” with little intelligence of his own. Throughout the movie he can be seen being bossed around by his wife. He is seen as a timid man himself who does not talk back to his wife. He shows to us the other example of brainwashing in this particular scenario where his wife controls him truly and he does not do anything without her consent. This opinion of the senator’s character is further solidified by Shaw’s own words when he said “you did all this mother” in the beginning scene. In the airplane the senator is seen taking orders from his wife as he tells him to fix up a drink for Raymond. It is apparent during the scene of the press conference that the senator is listening to his wife as he voices his opinion about communists working in the department of defense. This also shows the general communist fear as the senator, or as it would be more direct to say his wife, knew that they could cash in on this fear of communism by saying that they know that communists are working in the department of defense and if the senator were elected he would do everything in his power to get rid of them. An iconic scene is where the senator blurts out a very high figure when asked about the number of communists in the Department of defense and then when asked again gives a different number. This clearly shows the state of the senator himself, that he is clearly not aware of anything he is doing but is rather being manipulated and controlled by his wife. This is further shown in a following scene where the senator is taking directions from his wife and asks her to give him a simple, easy to remember number concerning the number of communists in the defense department. He is also told by his wife that thinking is not his department but hers and he just has to go out and create a ruckus. As shown by the character of Senator Iselin, there is a fear of communism among the general public. The theme of manipulation is also very well shown along with the political paranoia. The political paranoia is a present theme throughout expressed by the senator’s character a lot as he takes advantage of this very thing and builds his whole campaign around it. Mrs. Iselin also displays the whole theme of manipulation and fear of communism. Her manipulative nature and her using of both her son and husband can be seen when she refers to them as her “two little boys” and is also seen in the party where she dresses up as a shepherdess and has a cane with her to “herd” Raymond and the senator. She is a strong character and takes control of the situation throughout the whole movie. The fear of communism was made evident in this character as by showing her to be the American operative the movie showed to us that anyone can be a communist. Even today this movie is as relevant as it was when it was first released. Today the communists are represented by all the “Terrorist States” that are standing up against United States. The Regime of North Korea is particularly important in this aspect as it is the Korean War that was depicted in the original movie. The modern day socialists, Obama and his regime, is fighting against the terrorists, Al Qaeda, who brainwash people into suicide attempts and into murdering the innocent as happened with the Fort Wayne and Fort Hood shooting. The incident of 9/11 is a glaring example of this brainwashing. The recent Television series “Homeland” also touches on this subject in which an influential political figure is shown as being an enemy mole. It is believed by the general United States public that there are still among the population of America, those present who had been brainwashed during the Korean War and are going to be brought to effect when needed by North Korea in today’s war. Although officially no proof has been found of this brainwashing, some CIA records do show the presence of such individuals. The Chairman of SOS, "Mrs. G.," had a son-in-law wounded in the war. But the son-in-law did not support the group, an FBI informant close to the group later testified to Congress in 1956, reporting Mrs. G. had been an active member of the Communist Party long before the war and subsequent launch of SOS.” This passage was written in an article by Mark Sauter showing that Manchurian Candidate had indeed relevance then and now during the North Korean Situation. Sauter further wrote: “The exact size, extent and duration of Moscow and Beijing’s Korean War POW espionage operations, and America’s response, remain unknown. Although a 1950s media report claimed up to 75 returned prisoners were espionage agents, declassified files show the actual number of detected operatives was much lower.” Now, in North Korea, Kim Jong-un regime has been officially launched from the fourth Conference of the Workers` Party of North Korea, and the fifth session of the 12th Supreme People`s Assembly was held on April 2012. The policy of Kim Jong-un regime has been followed by the teachings left by Kim Jong-Il, but the details of it have not been known. So, this article analyses not only the North Korea`s Policy against South Korea, but also inter-Korea relations which could be expected in the Kim Jong-un Regime. While it maintains the past policy objective, "the communization of the entire Korean peninsula", North Korea will be continued to purse the dual strategy of hard-line and moderate toward South Korea. Inter-Korea relations of Kim Jong-un Era will be swung back and forth such as pendulum in the wall clock. If there is no change in strict policy toward South Korea, inter-Korea relations will become progressively worse. Taking the long-term perspective, however, inter-Korea relations will be improved gradually. The current inter-Korean relationship was deteriorated because of the political and military hard stance of North Korea, Stopping of activities in the Gaesung Industrial Complex, and constraints to Mt. Keumgang tour. Such tougher stance of North Korea and the progressing relationship between U.S. and North Korea has led South Korea to concern about North Korea's ‘Talk only with the U.S., ignore South’ plan. Therefore, it seems to be necessary that now has to reconsider its policy initiative and pursue policy menas to normalize inter-Korean relationship. The key point of domestic and foreign policies of North Korea is to maintain Kim's regime. It is evident that North Korea pursues a series of dialogues with U.S. over Nuclear Issues and the economic cooperation with South Korea in order to maintain its regime itself. The recognition and policy toward South Korea has been changed from that of Kim Il Sung in the Kim Jong-Il era. Unlike the Kim Il Sung era, the international environment of post-cold war and the turn around the power between the South and North were located in the Kim Jong-Il era. Under these conditions, Kim Jong-Il had no choice but accept the pluralist unification different from that of Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong-Il recognized the South as the negotiation partner for overcoming from the international isolation and for economic cooperation. Therefore, North accepted the (neo) functionalistic approach that has been required by South and set out to improve the inter-relations. Meanwhile, the new triangle game different from the cold war confrontations was appeared on the Korean peninsula in the Kim Jong-Il era. At these conditions, the complex Structure was come on, the cooperation of Seoul and Pyongyang pressed the Washington, on the contrary to this, the cooperation of Seoul and Washington pressed the Pyongyang. Therefore, This was the window of opportunity to North Korea was able to press Washington by cooperating with Seoul and go out to the World “One “Soldier H.” confessed he and others were told to join the Save Our Sons (SOS) Committee, an Illinois-based group claiming to represent families of GIs in POW camps and on the battlefield. Said to reach 17 states and send information to 3,000 parents of imprisoned servicemen, the group also petitioned the President and members of Congress. As it can be seen with this article and many others, the situation since 1950s has changed slightly. The communists they referred to back then are the terrorists of today’s world cultivation weapons of mass destruction. The communist agenda has changed to Jihadism and such but the mission remains the same. This topic is greatly sheltered by the United States government as it is considered a matter of National Security and for all we know, you and I could be a Manchurian Candidate. Read More