Manchurian Candidate Film by Frankenheimer and Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock - Movie Review Example

Progressive Analysis The Manchurian Candi (1962) - Director: John Frankenheimer The Manchurian candidate that is directed by John Frankenheimer is set in post Korean War America, offers a nurture time-space for modern American anxieties about porous social boundaries. This movie is an epitome psychological dramatization of American POWs’ “brainwashing scare” during the Korean War. The film also gives a platform to give criticism of both extremes of McCarthyism anticommunist and communist sympathizers. It can be said that the movie tries to awaken the sluggish nation to the communist menace. The film also seems to be premised upon the contradictory desire to remember by forgetting, it tries to reclaim the legitimacy of the cold war social condition that came from the Korean War to McCarthyism. The concerns of social relations are characterized by a crisis of masculinity, a feminist menace, and an intrusion of foreignness into the national body politics that is personified in the mythic white masculinity of the American national Imaginary. Manchurian candidate is a story of lost patrol that was ambushed in Manchuria and brainwashed by Chinese psychiatrists during the Korean War. The plot of this film revolves around a squad of soldiers led by captain Bennet Marco. Joint communist forces capture the squad in Korea and brainwashed. Sergeant Raymond Shaw who was among the captured fellow is conditioned to become an assassin due to the effect of “brainwashing.” While Raymond was being trained he was made to murder two of his squad-mates as part of his training. A similar hypnotic suggesting is applied to the surviving members, this makes them to believe that Raymond saved all of their lives behind enemy lines. The men are released and they return to America, where Captain Marco nominates Raymond for the Congressional Medal of Honor. After a while Raymond starts experiencing nightmares about the murders he had committed. He does not believe this dreams at first, but after learning that the other members of the squads are experiencing are also experiencing the same nightmares, captain Marco begins to suspect that the soldiers have been brainwashed. This makes him to set investigations on the circumstances behind their detention; he incorporated the army intelligence to aid in uncovering the secret mission that Raymond had been trained to carry out. On the earlier scenes of the movie Raymond returns to the U.S to a hero’s welcome, there was a band and greetings from the top military brass. This is the first scene in which Mrs. Iselin, Raymond’s mother is featured. This scene makes it apparent to both the audience and Raymond that Raymond’s’ mother coordinated this event for publicity for her husband’s re-election campaign. This incident makes her to be the movie’s main antagonist. Later Raymond accuses his mother and blames her of manipulation. Mrs. Iselin is a demanding character and cold, when she tells Raymond that she wants the best for his son and her husband it becomes apparent Raymond disbelief as well as the audience. As the movie progresses it is evident that Iselin is not the kind of woman who can actually devote her life for the interest of her son and husband. It is important to note that women who diverge from the nurturing attitude are always revealed to be villainous. All through the film the character of Mrs. Iselin is loaded with messages of politics, gender and sexuality. Mrs. Iselin a wife of a senator fulfills another stereotype of the time, she has no office or power of her own to exert. Marriage is portrayed to give women power in this Cold War film. Mrs. Iselin epitomizes this stereotype. She acquires power from her husband by ruling over him and she makes the husband to be like a puppet. An early scene of the movie depicts her watching senator Iselin launching a verbal attack on the secretary of defense for harboring communist in his office. She nods positively with a smile and it is with no doubt that this was her perpetrating power through her husband. This depiction is repeated throughout the film, where Mrs. Iselin dominates her husband and son. Captain Marco befriends Raymond in the last part of the film, in order to find clues that will lead him to Raymond’s mission. It is this friendship that makes Raymond to reveal about his mother’s domineering personality. Raymond’s “brainwashing” is turned on by the code “why don’t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire” as the movie progresses. This makes him to docile to receive order from his communist overseers, which are complete one he encounters the “red queen” this programming is by accident as Marco discovers after an offhand remark by a bartender. As the movie progresses Mrs. Iselin summons his son for a private conversation. Once they are alone she starts to utter Raymond’s programming phrase and begins to give him instruction. This revelation depicts Mrs. Iselin as the “red queen.” She is the queen of conspiracy at the heart of the film, and using the language of the time she is “a red,” which was the color that was representing communism. The two are interrupted as the scene ends and Jocelyn Jordan encounters Raymond just before Iselin returns. She dresses as the queen of diamond and the two elope that night after reconciliation. Raymond finds happiness after his marriage, Captain Marco has broken the code behind Raymond’s programming, and he hopes to meet Raymond to attempt a deprogramming. Before this happens Raymond returned home to confront his mother and stepfather about the consistent and persistent public criticism that they had towards Senator Jordan. This instance Mrs. Iselin tries to program Raymond to kill Senator Jordan because he stood on the way of the Senator Iselin’s vice presidential nomination. Raymond goes to Senator’s Jordan house and shoots him, Jocelyn comes downstairs to investigate Raymond’s murders her to cover evidence of what he had done. Captain Marco learns of this murder and finds Raymond; he uses a deck of cards that were composed of queen of diamonds and successfully deprograms him. There is unclear uncertainty about the communist conspiracy, this prompt Marco to allow Raymond to return to Mrs. Iselin’s home to unravel the mystery of the communists. The scene that follows is very crucial it depicts Mrs. Insulin lust for power. She reveals her ultimate goal that was: to have Raymond assassinate the presidential nominee, Ben Arthur, at the convention and use the resulting media spectacle to sweep her husband to the nomination and ultimately to the Whitehouse. The Manchurian Candidate ends with Captain Marco reflecting on Raymond’s struggles and ultimately deciding that he did in fact earn his Medal of Honor. Psycho (1960) - Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cultural norms have witnessed disruptions in the post-war period that can be described using death drive and the real. This claim can be so abstract and for this reason historical concrete studies using the framework of this popular culture is used. This historical interest has led to a new surge of psychoanalytic work on the films of Alfred Hitchcock, our progressive analysis will focus on the film Hitchcock done titled psycho. Alfred Hitchcock can be described as a filmmaker who has a powerful interpretative acts; that is interpretations which, for better or worse, orient the discussion of a subject in a specific direction for future commentators. In this essay I will present psycho (1960) to show theoretically how this film register certain historical transformation of gender ideology and spectatorship in the post-war period. The analysis will depict how gender ideology is primarily unstable in changing cultural and economic times. The issues of voyeurism and scopophilia are revealed by Hitchcock in the times of social and economic shifts during the post-war period. There are numerous Lacanian themes that Psycho depicts, the similar themes that tradition Lacanian themes that are portrayed include; themes of gaze, the drive and the breakdown of intersubjectivity. It is important to note that the above the Lacanian themes the film is also concerned with economic and cultural concerns. Although there are many Lacanian themes in the movie which to say are crucial, they are also tied with the worries about changing economic and cultural conditions in the post-war period that make up the raw material of this film. I can strongly affirm that the notion of scopophiliac gaze is crucial to understand the cultural and economic worries that inform this film. Lacanian insights in the film can be used to productively historicize the economic and cultural concerns of postmodern or “late” capitalism. Psycho (1960) is concerned with voyeurism; this can be illustrated from the movies from different occasions. For instance, when Marion (Janet Leigh) steals $40 000 from her boss to start a new life which makes her to end up staying at the Bates Motel during a storm. It is during this time that the character of Norman (Anthony Perkins) is revealed, he watches Marion while she undresses. The audience also glimpses this scene. Another occasion is when Marion engages in voyeurism when she watches Norman Jog up steps and into his home. Voyeurism is also revealed in another incidence of the movie when Marion is taking a shower. This scene is made in great detail for the sake of the audience, Norman stands behind the shower curtain watching, too, before he abruptly draws the curtain and attacks Marion. He stubs her to death in this attack. The theme of voyeurism is apparent in this theme and is bonded with attack. In Psycho, gender ideologies are addressed in a direction fashion as the character of Norman is not merely feminized, but literary dresses up as a woman and takes on an alternative female identity (i.e., his mother). When Norman kills Marion there is a shot of him afterward showing him dressed in female attire. Thus, he is committing a stereotypically male crime with a female persona. This can epitomize inverted gender roles in Hitchcock film. From the beginning of the film there is something perverse. In matter relating to voyeurism, the movie opens with a long-take cranes shot that slowly zooms in through a window in a hotel room where Marion and Sam are undressed in an intimately private scene. The scene makes us to be “voyeurs” but it also seemed to be a parody of the traditional Hollywood couple. Marion is the one who pushes Sam to get married and this makes this scene to illustrate reversal of gender roles in a classical Hollywood narrative. It is interesting to that Sam is not only enthusiastic about marriage but he is financially unable to bring the couple together. This prompts him to leave the task of driving the relationship and narrative to Marion. The notion of male dominance is greatly problematized. I can argue that the film is made to encourage the spectator to identify with Marion. When Marion steals the $40 000 from one of her boss, one is made to sympathize with Marion for the sake of relationship. From a psychoanalytic perspective it is evident that one cannot identify himself with Norman as this will seem to be problematic for moral reason and can represent a psychotic subject position in the Lacanian sense. Looking at Norman in a psychotic perspective we can say that he lacks a “paternal metaphor,” or what is known as a father figure in linguistic function that structures one’s symbolic reality by forcing separation with the mother. In this scene Hitchcock confronts us with the aspect of human subject that exists beyond culture and language. It is also important to note that the perversion of this classical couple is also tied to some specific economic themes. Marion is associated with various economic kind of awkward economic transaction. The $40000 that Marion stole is closely associated with perversion on the client that the money was stolen from. When the audience get a glimpse of the money, it is when the client a man called Cassidy, is buying the house for his newly-wed daughter. There is abnormal family relation in Cassidy’s family which leads to problematic economic transaction. The cash in the film can be said to depict obscene. This can be illustrated in the film where Cassidy displays the money in front of Marion, Caroline (Patricia Hitchcock) who was Marion fellow secretary was shocked as she showed through he expression of her face. Lowery is not for the idea that Cassidy is buying the house in cash, this is due to the economic constraint of the time. He is afraid to handle this large sum of money. Due to this fact he tells Marion to take it to a safe deposit box and they will convert it to check as soon as the bank opens the following weekend. This theme can also be revealed in the occasion which Marion stops to trade in her car at a used car lot; this was meant to prevent her from being tracked with the stolen money. The salesman becomes suspicious of Marion when she pays quickly with a large sum and leaves. References Axelrod, G. & Condon, R. (1962). The Manchurian candidate. Suffolk, UK: Turner Classic Movies. Žižek, Slavoj (ed.).( 2010). Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Lacan (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock). 2nd edition. London: Verso. Read More