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Movies / On DVD / The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate

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The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

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Reviews Counted:47

Fresh:46

Rotten:1

Average Rating:8.6/10

Consensus: A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.

Runtime: 3 hrs 6 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: John Frankenheimer's brilliant adaptation of Richard Condon's Cold-War satire, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is the director's best film, both a coruscating thriller and a razor-sharp satire of... John Frankenheimer's brilliant adaptation of Richard Condon's Cold-War satire, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is the director's best film, both a coruscating thriller and a razor-sharp satire of political hysteria that captures the turbulent mood of the 1960s. Packed with sly details, such as the liberal senator "bleeding" milk when he's shot, the film demands repeated viewings. Laurence Harvey stars as Sergeant Raymond Shaw, whose U.S. army unit is captured while fighting in Korea, taken to Manchuria, and brainwashed by Chinese communists. The men return to the U.S. with no conscious memory of their experience, and Shaw is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery. But when Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) starts having nightmares, he begins an authorized investigation into what happened in Manchuria and eventually reveals that the sergeant's brainwashing has transformed him into an unconscious assassin who can be triggered by his communist controllers at will. Although Sinatra is slightly miscast as a tortured intellectual, Harvey and the remaining cast are excellent, as is Richard Sylbert's inventively designed "brainwashing" sequence, Lionel Lindon's extraordinary depth-of-field camerawork, and David Amram's witty, neoclassical score. [More]

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, James Gregory, Henry Silva, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver, James Edwards

Director: John Frankenheimer

Director: John Frankenheimer
Screenwriter: George Axelrod
Producer: George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer
Composer: David Amram

[See More Credits]

Reviews for The Manchurian Candidate

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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Among a strong cast, Lansbury is wonderfully wicked as Shaw's despicable mother.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/07/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A masterpiece.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This genuinely frightening and daring film blew holes in the political complacency of post-war American cinema.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Matt Ford
Matt Ford
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A dazzling spy thriller that’s still amazing.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

a benchmark of the United States' coming of age in the 1960s

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
03/24/09
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

powerful experience, alternately corrosive with dark parodic humor, suspenseful, moving, and terrifying.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/07/08
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

Every once in a rare while a film comes along that works in all departments, with story, production and performance so well blended that the end effect is one of nearly complete satisfaction. Such is The Manchurian Candidate.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
05/07/08
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...goes down the rabbit hole, though never too far to lose its satirical relevance to the insanity of real-world politics.

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
02/07/08
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

With spry editing and camerawork, [Frankenheimer] fuses together a documentary-like realism and more expressive stylizations to create a hybrid thriller-satire

Full Review Source: Perihelion Journal | comment Comment
08/27/06
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Perihelion Journal

even when taken out of its historic context, this film is a thought-provoking piece of quality filmmaking

Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | comment Comment
08/12/05
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews

No review available.

comment Comment
07/30/05
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

No review available.

comment Comment
07/03/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

People have called The Machurian Candidate the greatest political thriller ever made. People would be right.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
12/20/04
David Cornelius
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com

No review available.

comment Comment
11/03/04
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

A volatile work, part thriller, part quasi-science fiction, part vicious satire.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
09/27/04
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

It's both exciting and disheartening that a 42 year-old satire like this still works as pointedly as it does.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
08/07/04
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Frankenheimer’s TV shooting style is only adequate, but it’s the McCarthyist and Freudian undertones that make Candidate a winner.

Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | comment Comment
07/30/04
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

Frankenheimer easily ranks as the pre-eminent director of political intrigue.

Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | comment Comment
07/30/04
John A. Nesbit
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews

It's heady stuff in a nail-biting chiller that still has the power to make viewers perspire profusely.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
07/21/04
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Mystery drama. Cold-War political farce. Spine-tingling thriller. Read it how you will...takes us for a wild ride through the mother of all conspiracy theories.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
07/20/04
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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