Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate is a film based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel of the same name. Jonathan Demme directed this tense thriller. The original film, written by George Axelrod, is about a government conspiracy involving a prisoner of war in Korea, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, who was captured, brainwashed, and sent back to be a communist assassin. Another war prisoner, Captain Ben Marco, is on a mission to discover what is going on (Levy 1). When the film was first aired in 1962, the American people were experiencing low morale, and the US was attempting to curb the Russian threat. This therefore made the United States to forbid any Hollywood release that perhaps would raise questions or raise any anti American thoughts. Through this we see the main sociopolitical communication or message that, “Americans support Americans and hate communism”. The key question that still cuts across to date is the validity of the government and politicians by then, this as well as is the question that arises today how valid are the corporates and politicians in the government (Ebert 1).



The Movie Review

In the 2004 movie, the Manchurian Candidate improves the cold war classic. In the new release, an evil corporate empire takes the place of communism as a global threat. In the movie, the key message was the issues of war and peace that were intended to be communicated to the public by the key stars Denzel Washington, Jonathan Demme and Meryl Streep. The movie is intend to ensure that the edgy Politian kept, as they ought, on the edge of their seat (Couric 1). As the director put it, the movie intends to make the audience who are the public extremely uncomfortable with the political situation and war circumstances (Ebert 1).

In the initial movie, the greatest threat to the world was from communism; However, in the current movie, what is portrayed is that multi-national corporations that deals with arms. The arms are the main ingredient to the escalating levels of war today (Levy 1). The movie portrayed what was happening on the ground as shown by mass media like wars in Iraq.

In the movie, Streep Virginia U.S. Senator is Shaw’s mother. Streep as described, has the Hillary hair, the attack dog energy of Karen Hughes, charm, inspiration and invention power (Ebert 1). She is describe also as a monomaniac senator, a mad mommy, and a politician who has mastery especially in firing of multiple sides that one cannot keep up with her.

Streep who pushed his son Shaw to vice presidency sold out her soul to the Manchurian Corporation and with Shaw as vice president, a timely assassination will make him the president. This however will allow Manchurian Corporation to control the president and the plan is bound to success unless two men Ben Marco and Al Melvin make meaning of their nightmares.

Owing to this, the message intended to be communicated is that there are leaders who are simply puppets to large corporate organizations and are put there to ensure conspiracies and plans that benefit them are attended to. The impression delivered is that the conspiracies rarely materialize.

Conclusion

The Manchurian Candidate portrays the true political sinister things that actually take place behind the scenes of the politician that we have in America (Levy 1). There are both genuine and puppets politicians. The puppet politicians are controlled by corporations, individuals and are always put there to ensure that the interests of the vested individuals are achieve. The greed, sleek life, hopeless, grim and conniving politicians populate the present world.























Works Cited

Emmanuel Levy. Emmnuellevy Cinema 24/7: “The Manchurian Candidate”. 04/04/2004., N.p. Web. Retrieved on 25 Apr. 2017. .

Roger Ebert. “The Manchurian Candidate”. 19/07/2004., N.p. Web. Retrieved on 25 Apr. 2017. .

Katie Couric. NBC NEWS: “The Manchurian Candidate cast talk’s politics”. 25/07/2004., N.p. Web. Retrieved on 25 Apr. 2017. DOI-5489846