The Manchurian Candidate (1962) IMDB Top 250 Guest Review

Here is my review of The Manchurian Candidate for Cinema Parrot Disco’s IMDB Top 250

 

Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life. ” – Bennet Marco

Number of Times Seen – Between 5 – 10 times (cable in the 90’s, video, DVD, 28 Jan 2001 and 10 Aug 2014)

Brief Synopsis – An Army Captain has recurring nightmares of strange occurrences that possibly happened after his unit was ambushed while on patrol in Korea.

My Take on it – Frank Sinatra is mostly known for his singing career, but he also had an impressive run in the movies too.

Most people think that his best role was the one that earned him a best supporting actor Oscar in From Here to Eternity (1953), but I believe that this is his best performance.

This movie explores some amazing themes for a movie from the early 60’s.

Hypnotism and mind control wasn’t such a prevalent theme in mainstream thrillers at the time, but this film brought those ideas into the common lexicon of high standard movies.

To also add in a conspiracy theory theme at the peak of the Cold War was ingenious and the thrilling scenes just keep coming throughout the two hour plus running time.

The beginning of the movie is so important for understanding the rest of it, so make sure you pay close attention!

This is unfortunately no longer on the current IMDB top 250 list, but it deserves to be back there because it is so well constructed.

I loved how they left the possible incestuous relationship very ambiguous leaving the decision up to the viewer regarding character motivations because it works well both ways.

Besides Sinatra, the rest of the cast are each nearly perfect in their respective roles.

Laurence Harvey plays the hero of Sinatra’s patrol who may or may not be under a foreign influence.

Janet Leigh is a woman who Sinatra meets and enlists help from in order to prove his theory of mind control.

And Angela Lansbury is at her best as Harvey’s mother who is very involved in politics and in EVERY aspect of her son’s life.

Solitaire anyone?????

Bottom Line – One of Sinatra’s best roles. Great conspiracy movie that unfolds nearly perfectly before our eyes. Highly recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

Cinema Parrot Disco

Today’s IMDB Top 250 Guest Review comes from Rob of MovieRob. He also reviewed Saving Private RyanHERE. Thanks for the reviews, Rob! 🙂 Now let’s see what he has to say about The Manchurian Candidate, IMDB rank 200 out of 250…

There are still some movies up for grabs if anyone wants to do a guest IMDB Top 250 review. You can find the list of remaining films HERE. See the full list & links to all the reviews that have already been done HERE.

Also, I’ve never thought to mention it but if you’d like to add a link to your IMDB Review(s) on your own blogs, feel free to use any of the logos I’ve used at the top of any of these guest reviews. I know I’ve made a few that are specific to the movie being reviewed. I’ll also do an…

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