The Manchurian Candidate

BFI Film Classics

by Greil Marcus

As Greil Marcus reconstructs the drama, "The Manchurian Candidate" is a movie in which the director and actors were suddenly capable of anything, beyond any expectations. This book shows how the film has burrowed into American culture.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Criticism

79 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2002

About the author

Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. In recent years he has taught at Berkeley, Princeton, Minnesota, NYU, and the New School in New York. He lives in Oakland, California.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marcus sees The Manchurian Candidate as an underrated classic, while I personally think it's just okay. Angela Lansbury is great in it, as the batshit mother of the eponymous candidate, who is portrayed just as excellently by Laurence Harvey, and then there's Frank Sinatra, who I found to be pretty awful.

Marcus can't stop rhapsodising about the film, which you might think isn't that strange in a book series about specific films, but other titles in this BFI series offer a better mix of the creation story of a movie and of analysis.

It's just okay.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Manchurian Candidate. A brilliant study by Greil Marcus of the John Frankenheimer 1962 film, a terrifying political thriller.
'As Marcus reconstructs the drama, he shows how The Manchurian Candidate has burrowed deeply into American culture, becoming at once an ineradicable piece of folklore and a mystery yet to be solved.'

"Yet suppose instead of G.I. Blues he had been cast in The Manchurian Candidate, a film that captures the secret, encrypted side of Presleyan myth: the shellshocked, brainwashed soldier as a version of the post-Army Elvis, even the widespread belief that rock 'n' roll was a communist plot fits snugly into the movie's conspiratorial milieu."

The Manchurian Candidate 'was about a plot to assassinate a presidential candidate. It was taken out of circulation after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, it was rereleased both theatrically and on video in 1988 to great acclaim.'

The McCarthy era red scare House Committee on Unamerican Activities (HUAC)
'The nation turned away from the false charges, from the threatened, bribed or merely lying witnesses, from the whole industry of exposure, and everyone awoke from what all were happy to assure each other had been like a dream. But 'what if?' Condon was now so playfully asking in his book - what if Joe McCarthy was really working for the Russians and the Chinese, for the very Communists he was supposedly attempting to destroy?'

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book by great author.
Now I have to track down Arthur Bremer’s book.

[Eric Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across Greil Marcus as someone who wrote about popular music — with a particular interest in Bob Dylan. It turns out that he has written about many aspects of American culture and brings his critical eye to the masterpiece of cinema known as The Manchurian Candidate.

Marcus is clearly a major fan; he believes that everyone involved in the making of the film from the director to the set designer to the extras all took their performances over the top. For the film’s stars, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, they would never do better work.

He discusses the impact of the story on how Americans (and the world) would later interpret the shocking events of the 1960s, the assassinations, the violence and all that followed including the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Marcus has had to adapt this short book for the Trump era — at least for the first months following Trump’s election victory in 2016.

The book is all over the place, and it’s an extended stream-of-consciousness ride through Marcus’ brain, but it’s an enjoyable ride — one that leaves me a bit dizzy, thinking about the book, and the film, long after I have turned the final page.

[Brian Shevory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read David M. Stewart’s excellent Demme biography There’s No Going Back, and Demme remade The Manchurian Candidate in the early 2000s, post-9/11 in a world that had not quite yet realized the full fever dream of online conspiracies. While there were conspiracies about 9/11, the so-called weapons of mass destruction, and even the 2000 election, they hadn’t yet spread wild over the internet, so it was interesting to see Demme re-imagine this classic film for a new generation grappling with its own wars, both physical and ideological. I was really excited to find this BFI Modern Classics on the 1962 version of the Manchurian Candidate written by one of my favorite critics, Greil Marcus. I always enjoy Marcus’s views and perspectives on music, history, culture, and art, and this book presents an interesting take on the history of the film in both its original context and a modern context. What I also found interesting was Marcus’s own personal perspective on this film.
Marcus presents a linear analysis of the film’s plot, but seemingly moves between time, presenting the meaning of the film in the 50s and its Cold War anti-communist ideologies, in the 1960s, released a year before Kennedy’s assassination, and in the 2000 in a post-9/11 world. I found this approach to be fascinating since the film is both preposterous, as Marcus notes, but contains elements of real individuals and events like Senator Iselin, who is modeled after Joseph McCarthy. Furthermore, Marcus notes how similar the imagery of the film is to The Twilight Zone, a show that had just become popular for its presentation of an uncanny simulacrum of our world. In particular, he uses the dream sequences that are shared among different members of Marco and Shaw’s platoon, where the envision a Ladies Garden Club meeting in New Jersey, but really it is a meeting of communist leaders discussing their plans for mind control and assassination. As Marcus notes, the scene slips between the imagined and the real without any kind of clear indication for viewers, something that is unique in its portrayal. It is a rather disorienting scene, but one that is also shocking and innovative.
Like any Marcus deep dive into a work of art, this book contains considerable reflection on the film’s relationship with real life events, in particular assassinations that followed in the years after the film’s release. I hadn’t realized how close in proximity this film was to Kennedy’s assassination, which explains why it was not available for 25 years, until 1988. In Chapter 4, Marcus explores how the term Manchurian Candidate has become a part of the political and conspiratorial vocabulary, especially with all of the political and celebrity assassinations in the years following the film’s release. Marcus is not indicating any kind of causation, but rather looking at the film’s ideas about conspiracy and machinations, and how people have used fiction to explain or make up the reality that is often unexplained or mysterious. In particular, the book and film play on fears from the 50s of the Red Scare, and I found this interesting in today’s climate, and how often people will exploit fear, resentment, and anger, primal emotions, to gain followers or votes. It’s interesting to reconsider this film now when the speed of information is often too quick to verify or find out what is true.
Marcus is always a great critic whose keen insight and ability to creatively contextualize a work both for its time period and modern times enables readers to gain a unique perspective on films, music, and literature. I really enjoyed this book, especially after watching The Manchurian Candidate. It helped me understand the film better and find deeper meaning in the symbols and shots throughout the film. Highly recommended.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The updated 2020 forward alone makes it deserve 2 stars - cripes almighty (although to be fair, Biden hadn't had his corpse-like 4 years in the sun yet). But of all the ridiculous claims of our past 6 presidents about who was the Manchurian Candidate, and you chose...Trump? Bitch, please. Revising this BFI edition from 2002 was completely unnecessary (and silly). But it was obvious Marcus really thought he was doing something there.

The rest of it...eh. I smelled academic boomer right away, and he was VERY in love with his own writing. Absolutely flowery stuff. The character and plot analysis was good, but a bit tedious to wade through. The film is brilliant and I appreciated him pulling out Frankenheimer elements that made it even more brilliant (I've probably seen it...5 times? and still learned a bunch). He didn't mention the remake, which was probably smart, as that was not worth seeing (and I'm not sure what was even the point of re-doing it). This is my 3rd or 4th BFI Film Classic books, but definitely my least favorite.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides an analysis / overview of the film ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ - a movie about mind control and assassination.

I found this book very interesting, as is dissected the film / plot and also looked at it from a number of different angles, but some of the quoted analysis / references seemed a bit of a stretch. The writing was good and the use of images / pictures to explain themes / points was well done.

It was a quick read, taking a round ninety minutes to finish.

[Gina Dalfonzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcus writes like a dream. Though I might have liked a little more exploration of underlying meanings (or even just a willingness to admit that there *are* underlying meanings, though I admit it's a bit difficult with a film like this), I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was a bit like looking at a series of Impressionist paintings, which illuminated even if they didn't analyze.

[Margaret Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purportedly an appreciation or analysis of the 1962 film of Condon's book. Under-impressed to say the least. More a pamphlet than a book. I learned little about the film that I couldn't have gathered googling it but a lot about how Marcus felt about the film.

[Roger · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not the book of the same title but a movie review -waste of time.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been sitting on my shelf for at least a year, waiting for the day when I finally got around to seeing the movie. That day came a couple weeks ago -- I loved the movie -- and it occurred to me afterwards that it would be a perfect time to read Marcus' little book. The book was pretty much what I expected, which is to say that it illuminated some things about the film and made me want to watch it again.

[Stellypippin]

Great pulp!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class; interesting analysis of the classic film The Manchurian Candidate. Left wanting more from what is essentially a booklet.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in terms of storyline and as a glimpse back into the cold-war mindset.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having lots of fun reading the books that inspired classic films. Much richer than a rich movie.