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The Manchurian Candidate

A historical Review

The film, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, represents the American life during the sixties and gives a clear picture of the way Communism was perceived by the general public. The threat of Communism dominated American thought which is very well illustrated in the film. The plot revolves around a joint conspiracy by the Soviet-Chinese, to take an American soldier captured from Korea, condition him at a special brainwashing center located in Manchuria, and then create a remote-controlled American assassin (Marks, 1979). The captured American soldier (Raymond) is actually a Russian operator in the U.S soil. He is “a trained assassin, programmed to kill in a hypnotic state, induced by playing the game solitaire” (Carruthers, 1998)….
The film symbolizes the American way of life and enlightens the viewer what the American publics’ concern was during the sixties. The film employs many icons, messages and symbolic words which indicate the core idea of the film. The scene of American flags, with the word ‘Hero’ inscribed on it, for instance, was used to represent the nationalistic feeling among the American citizens. This clearly indicates that America is at war with its enemy. The word ‘hero’ gives the impression that the potential threat to America should be overcome by its heroic and loyal citizens….

An important and crucial symbol used throughout the film is the television. The monitor of the television is used in many scenes, a true depiction of the society of 1950s and 1960s when the American populace was glued to their television screen and acquired a majority of the “information about the world primarily from television” (Hodgson, 1978).