Review of The Manchurian Candidate (1962) by Compi24 — 05 Jul 2020

And now, I'm presented with the extremely rare displeasure of having to trend into the land of unfortunate movie opinions. I think I like Jonathan Demme's 2004 remake just a tad more than this. Now, granted, I don't think this is a poor film in any sort of regard.

In fact, there's a lot to commend here. John Frankenheimer's direction plays well enough within the classic Hollywood style of filmmaking, but — make no mistake — there are so many shots, stagings and choices made in the presentation of this narrative that broach into the beginnings of what you could call "New Hollywood.

" It's really neat to watch this unfold. What isn't necessarily neat is the film's slavish attempts at adapting Richard Condon's 1959 novel of the same name. I haven't even read the book, but there's just so much in here that screams "novel," it almost hurts.

Numerous flashbacks, characters and scenes plague this story from being as aerodynamic as it should be. I think this is where I diverge towards preferring the 2004 film, which not only struck a real structural balance in my eyes, but knew when to swap, shift or remove certain elements from the novel, in order to accentuate the thematic material between the ribs of the narrative.

Also, any sort of potentially racist subject matter is done away with in that film as well. So that's also a plus, I suppose. Still, from a purely historical standpoint, this is most certainly worth the watch.