The Manchurian Candidate

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Summary: The Most Shocking Ending I've Ever Seen!
Review: This is one of the of the great thrillers of all time. I try to picture this movie if it were made today. The most notable difference is it would probally turn into a senseless gore-fest at the end. Movies in the 50s and 60s couldnt frankly show huge amounts of blood and gore, so they had to artistically portray the event, using the actors reactions, light , sound, and other film tecniques (what a radical concept!). I think the ending of this film is more jolting without the gore, allowing the viewer to visualize it. Unfortunaltly the times of artistic fimmaking have all but gone, so check out this movie if you want a wonderfully-filmed thrill of a lifetime.

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Summary: a chilling, disturbing, all-too-real political thriller
Review: some people say they laughed and thought this film was quite funny in spots, but i found it to be a chilling thriller, well-acted, and able to hold the attention of the viewer. frank sinatra is great as the troubled major, plagued by all-too-real nightmares that in effect come true. i can see why sinatra had this film held up after kennedy's assassination. it is so realistic and chilling that the people of that anti-communist time would have been scared to death. a first-rate thriller, highly recommended!

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Summary: A Must for Frank Sinatra Fans
Review: Sinatra and Lansbury make this thriller/satire a timeless classic

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Summary: One of the greatest movie's ever made. Bravo.
Review: This has to be the best movie I have seen. This is a classic. I wish it was not withheld from sale so many years.

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Summary: Good film, but hardly a 5-star.
Review: A good film, with fine acting. But not a great (5-star) film because: a) Janet Leigh character's fall for Marco not credible or convincing; b) The film is too pertinent to the times to resonate as strongly beyond that era. This makes it less a universal theme than, say, Citizen Kane.

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Summary: One of the best thrillers ever made. It never gets old.
Review: The plot is well, known, but the acting is especially remarkable. Lansbury, Gregory, Sinatra and Harvey were perfectly cast and each performed with brilliant subtlety. This is often credited as the best film for Lansbury, who cited this as her "Last cruel mother role." This is filmaking at its best.

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Summary: Life Imitates Art
Review: For different reasons some movies just keep you coming back again and again. Last night I rewatched Manchurin Candiate, a superbly directed thriller, because on March 12 1999 I read in the paper how Dr.Sidney Gottlieb had past away. Dr. Gottlieb is billed as the man who brought LSD to the CIA. Starting in the early 1950's, the time setting of the Manchurian Cadidate, and concluding in the early 1970's, he dosed many unsuspecting Americans with LSD in an effort to control human consciousness, or as acted out in the movie, brain washing. When Dr. Gottlieb retired he concluded his experiments where useless, the CIA then gave him a medal and distroyed all his records. But one does not have to go very far into a history book to see the comparisions that thread the Manchurian Candidate's brain washing to kill a political figure, and 1960's political carnage of two Kennedy's and a King. When you see the threads you can see why this flim was pulled from the distribution the day after the Kennedy assassination,(11/23/63) and not redistributed to the public until 1987, near twenty five years later. Does life imitate art? Or does art mirror life?

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Summary: STARK and HIGHLY CHARGED DRAMATIC
Review: Techno-paranoid thriller was pulled 23NOV63 as it was strangely reminiscent of yesterdays killing event. Sinatra is Intelligence officer assigned to follow Honor Medalist who may or may not be brainwashed (regressed). Frank eventually learns heroe's mom is Commie agent, and it's off to the races! Assassin IS successful, but the victim is not who you'd think! Glorious!

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Summary: Compelling! Did this kind of thing really occur?
Review: After seeing this film, you can't help but wonder if mind control has ever been used in this manner. Where did Richard Condon get his idea for the book? Was it based on real events? This is one of the few films I have ever purchased. I only purchase films that I could watch time and time again. It's a film you not only want others to see, but you want to sit down and watch it with them.

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Summary: Greatest American Movie
Review: I saw "Manchurian Candidate" in the theater the day it opened, and I loved its satire, wit, and reaffirmation of the power of love. Unfortunately I was asked to leave for laughing out loud and distressing the other viewers. That's what makes this a great movie--its politically incisive, outrageously funny, and thoroughly romantic, all at once. Everyone's usual focus on Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury overlooks the brilliant performances of Janet Leigh and Laurence Harvey. Harvey is the linchpin that makes the incredible plot become believable, and Leigh makes the Sinatra character accessible. For her work in this movie, she will always be the ultimate Queen of Hearts.