Manchurian Candidate – Film Theory Paper

The Manchurian let outlook, adapted from Richard Con take ins novel of the equivalent title, was released in 1962, and directed by John Frankenheimer. Brief Plot abstract The central concept of the aim is that the son of a prominent, right-wing govern intellectual family has been persuade as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy Thesis Statement The Manchurian prospect was noted for its discovery in flicktography, as the guessings were accident in a creative manner that was bare-ass and antithetic in that era.It in any case made engagement of various edit techniques to seamlessly piece the story together, a massive with the call of certain recurring Motifs to efficaciously deliver the story to the reference. This paper would examine how the groundbreaking use of cinematography, edit help to involve across the national of surrealism, and delivers a hovering impression while the motifs help link up the Theme of The Manchurian panor ama with the use of visual elements. Cinematography The Manchurian Candidate made use of some(prenominal) different brilliant cinematography aspects to bring forward the proposition of surrealism and thrill to the audience.According to the Dictionary, the term surrealism refers to an avant-garde movement in art and literature that seek to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, characterized by the evocative apposition of incongruous images in order to include unconscious and dream elements. This theme was soaring uncloudeded in several(prenominal) bursts in the need. Particularly in a scene where major Marco was having a nightmare, the camera tracked from the destruction of Marcos sleeping room towards Marco, who was lying on the bed sleeping.The tracking chatoyant ended with a close up of Marcos character, with his brows furrowed as he began to invite his recurring nightmare. The close up shot of Marcos troubled face was therefore superimposed onto h is nightmare shot. From the tracking to close up shot, it progress tos a sense of mystery and suspense, which intrigues the audience and builds up the anticipation. After which it would lead up to the films most noted scene- the Ladies in Garden rules of order scene.In this scene, the director made use of a 360 degrees panning shot to memorialisecase ternary different points of view- the Reality, the brainwashed white mans liking and the brainwashed black mans imagination. These three different points of view in a dream add up to unitary big surrealistic nightmare scene. It is also important to note that this scene was conside cerise to be notorious (Chung, 2006, p. 129) during that era, for its illegitimate use of camera work. During and after(prenominal) the 1950s, there is an increase in the number of dark, provocative and original films. (Mann, 2008, p. 12) and The Manchurian Candidate was iodin of them. It was stylistically ambitious (Mann, 2008, p. 12) and can be con sidered a break by means of in cinematography during that era. This scene alone had to be shot 3 different times, as each individual point of view comprised of different elements and actors. The platoon was captured and brainwashed into thinking they were attending a ladies horticulture club shock, when in event they were present and sitting in a Communist meeting. The camera then does a 360 degrees slow panning shot from the lady speaking, Mrs.Whittaker, to everyone present in the scene, auditory modality to the talk. However, as the camera makes a full round and returns to the start, gone was Mrs. Whittaker, and in her place stood an East Asian doctor giving the Russian and Chinese generals a speech about the brainwashed American soldiers. This panning shot builds up suspense, as the camera slowly pans around the venue, showing that there were but ladies present. It delivered a shock to the audience, who expected to see Mrs. Whittaker after the camera makes a full round, to fi nd out that the lady was gone and replaced by a man instead.This slow panning movement also gave the scene a dream-like quality, which is a characteristic often associated with the theme of surrealism. The scene with the doctor and Communist generals reflected the realness of which the soldiers are unaware of, as they were brainwashed. The camera used a low-angle shot to reveal the amphitheatre make full with Communists. It was positioned behind the soldiers, as if they were looking up to those lay. This is to show that the American soldiers caught were at the mercy of those Generals present, to show authority from those seated above and around the amphitheatre.Even though they are under the mercy of the Communists, the soldiers showed no sign of fear as they were brainwashed into thinking they were facing a group of women instead. Hence the use of camera angle here provides a sort of contradiction to reality, it showed Communist authority even though the soldiers dis vie no fear . Another groundbreaking use of cinematography can be constitute in the scene where insurrectionist Iselin was confronting the Secretary about the number of Communists in the Defense department with Eleanor Iselin manipulating her husband.In this scene, the Secretary was giving a press concourse and knot Iselin stood up, and demanded to know wherefore are there communists present in the Defense department. The scene was constructed such that the Secretary was at one end of the room, while Johnny was the other end. Yet they were able to appear in one frame, with the use of juxtaposition. As the press conference was broadcasted live, the confrontation surrounded by both parties were filmed and showed on television screen.Whenever the Secretary is in frame, Johnny Iselin would appear on the screen of a small television at the shoetree of the frame, thus making both parties visible onscreen even though technically, they are at different ends of the room. This use of framing and j uxtapose imagery echo them theme of surrealism. Surrealism often uses incongruous juxtapositions to highlight conflicts (Strom, 2003). In one particular scene, the mastermind of this confrontation, Eleanor Iselin, appeared in the foreground, with Johnny in the background, and the Secretary reacting angrily on the small particular television screen at the corner of the frame.Every action was combined in one frame capturing the whole shot, filled with conflict and movement. This framing brought the tension of the film up a some notches and audiences were able to feel the impending explosion of anger between the characters. The unconventional use of cinematography aspects in this film successfully brings forward the theme of Surrealism, with its unusual framings and camera movements (Strom, 2003, p. 8), which are styles indebted to Surrealism. Editing The different use of editing was also one of the most noted aspects of The Manchurian Candidate.According to Carroll (2003), editing, or collage, was generally celebrated as the most important, essential characteristic of cinema (p. 153). Hence the right choice of editing technique would set the charge per unit and coherency of the film. This would bring us to the editing pace of the film- the long takes versus the accelerate montage. The scene that showcased a long take, happened when in study Marcos agree ride from Washington to New York. Marco was feeling jittery and nervous, thus he decided to leave his instill seat and go to the back of the train for some fresh air.He arrived at the last carriage, and stood with his back leaning against the wall. A womanhood followed Marco and entered the same carriage. She had observed Marco from before, and decided to follow him into the back. Marco and the woman began to excise up a conversation, with random small talks that made no sense. This whole scene involved no cuts at all, all shot at one go and thus showcasing the aspect of a long take. The long take builds on the tension between the meeting of two strangers, showing the entire conversation between Marco and the woman, despite it being nonsensical and weird.The audience took in the scene at one go, after which it leaves them wondering what lies underneath this exchange of words between the Major and this woman? The long take establishes a fact that this scene is important, as it intensifies a shot (Goldberg, n. d), contradictory to the fact that the content of the scene is random and be of small talks only. As opposed to a long take, which consists of well-nigh no cuts, an accelerated montage consists of shots with increasingly shorter lengths.With regards to The Manchurian Candidate, the accelerated montage editing aspect occurs during the Convention scene, where Raymond Shaw was sent on a bursting charge to assassinate the President. In this particular scene, Sergeant Raymond Shaw was instructed by his arrest to swank the newly pick out President at the Madison Square Garde n, with Major Marco scrambling to stop Shaw from accomplishing his mission. The establishing shot of Madison Square Garden showed Raymond walking through rows and rows of empty tiered seats, arriving at a small room high above the arena.He positioned his rifle as he prepares for his mission to assassinate the elected President while he was giving his speech. As crowds filled the arena, Major Marco struggles to locate Shaw in hopes of stopping him. The whole sequence was edited with the cross-cutting technique. done cross-cutting, it helps to create tension and delivers the sense of thrill when the audience sees Shaw preparing to fire his rifle, as Marco runs frantically to stop him. From the first few shots of Shaw preparing his rifle and locating his lay to Marco searching frantically for Shaw, was edited with shots and cuts that got shorter and shorter.It adopted the technique of Accelerated Montage, which serves to create tension and keep the audience at the edge of their seats . As this is the approach of the film, by using cross-cutting and accelerated montage, the film manages to capture the audiences attention and builds a highly thrilling and exciting sequence. Motifs The Manchurian Candidate makes use of several motifs in this film to drive home its centre and to develop its theme. One of the most glaring motifs used in this film would be the reddened fairy, or the Queen of Diamonds.The Queen of Diamonds card had appeared several times in the film, particularly during scenes that involved Raymond Shaw being brainwashed. In this film, the Communists had check offed Shaws brain into receiving commands and fulfilling them like a robot would. However, this brainwash condition can only be activated when Shaw hears the line Why dont you pass the time by playing a little game of solitaire? After which, Shaw would proceed to take out a stack of cards robotically and began playing.As he plays the game, he would eventually draw out the Queen of Diamonds card, and upon seeing the card it would fully activate Shaws brainwashed condition. At first glance, it may seem that the Queen of Diamonds motif is played out to trigger Shaws mental condition. However, as the film progresses, the draped of using the Queen of Diamonds began to clear up- that the Queen of Diamonds was linked to Shaws mother, Eleanor Iselin and afterward in the film, his soon-to-be wife, Jocie (Blakesly, 2007).According to Blakesly (2007), the Queen of Diamonds card represented an adamant woman, his mother, someone Raymond would diversitya not see. During the first few scenes, Shaw admitted that he despised and loathed his mother. It was eventually revealed that Shaws mother was also part of the Communist conspiracy, and a woman hungry for political power. Hence, the card that would trigger Shaws mental condition was picked out to be the Queen of Diamonds, which signifies his mother and hinted that his mother had a connection with the Communists. As mentioned ab ove, the Queen of Diamonds is also known as the Red Queen.In this case, it represented Communism as this film was shot and based on the Cold War, which was ongoing during that time. Blakeslys analysis surmises that Another triggering device for Raymonds conditioning is when he looks upon the Queen of Diamonds, the Red Queen, with the concomitant relationship of red to the Red scare, the communism from which the left in North America, with obsolescent exceptions, still recoils. (p. 218) Besides being a figure representation of Shaws mother, the Queen of Diamonds also took on the representation of Communism.Hence it would make sense to why Shaw would fall into a state of brainwashed condition upon seeing the Queen of Diamonds card- he was being controlled by the Communists, with the card serving as a reminder that Communism took over his mind. Other than the Queen of Diamonds motif, the film also adopted Abraham capital of Nebraska as a motif. The use of Abraham Lincoln ranges from frank pictures of Lincoln himself, hanging in the Iselin house to a more insidious form, where Johnny Iselin dresses up at Abraham Lincoln in a fancy dress party.The Iselins were from the Right-Wing, or Republican party. The use of Lincoln signifies the stand that the Iselins take inside political context and also to serve as a kind of contradiction between right and wrong. Abraham Lincoln was a prominent attractor of the Republican Party. According to Redding (2008), the film was mediating symbolically on the political hereditary pattern of Lincolns republic among a corrupted public reach. Lincoln was used a symbol to represent America, and the directors portrayal of the Iselins served as a satire of the America politics during that time.Johnny Iselin, the Senator, was visualised as a drunk, impulsive and rash person. He often confronted the governing body with issues concerning the communist, when in fact he is also part of the communist conspiracy to take over the America n government. This is a parody of McCarthy, who was a rash and impulsive Senator from the Republican Party. During the time he acted as a Senator, he often appeared drunk and caused a lot of controversy. Thus the portrayal of Johnny Iselin based on McCarthy, and the images of Lincoln all served to fuel the directors satire on the political situation.During the masquerade party scene, Johnny Iselin svelte up as Abraham Lincoln, a contradiction as he is workings with the communists whereas Lincoln was regarded as a righteous politician in the past. To except highlight the contradiction, Johnnys wife, Eleanor Iselin dressed up as Bo Peep, a character which symbolizes innocence and naivety. However, as mentioned previously, Eleanor was anything but innocent. She worked conk in hand with the communists in order to gain political foothold. Thus, this portrayal also serves to show a contradiction between right and wrong, righteous and flagitious.Portraits of Abraham Lincoln change th e Iselin house, and in a particular scene, where Eleanor was confronting Raymond about his love interest with the miss of a Senator from an opposition party, Lincoln was staring down at the confrontation. This is just another example of contradiction between right and wrong, the mother being an evil influence was threatening Raymond to give up his love and Lincolns portrait in the background serves to remind us light will prevail, as the portrait was hung above of Eleanor as she speaks.The different motifs of this film helped shaped the entire plot and provided audience with clues when they see the Queen of Diamonds they promptly would know that Raymond Shaw would be brainwashed. It also helped to bridge certain morals or theme of the story with visual elements, like the battle of right and evil was shown through the portayal of the Iselins versus Abraham Lincoln iconography. Conclusion This paper discussed how use of cinematography, editing helped bring across the theme of surre alism, and delivered a thrilling effect while the motifs helped bridge the Theme of The Manchurian Candidate with the use of visual elements.In conclusion, The Manchurian Candidate made use of highly unconventional cinematography and editing aspects that successfully showcased the theme of surrealism and effectively created tension and thrill, for the audience. Not forgetting the effective use of motifs, which helped authentic the main theme with the use of visual elements and provoked thought from the audience as they watch the film, while trying to piece the puzzles together.Bibliography * Blakesly, David (2007) The Terministic Screen rhetorical Perspectives on Film. Illinois SIU Press * Carroll, Noel (2003) Engaging the Moving Image. USA Yale University Press * Chung, H. S. (2006) Hollywood Asian Philip Ahn and the Politics of Cross-Ethnic Performance. USA Temple University Press * Goldberg, * Mann, Denise (2008) Hollywood Independents The postwar Talent Takeover. Minneapolis Un iversity of Minnesota Press * Redding, A. F. (2008) Turncoats, traitors, and fellow travelers culture and politics of the archaean Cold War. USA University Press of Mississippi * Strom, Kristen (2003) Resurrecting the Stylite Simon Bunuels Surrealist Film. P. 8