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Essay / Commentary and analysis of the novel and film The...
The Manchurian Candidate focuses on the Cold War period and it was originally a novel centered around the idea of brainwashing. The Cold War instilled fear in the American community and this fear is reflected throughout the film when many members of Congress are falsely accused of belonging to the Communist Party. The main character of the film, Raman, is programmed to be an assassin. He was brainwashed to kill on command and then forget about it so he couldn't feel guilty, and even if someone found him suspicious they would have no idea what he was talking about. The whole process takes place when he is in Korea and he is captured by the Korean army with his unit being brainwashed. The beginning of the film focuses on the different members of the unit and how they all experience a recurring nightmare. In the nightmare, Renan coldly kills two of the unit's members when ordered to do so. When the members of the unit start writing to Renan, he is surprised that they call him their good friend because he knows he is the least likeable person and he has no idea why they feel this way about his regard. More than one soldier has a nightmare and the scene of the nightmares is usually tailored to a racial preference (i.e. the African American man is a room surrounded only by people of his skin color.) More Later, Renan receives a phone call where he is asked to play a game of solitaire and as soon as he sees the queen of diamonds, his subconscious takes control of his body, mind and soul. Then, after two years, Renan is handed over to his American operator who, surprisingly, is his mother. Renan's mother is trying to take power and rule America through her husband, who is Renan's stepfather... middle of paper ... one could react to a crisis and pressures. Additionally, throughout the film I saw how fear can control a population and even the brain. Therefore, I come back to what we discussed in class, that different people react differently to certain situations. In conclusion, the Manchurian Candidate movie focuses on the idea of brainwashing a group of men and making one of them an assassin, Renan, who then surprisingly ends up being the hero of the United States instead of the villain. Many things shocked me, like this mother using her child to conquer the United States and how the Koreans were able to control Renan's brain. Some of the connections the film had to class included: not only the psychological part of how the brain works, but also how people react to certain circumstances and how fear can control not only a person but even the government..