With hindsight, "Mandchurian Candidate " was one of the most important movies of the sixties .It was made before the assassination of Kennedy and its screenplay seems stronger than ever.
Many movies were influenced by Frankenheimer's masterpiece ,mainly in the seventies when the political movies were trendy;two movie mostly influenced by it were the excellent "parallax view" (AJ Pakula) and the rather good "Domino Principle " which came a little too late for its own good.
Like "Parallax" ,"Domino" is almost abstract:we never know who is killing who ,who pulls the strings .Tagge (Widmark ) seems to know more than the other "conspirators" .Reser (Wallach) is a general (a maffia one?).Spinventa (Rooney )is an apparent victim (one of the plot holes concerns his character:how could they be so sure Tucker (Hackman) would demand his escape ?).Everybody seems to be manipulated ,even Ellie (Bergen).When the movie is over,you won't know anything about why it happened.
Many movies were influenced by Frankenheimer's masterpiece ,mainly in the seventies when the political movies were trendy;two movie mostly influenced by it were the excellent "parallax view" (AJ Pakula) and the rather good "Domino Principle " which came a little too late for its own good.
Like "Parallax" ,"Domino" is almost abstract:we never know who is killing who ,who pulls the strings .Tagge (Widmark ) seems to know more than the other "conspirators" .Reser (Wallach) is a general (a maffia one?).Spinventa (Rooney )is an apparent victim (one of the plot holes concerns his character:how could they be so sure Tucker (Hackman) would demand his escape ?).Everybody seems to be manipulated ,even Ellie (Bergen).When the movie is over,you won't know anything about why it happened.