Review of The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate is a splendid film in total, a provocatively relevant thriller. The film is all in all, one of the first to take on the risky subject of mind control and this one remains one of the best in that genre. Used in surreal effect, the film builds for us an air of bizarre mystery, we are shocked not by what is seen on-screen, but the proposition of the film altogether. That is what makes this film more effective, it is not gruesome, but its notions to mind control and government coverts are as frightening today as they were fifty years ago. In perspective, the film acts as a commentary on American and korean politics while providing a shockingly relevant thriller.