(no subject)
So, in the interest of continuing to educate myself in Film, and really enjoying being fascinated by the material cultural and settings of old movies, and being in the mood for a little Cold War Paranoia, I watched The Manchurian Candidate (1962) for the first time. Its racism is certainly more nuanced than I expected, for instance. I loved the contradictions on that subject throughout: where the assassin demurs, for instance, "We don't need a translator -- everybody in this country speaks the same language" but later on while the Major (Sinatra) is in the police station someone in the background is holding a long jovial conversation in Spanish.
That is, I found it really funny as well as suspenseful. For instance: the marvellous bit at the convention in Madison Square Garden, where, y'know, the Future of the Free World Hangs in the Balance, and the two uniformed officers who Are The Only Hope are forced helplessly to stand at attention from the opening notes of "The Star-Spangled Banner," their eyeballs roaming frantically, their arms cocked in salute. How I laughed! (Was I supposed to?)
And that was a great performance by Angela Lansbury; it's her charisma as much as anything else that makes the object of the final assassination so unpredictable.
That is, I found it really funny as well as suspenseful. For instance: the marvellous bit at the convention in Madison Square Garden, where, y'know, the Future of the Free World Hangs in the Balance, and the two uniformed officers who Are The Only Hope are forced helplessly to stand at attention from the opening notes of "The Star-Spangled Banner," their eyeballs roaming frantically, their arms cocked in salute. How I laughed! (Was I supposed to?)
And that was a great performance by Angela Lansbury; it's her charisma as much as anything else that makes the object of the final assassination so unpredictable.