Manchurian Candidate

Watched this 1962 movie for the second time yesterday. It stars a young and dashing Frank Sinatra in an army major's uniform.

Why is Sinatra in army uniform in the movie? He's just come back, along with around ten fellow soldiers, from the Korean War in 1952. What's so unusual about that - I'm sure they were glad they just came back?

It turns out that Sinatra and the others including actor Lawrence Harvey (I think that's his name) have been "brainwashed" by the Soviets and Red Chinese after being captured there.

In an interesting, surrealistic scene, the group is subjected to a boring talk by a lady's horticultural group... only it's not a lady's horticultural group. Actually, they are seated in front of an elite gathering of scientists and doctors educated at the "Pavlov" Institute of Moscow.

The scene keeps switching back and forth from the horticulturalists to the Communist scientists as the soldiers have been conditioned or brainwashed to perceive them as female horticulturalists. Lawrence Harvey is their prize captive and he is conditioned as an assassin to be sent back to the U.S. for a specific task.

But not before Harvey coolly and calmly kills two of his companions in cold blood in front of all present to prove the completion of his conditioning. Of course, none of the American soldiers realize what has actually happened until they return stateside and have vicious nightmares about the reality of what occurred - all except the trained assassin Harvey.

But Sinatra gallantly begins to crack the puzzle. Not before, however, a lovely Janet Leigh throws herself in front of his "moving train" to add the love interest for the movie.

As it turns out, Harvey's domineering and repulsive mother (even to him), is the Commie operative in the U.S. and has the task of directing him in his assassination task. His mother is the pushy wife of a U.S. Senator made in the image of Joe McCarthy, complete with a "list" of 207 "known" communists hiding in the U.S. State Department.

That's all just a ruse, though, as the undercover mom's plan is to have Harvey assassinate the Republican nominee for president at the party convention so that the vice-president nominee (who is none other than her Joe McCarthy--type Senator husband) can then ride to the top office as the Commie-fighting hero after it's all over.

Well, Sinatra breaks the spell over Harvey and frees his mind to act independently once again. But Harvey believes he must assassinate his Commie-operative mom and her stooge husband or else the U.S. will fall prey to their plans anyway. He does so, and shoots himself just after explaining all to Sinatra who locates him high above the rafters in the convention building.

What a thriller!

My only complaint is: I really don't think you can "brainwash" someone to do that kind of thing, even using drugs as was the case here. Maybe hopping someone up on heroin would be a way to control them by controlling their access to the drug, but you wouldn't be able to do it on the spot, as was the case with Harvey.

Every time Harvey was ordered by the Commies to play solitaire and the queen of diamonds popped up, he would become instantly open to their murderous suggestions. Sinatra, of course, "stacks the deck" by showing Harvey a full deck of queens of diamonds!

Hypnosis, as I understand it, is achieved by getting a person, or oneself, into a very, very relaxed state - with more deeper relaxing states gained as the person continues to be hypnotized over a long period of time.

The person in this relaxed state can then be given, or give themself, suggestions as to changing their behavior, for example to quit smoking. The association of the relaxed state with the suggestion to quit smoking or whatever gives the person then a good feeling, incentive or relaxation around stopping the habit.

I don't think it can be used to later turn the person into a cold assassin with no recollection or guilt over what they have done. Far from it!!!

But then... I don't work for the CIA, FBI or KGB!

But in 1962, with the Red hysteria going on over Soviet Russia and Red China, not to mention the paranoia as well, probably this all seemed plausible. Fear does strange things to a person and even more so to a collective group of people like a country.k

On the other hand... look at ISIS and related groups that convince their people that a suicide bombing, killing themselves also, is worth it and in fact desirable. Comakazi Japanese pilots at the end of WWII exhibited similar fanaticism, steering their planes into Allied ships in order to destroy them and themselves. They're all human bombs.

Anyway, entertainment is entertainment - except it often mirrors and/or predicts current and future situations. :)))