Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 1
A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1
A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 28,588
An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond
Oct 24, 1962 Wide
May 15, 2001
MGM/UA Classics
All Critics (50) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (56) | Rotten (1) | DVD (35)
powerful experience, alternately corrosive with dark parodic humor, suspenseful, moving, and terrifying.
Every once in a rare while a film comes along that works in all departments, with story, production and performance so well blended that the end effect is one of nearly complete satisfaction. Such is The Manchurian Candidate.
The Manchurian Candidate pops up with a rash supposition that could serve to scare some viewers half to death -- that is, if they should be dupes enough to believe it, which we solemnly trust they won't.
Has an excoriating, destabilizing wit that seems as knowingly sophisticated today as it must have then.
Not a moment of The Manchurian Candidate lacks edge and tension and a cynical spin.
Its story of Cold War intrigue, murky East-West dealings, assassination, brainwashing -- and the idea of a glorified cue-card reader playing president -- resonates today like never before.
Set the standard for cinematic paranoid thrillers and stands as the quintessential John Frankenheimer film. [Blu-ray]
This aunting film noir, easily John Frankenheimer's best film, is satisfying on any level, narrative, visual, ideological, and acting.
With spry editing and camerawork, [Frankenheimer] fuses together a documentary-like realism and more expressive stylizations to create a hybrid thriller-satire
Don't bother with Jonathan Demme's toothless 2004 remake; the rereleased classic cold war thriller from 1962 by John Frankenheimer packs a harder punch.
a benchmark of the United States' coming of age in the 1960s
Among a strong cast, Lansbury is wonderfully wicked as Shaw's despicable mother.
...goes down the rabbit hole, though never too far to lose its satirical relevance to the insanity of real-world politics.
A masterpiece.
even when taken out of its historic context, this film is a thought-provoking piece of quality filmmaking
People have called The Machurian Candidate the greatest political thriller ever made. People would be right.
A volatile work, part thriller, part quasi-science fiction, part vicious satire.
It's both exciting and disheartening that a 42 year-old satire like this still works as pointedly as it does.
"Raymond Shaw is the kindest,bravest,warmest,most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Strange,thrilling and at times hilarious,there's never quite been a top notch thriller like 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate".....not even the 2004 remake with Denzel Washington doesn't even come close. At the height of
April 22, 2011
Super Reviewer
"The Manchurian Candidate", based on a novel of the same name (written by Richard Condon) is one of the finest political thrillers out there. An American Platoon is captured by the Soviets. They are all taken to Manchuria in Communist China and are subjected to a series of 'brainwashing' experiments for some
July 27, 2010Super Reviewer
| 35% | The Hangover Part II |
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 81% | Kung Fu Panda 2 |
| 44% | Cowboys & Aliens |
| 83% | Rise of the Planet of the Apes |
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 88% | Lady and the Tramp |
| 69% | A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas |
| 21% | Fireflies in the Garden |
| 45% | The Rebound |
Journey 2 Not Worth the Trip
What are his 10 best movies ever?
See the all-new action-packed trailer!
Five new Marvelous pictures