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Manchurian Candidate, The
United Artists


9.1

based on 14 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 17 votes
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FILM:

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, and John McGiver

John Frankenheimer's gripping political thriller about a group of American soldiers who are captured and brainwashed into becoming sleeper agents. (MGM)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Richard Condon (novel) George Axelrod
DIRECTED BY:	John Frankenheimer
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 24, 1998 Video: August 3, 1999 Theatrical: October 24, 1962
RUNNING TIME:	126 minutes, B/W
ORIGIN:	USA

This film was nomited for two Academy Awards in 1963 in the categories of Best Film Editing and Best Supporting Actress (Lansbury).

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Angela Lansbury's frighteningly in-check performance is alone worth the trip.

100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A veritable salad of mixed genres and emotional textures, this exciting black-and-white cold war thriller runs more than two hours and never flags for an instant...A powerful experience, alternately corrosive with dark parodic humor, suspenseful, moving, and terrifying.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Here is a movie that was made more than 25 years ago, and it feels as if it were made yesterday. Not a moment of The Manchurian Candidate lacks edge and tension and a cynical spin. [Re-release]

100

Empire Kim Newman

A dazzling spy thriller that’s still amazing.

100

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

The Manchurian Candidate proves that its fascination is intact. [12 Jan 1998, p.C1; Re-Release]

100

The New Yorker Pauline Kael

It may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood. (As quoted by Roger Ebert)

100

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

One of the wildest fabrications any author has ever tried to palm off on a gullible public. But the fascinating thing is that, from uncertain premise to shattering conclusion, one does not question plausibility of the events being rooted in their own cinematic reality.

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Manchurian, with its fatalistic, dreamlike quality, comprises two of [Frankenheimer's] finest hours. [Re-release]

Entertainment Weekly David Everitt

This gonzo satiric thriller is a riveting portrait of early-60's paranoia. [15 Nov 1996, p.82]

Time Richard Corliss

The performances are daring and assured, especially Lansbury's holy terror of Momism and Harvey's snide, pathetic pawn, brainwashed by both KGB AND CIA. [21 March 1988, p.84]

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

But it is Angela Lansbury's incestuous, power-mad mother who makes your blood run cold. This was the peak of the first part of her career, which depended upon these hardbitten kind of characters. Forget Hitchcock--here's the monster mother of all time.

Washington Post Hal Hinson

An exceedingly loopy satire of the entire American political circus, and could be viewed as offensive to the sensitive-souled in either camp. And time hasn't in the least softened its bite. [Re-release]

Film Threat Stuart Swineford

Complaints? Sure, I had a few: The liberal use of insta-sweat whenever the character in question is experiencing tension, Harvey's aforementioned accent, one over-used shot composition that places the action at a great distance with a giant-headed supporting actor in the extreme foreground. [Re-release]

The New York Times Bosley Crowther

The film is so artfully contrived, the plot so interestingly started, the dialogue so racy and sharp, and John Frankenheimer's direction so exciting in the style of Orson Welles when he was making Citizen Kane and other pictures that the fascination of it is strong. So many fine cinematic touches and action details pop up that one keeps wishing the subject would develop into something more than it does.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Thomas W. gave it a10:
Excellent! Spell binding!!

Pat C. gave it a10:
One of the Essentials. Both a well constructed film and an insightful articulation of the fears, suspicions and intrigue of the cold war era. Seems a litle over the top today, but hey, we still don't really know what really happened when Kennedy was shot. And that happened after this movie was made.

Frank O. gave it a10:
One of the best all-time political thrillers. Actually own this DVD and my collection is very selective. Plot was so controversial at production that release was delayed for years.

Keir S. gave it a10:
Incredible, timely film.

Kevin B. gave it a10:
Forget "Citizen Kane", "Casablanca" or "The Godfather".. this is the best movie ever! Still ahead of its time!

Gregory gave it a 10:
The classic. Chilling, especially Angela Lansbury's performance. Taut, with nothing added or omitted. The dream sequences are filmmaking at its best. The additional material on the DVD, specifically the interview with Frankenheimer and Sinatra, is interesting and provides the kind of context one longs for in the additional materials found on DVDs today. Films this good are rarely made today, and it is a sin, if not a crime, that the 2004 trash remake was ever green-lighted. Remaking films like "The Manchurian Candidate" reveals how bereft of creativity Hollywood has become. What's next? A remake of "Citizen Kane?"

Jason P. gave it a 10:
Frankenheimer's Manchurian Candidate deserves all of the praise it has received over the years. Still razor sharp over a third of a century later.

Manchurian Candidate, The United Artists

Manchurian Candidate, The
United Artists