The Manchurian Candidate Film Techniques

In John Frankenheimer’s film, The Manchurian Candidate, Frankenheimer utilizes a
stunning visual style to consider the forces that threaten human agency. In the case of the charac- ter Raymond Shaw, he becomes brainwashed and easily controlled by his enemies and his own mother, who forces him into an being an unwitting murderer. Set during the Cold War, the film includes realistic representations of government paranoia, embedded into a fictional communist plot of memory implantation and brainwashing soldiers. Made clear to the audience in one of the most disturbing and entertaining scenes of the film, the American soldiers are unknowingly psy- chologically reprogramed into subservient robots with no control over their actions. If human agency

originates from people themselves, then it follows that these soldiers have had their hu- man agency completely destroyed. Through the use of numerous film techniques including mise- en-scene, dramatic dissolves, and close-up shots, The Manchurian Candidate provides an excel- lent portrayal of the inadequacy of human agency and the limits of attempting to regain free will.
Throughout the film, human agency is constrained by forces even when individuals are in their innermost, private domains: the unconscious plane of sleep. Introducing as a dream of Ma- jor Marco’s, the ladies garden club meeting using complex mise-en-scene shows the soldiers thinking that they are waiting out a storm in the lobby of a hotel. However, it becomes clear to the viewers of the film that what the soldiers think is a garden club is actually a gathering of Communist officials. By having this sequence introduced as a dream of Major Marco, a brain- washed soldier, the film implies that Marco is unable to regain his agency even out of enemy ter- ritory. It becomes clear that Marco cannot escape: that even in sleep the brainwashing has a strong hold on him. Frankenheimer continues to use mise-en-scene with a later introduction of Corporal Melvin’s nightmare depicting a different murder, “building the bizarre shared night- mare... adding one surprising, incongruous, and perplexing ingredient after another” (Berg 37). Corporal Melvin’s dream additionally communicates his helplessness and inability to stop the events taking place. Upon waking, Melvin once again proves his lack of agency as he automati- cally recites that Raymond Shaw is the “kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life,” (The Manchurian Candidate). He immediately defaults on what he and the other soldiers have been programmed to know, indicating that he has lost his ability to control his thoughts. Even though he is aware that there is a possibility his nightmare was real, Melvin doubts himself and fears for his own mental health. Both Major Marco and Corporal Melvin show their lack human agency in being unable to control their lives and actions.
The garden club sequence brings the audience to share the confusion and withdrawal of the brainwashing soldiers.

But it is not disclosing the brainwashing itself that makes this scene memorable, the scene’s jarring effect is due to Raymond Shaw’s mental rewiring and his emo- tion-devoid reaction after the Communist scientist, Dr. Yen Lo, calmly requests him to kill two of his fellow soldiers. In an example of what loss of agency looks like, Raymond Shaw murders two servicemen without remorse. By following through on the commands of Yen Lo, Raymond no longer has agency because his actions are being controlled and determined by another

person.
Clearly, Raymond Shaw is the character portrayed with the greatest lack of agency. His brain- washing later goes on to have greater impact when Raymond is commanded to kill his father-in- law, but accidentally kills his wife as well. Raymond is unable to control himself from commit- ting such crimes because he was commanded to carry out the plans and obey the will of another.
The film also considers the social and familial pressures that influence an individual’s agency.

When Marco later goes to the military to explain his nightmares, they are viewed as sim- ply symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Marco is unable to convince the military that there is something about his recurring nightmares that needs to be investigated. The critique on human agency being made is that human agency is constricted by forces outside of the individual’s con- trol. Besides being told to remember a different memory from what actually happened due to his brainwashing, Marco demonstrates that his lack of agency stems not only from his brainwashing, but also from the actions of people, such as the military officials who disregard his nightmares and fears about brainwashing. Even without having been brainwashed, Raymond had lost his true identity through the domineering actions of his mother Eleanor. In a montage sequence, Raymond’s recounts how he meet his first love, Jocelyn Jordan, to Major Marco. However, Raymond is forced by his manipulative mother to break up with Jocelyn. Through the overlap- ping dissolve of Raymond’s flashback of his summer romance with Jocie, the audience gets a sense of the effervescent, vibrant Raymond. In contrast, the frame includes the overlapping layer of the present day Raymond who is devastated. Raymond’s agency had already been overcome by his controlling mother who extinguishes her son’s first chance at happiness. In the close-up shot

of Raymond’s tears, his lack of agency is evident is his raw emotions.The film presents hismother Eleanor as “an aspiring deity and soul-murdering matriarch” (Berg 17). Raised under the soul-crushing care of such a woman, Raymond was unable or forbidden from tapping into his emotions. His inability to express his emotions was later commented on when he married and in the midst of his happiness he started to joke and be himself. Once again, however, this regaining of Raymond’s agency was extinguished by Eleanor when she causes Raymond to murder his wife and father-in-law in order to carry out the Communist plans. Raymond is a programmed assassin built by the Communists to be controlled by others and especially his American opera- tor, his own mother.
The film does consider the possibility of regaining of human agency, but instead of it being created, human agency is forcefully extracted through commands of another being. When Major Marco attempts to help Raymond from his brainwashing, the help is construed as an order. Marco does not undue the damage that the Communist brainwashing had created, but he is adding his input to the original brainwashing. In this way, Marco is forcing his will onto Ray- mond rather than helping Raymond regain his agency. The extreme camera shot is so close up that it distorts Raymond’s features, but illuminates the transformation as Marco “frees” him. By using facial close-ups during Raymond’s de-programming, the filmmakers called attention to Raymond’s agony as he realizes that he was responsible for murdering his own wife. While Raymond is emotionally able to express his sadness and remorse through tears, Marco’s psycho- logical programming makes it impossible for Raymond to do so for long. Marco commands Raymond to forget about killing Josie. Because of this command Raymond turns disturbingly quiet. Just as Yen Lo and Eleanor imposed their will onto Raymond, Marco is doing the same by forcing Raymond to forget about the pain. When Major Marco fixes Raymond from the damage of the psychological reprogramming, he uses 52 red queens of diamonds to command Raymond because “they ought be smashed,” (The Manchurian Candidate). This scene implies that Ray- mond is saved because Marco says so. Marco does not say that Raymond is free because he is his own being, Marco says that Raymond is free because he, Marco, says that Raymond is free. Therefore, this scene where Marco is seemingly helping Raymond regain his freedom becomes another instance of control over human agency.
Towards the ending of the film, Raymond appears to regain some of his agency from Marco’s de-programming as he resists the orders of his mother to carry out the Communist plot. But, this sense of victory for Raymond regaining his agency is short-lived. It may have appeared that he gained his agency, but Raymond is still unable to escape the influence of his original brainwashing. While Marco’s “fixing” made Raymond realize his situation, Raymond is still un- able to overcome the final command in the film which his mother gave him. After informing Raymond of the final step of the Communist plot to gain power, Raymond’s mother digresses into a conversation with her son while Raymond is still in his mind-controllable state. Eleanor recites several times and tells Raymond to remember: “my life before my liberty,” (The Manchurian Candidate). When Raymond realized that he was unable to go against the Commu- nist plot and his mother’s plan, Raymond finally does the only thing that could end everything. Raymond kills himself. If he had regained his agency, Raymond would have been able to sur- vive. However, his own destruction can be the affirmation that human agency can be corrupted by the actions and will of another. In conclusion, The Manchurian Candidate crystallizes the anxiety created by Cold War paranoia. Through film techniques such as mise-en-scene, montage dissolve, and close-up shots, the film makes the argument that human agency can be seen as in- adequate in facing the pressures of the world.