One of the things I love about doing the whole "top 250 films from (whatever source)" is that it makes you aware of films that you would otherwise have just skipped past.
I was browsing last night, and saw that TCM had The Manchurian Candidate on. The 1962 original, not the remake (which was okay I guess).
The film is very "clean". It's very clear scenes with lots of quiet. It's verging on film noire at times, but it keeps things military, which is helpful as it's all about the military
It's basically the story of a platoon of soldiers who get "kidnapped" during the Korean war. One ends up getting the medal of honour (sorry, honor ) for his actions... Which he never performed.
It's all a conspiracy theory type of film, only it's much more open (cleaner) than most modern films like this. It doesn't try to hide things, or misdirect you. The film is open and honest all the way through, and the only time information is withheld from you, is when it's also withheld from the characters.
The film leads up to a fairly decent "suspense" ending, but overall, it never really shines. Acting is superb at times, with Angela (murder, she wrote) Lansbury playing a particularly excellent role of "bitch mother". However, it's all just "watchable". It never really excels.
I can understand why, in the days before we had films with massive twists and turns in plot all the time, this became well regarded as a brilliant film. If you take yourself back to before you saw all the modern films like this, you'd see it was something never really done before, and it's tackled brilliantly. It's just a type of film that has been done to death over the last 15-20 years (from Usual Suspects to even things like the Saw films I suppose). So the film loses impact sadly.
I enjoyed the film, but I don't think any film in my own top 200 is breaking a sweat with worry. It's a simple film, with some great performances and an impact that has sadly been muffled and absorbed by a glut of these films in recent years.
Oh, it's not the same story as the new version, and it's quite considerably better
8/10
I was browsing last night, and saw that TCM had The Manchurian Candidate on. The 1962 original, not the remake (which was okay I guess).
The film is very "clean". It's very clear scenes with lots of quiet. It's verging on film noire at times, but it keeps things military, which is helpful as it's all about the military
It's basically the story of a platoon of soldiers who get "kidnapped" during the Korean war. One ends up getting the medal of honour (sorry, honor ) for his actions... Which he never performed.
It's all a conspiracy theory type of film, only it's much more open (cleaner) than most modern films like this. It doesn't try to hide things, or misdirect you. The film is open and honest all the way through, and the only time information is withheld from you, is when it's also withheld from the characters.
The film leads up to a fairly decent "suspense" ending, but overall, it never really shines. Acting is superb at times, with Angela (murder, she wrote) Lansbury playing a particularly excellent role of "bitch mother". However, it's all just "watchable". It never really excels.
I can understand why, in the days before we had films with massive twists and turns in plot all the time, this became well regarded as a brilliant film. If you take yourself back to before you saw all the modern films like this, you'd see it was something never really done before, and it's tackled brilliantly. It's just a type of film that has been done to death over the last 15-20 years (from Usual Suspects to even things like the Saw films I suppose). So the film loses impact sadly.
I enjoyed the film, but I don't think any film in my own top 200 is breaking a sweat with worry. It's a simple film, with some great performances and an impact that has sadly been muffled and absorbed by a glut of these films in recent years.
Oh, it's not the same story as the new version, and it's quite considerably better
8/10