The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate

 

 

The film The Manchurian Candidate was once a political thriller novel by Richard Condon in which the son of a political family is brain washed into being an unwitting assasin for the Communist Party.

 

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

 

Director: John Frankenheimer

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh

 

The initial film takes place during the battle of Kuwait, which as more immediate and relevent during that time period for the audience. Due to the lack of special FX, the flashbacks had less realism and excitement compared to the contemporary version.

The Brainwashing scenes are less violent than the contemporary version, as Hollywood was more strict on violence in films. Insted, it features a constant switch in editing between Communist soldiers to a women's garden party to emphasise the hypnotic influence the men are under.
 

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

 

Director: Denzel Washington, Leiv Schrieber, Meryl Streep, Kimberly Elise

 

The modern interpretation takes place during the Gulf War, of which the flashbacks are more sophisticated than the original. CGI effects enable the film to have explosions, nightvision, and basically a more realistic battle/war sequence.

During the flashbacks, the screen is swathed in red at times and, in one instance has, non-diegetic sounds of blood pumping.
 



In the 2004 version, the brainwashing scenes are more graphic and disturbing, due to the media's tolerance to violence in cinema.

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Major Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and the rest of their infantry platoon are kidnapped during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and are brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat — for which Congress awards him the Medal of Honor.
Years after the war, Marco, now back in the United States working as an intelligence officer, begins suffering the recurring nightmare of Shaw murdering two of his comrades, all while clinically observed by Chinese and Soviet intelligence officials. When Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon also has been suffering the same nightmare, he sets to uncovering the mystery and its meaning.
It is revealed that the Communists have been using Shaw as a sleeper agent, a guiltless assassin subconsciously activated by seeing the “Queen of Diamonds” playing card while playing solitaire. Provoked by the appearance of the card, he obeys orders which he then forgets. Shaw’s KGB handler is his domineering mother Eleanor, a ruthless power broker working with the Communists to execute a "palace coup d’état" to quietly overthrow the U.S. government, with her husband, McCarthy-esque Senator Johnny Iselin, as a puppet dictator.
Marco discovers the trigger of the "Queen of Diamonds" and meets with Shaw at the Central Park Zoo shortly before the party's national convention. He uses the card to interrogate Shaw as to his final plan; Shaw is to shoot the presidential candidate during the convention in order to win overwhelming support for Senator Iselin, the vice-presidential candidate, and the dictatorial powers he'll request following the assassination. Marco reprograms Shaw, although the reader is unsure until the final pages if it worked. At the convention, Shaw instead shoots his mother and Senator Iselin. Marco is the first of the authorities to reach Shaw's sniper nest and it is heavily implied that Marco kills him.
 

The Manchurian Candidate has been adapted twice into a feature film by the same title. The first film, released in 1962, is considered a classic of the political thriller genre. It was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Laurence Harvey as Shaw, Frank Sinatra as Marco, and Angela Lansbury as Eleanor in an Academy Award-nominated performance.
The second film, released in 2004, was directed by Jonathan Demme, and starred Liev Schreiber as Shaw, Denzel Washington as Marco, and Meryl Streep as Eleanor. It was generally well received by critics, and moderately successful at the box office. The film updated the conflict (and brainwashing) to the Persian Gulf War in 1991, emphasized the science fiction aspects of the story by setting the action in a dystopian near-future (implied to be 2008), had a U.S. corporation as the perpetrator of the brainwashing and conspiracy instead of foreign Communist groups, and dropped the Johnny Iselin character in favor of making both Shaw and his mother elected politicians. The movie adaptations also omit the novel's portrayal of incest between Raymond and his mother, only hinting at it with a mouth-to-mouth kiss.
Both adaptations discard several elements of the book. The book spends more time describing the brain-washers and the facility in Manchuria where the Americans were held. The head of the project grants Raymond a "gift"; after his brainwashing, he becomes quite sexually active, in contrast to his reserved nature beforehand where he hadn't even kissed his love interest, Jocelyn Jordan.
In the novel, Mrs. Iselin and her son travel abroad, where she uses him to kill various political figures and possibly Jocelyn Jordan's first husband. Rosie, Marco's love interest, is also the ex-fiance of one of his associates handling the Shaw case for Army Intelligence, making things between them tense.
As a child, Mrs. Iselin was sexually abused by her father but fell in love with him and idolized him after his early death. Towards the end of the book, as Raymond is hypnotized by the Queen of Diamonds, he reminds her of her father and she sleeps with him.
The 1962 version does not state outright the political affiliation of Senators Iselin and Jordan, although in the 2004 film the equivalent characters are Democrats. According to David Willis McCullough, Senator Iselin is modelled on Republican senator Joseph McCarthy and, according to Condon, Shaw's mother is based on McCarthy's counsel Roy Cohn.

The Birds Analysis

The Birds Analysis

 

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Daphne Du Maurier (story), Evan Hunter (screenplay)

Stars:

Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette

 

Plot:

•       A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness

•       Often in Hitchcock there is nowhere to hide – eg Bodega Bay in “The Birds”

•       Dramatic irony – when audience know something individual characters do not. In the schoolyard scene Tippi Hendren does not know the birds have been gathering but the audience does. We have knowledge denied to the character.

•       In Schoolyard scene the underlying score of the innocent child’s song is in contrast to the evil in nature. Tippi Hendren’s character is only guilty of taking nature for granted.

•       In “The Birds” scene outside the café – the high camera angle is like the gaze of a pitiless buzzard who swoops down to attack another helpless bystander.

•       The MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction".

•       The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are (at least initially) willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is.

•       In fact, the specific nature of the MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot.

•        Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, or a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained.

•       The MacGuffin is common in films, especially thrillers. Commonly, though not always, the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and then declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out.

•       It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the MacGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the film.

•        In TV interviews, Hitchcock defined a MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves, but, as to what that object specifically is, he declared, "the audience don't care"

•       The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie took a week to shoot. The birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they could not get away.

•       A number of endings were being considered for this film. One that was considered would have showed the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds.

•       The film does not finish with the usual "THE END" title because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror.

•       When audiences left the film's UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sound of screeching and flapping birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.

•       There is no diegetic music for the film except for the sounds created on the mixtrautonium, an early electronic musical instrument, by Oskar Sala, and the children singing in the school.

•       Mankind has abused birds throughout history. Deliberate irony in the café scene with the elderly ‘bird loving’ lady. She is interrupted by an order for three southern fried chickens. In addition one of the other character’s initial reaction is to shoot the birds.

•       Hitchcock said that in “The Birds” the usual evasions (science/religion) are denied to us. We are on our own.

Psycho Analysis

Psycho Analysis

 

Plot:

 

The film centers on secretary, Marion Crane, who, after stealing money from her employer, ends up at a secluded motel and the motel's estranged owner-manager, Norman Bates, and his mother only to end up murdered by the hands of a mysterious silhouette.

 

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

 

Stars:

Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh.

 

How is ‘Psycho’ an archetypical film (adapt)?

 

•      The threat in this film is cryptic, leaving the audience in suspense.

•      Within the film, Hitchcock created a fast paced motion within the key scenes by building suspense then shocking the audience when they least expect it, not giving them a pause for relief until the climax has come to an end. E.g. in the shower scene, Marion is oblivious and vulnerable, creating the same sense of calm within the audience until the shadow sneaks up on her. The music is harsh and discorded, fraying the audience’s nerves further. Not only that but it shocks the expectations of the audience as they have come to believe that Janet is the main character.

•      Within ‘Psycho’, what entices us about the villain is not that they are powerful or better equipped but the fact that they are unpredictable and volatile, that’s what makes them dangerous, the fact that no one knows who the murderer is and that they always manage to stay one step ahead is what keeps the suspense running throughout the film.

•      Hitchcock said it is important to avoid cliché and repetition – particularly with regard to character – e.g. murderers can be charming and the heroes flawed. In his films Hitchcock often placed evil in the most banal of settings.

•      Story-wise, Psycho is not extraordinary; its true ingeniousness lies in its construction. Hitchcock has developed the movie in such a way that it consistently flouts expectations. There are two major surprises: the shower scene murder and the final revelation about Mother.

•      A viewer who sees the film for the first time without knowing about either will experience the full impact of what Hitchcock intended. The greatest shock for the uninitiated is the early exit of Janet Leigh. This is doubly unexpected because, to this point, the screenplay had tricked us into accepting Marion as the main character.

•      When events dispel that illusion, and the point-of-view shifts to Norman Bates, viewers are understandably nonplussed. In order to keep this crucial aspect of the film secret and intact when Psycho opened in 1960, there were no advance screenings and no one was admitted to a showing after the feature had started.

•       “Psycho is a brilliant excursion into fear that pushes many of our primal buttons”

•      None of Hitchcock's films had as profound an impact upon the American psyche as this one. When it was initially released in 1960, it was a huge box office hit (there are stories of 3-mile long lines at drive-in entrances), and its popularity has not waned over the last four decades.

•      Whenever anyone speaks about Psycho, the first images that come to mind are those of Janet Leigh being hacked to death in the shower. The scene is so famous that even people who have not seen the movie are aware of it.

•      Bernard Herrmann's strident, discordant music has been used in countless other movies to denote the appearance of a "psycho." The brilliance of the scene lies in the editing. Those who go frame-by-frame through it will note how much is left to the imagination. We see a knife, blood (actually chocolate syrup), water, and a woman's naked body (with certain parts strategically concealed from the camera), but only briefly is the penetration of the blade into the flesh shown. The full horror of the murder is only hinted at on-screen. It takes the power of the viewer's imagination to fill in the blanks. (Presumably, that's the reason why so many of today's unimaginative movie-goers, who are accustomed to having a screen full of gore presented for their consumption, find Psycho tame).

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock     

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, born 13 August 1899 and died 29 April 1980, was an English film director and producer whose films mainly focused on the psychological thriller genre.

After a successful career in British cinema filming both the original silent films and early sound films, renowned as England's best director, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories often feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime. Many of the mysteries, however, are used as decoys or MacGuffins that serve the film's themes and the psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual overtones.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." The magazine MovieMaker has described him as the most influential filmmaker of all time, and he is widely regarded as one of cinema's most significant artists.

His films are widely famous and is regarded as one of "the greatest artists of this century." Films such as:

Alfred Hitchock had also a film dedicated to him after he died named Hitchcock. Starring Antony Hopkins and Helan Mirron, the film was a 2012 American biographical comedy-drama directed by Sascha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book Alred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.

Thriller Recipe and Conventions

Thriller Conventions

 

The thriller is a broad genre of literature, television and, in this case, film. They are often categorised by their fast-paced, frequent action sequences, resourceful heroes and often better equipped villains. A thriller is a villain driven plot where he or she places obstacles in the way of the hero that he or she must overcome.

 

Devises, such as red-herrings (often used to divert the viewer's attention from the main principal of the movie), suspense and cliff-hangers are often used within the thriller world.

Thrillers are a genre that engages the audience through dramatic renderings of psychological, policical and social tensions. Alfred Hitchcock stated that thrillers allow the audience to "put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what its like."

Thrillers often overlap with the mystery genre but are differentiated by the structure of their plots. in a thriller, the protagonist often has to thwart the villian rather than overcome a crime, and more often with a mystery, all is revealed at the end rather than have things gradually revealed along the jurisdiction of the plot.

Thrillers are often set in exotic places, such as foreign countries or 'hostile' environments. The protagonists of most of these movies are often men (either accustomed to danger or innocent bystanders thrown into a scenario by accident) however lead female roles are now becoming increasingly common such as Sigorney Weaver in her film Alien.




Thrillers often overlap with mystery genres, but they are distinguished by their plots. In a thriller, often the hero must prevent a crime from happening whereas in a mystery the crime has most likely already happened. Also, in a mystery the identity of the antagonist is often kept covert where in a thriller the identity of the villen is typically known all along.

Thrillers are often defined by the mood they create; if the film 'thrills' the audience, it is categoriesed as a thriller. However there are many sub-genres of thrillers (some of which include spy thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, high-tech thrillers, psychological thrillers, military thrillers, ect ...) with many more being invented by the media propaganda.

Some examples of these include:
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (Spy thriller):



Angels and Demons (Conspiracy thriller):



The Hunt for Red October (High-Tech thriller):



Silence of the Lambs (Psychological thriller):



Saving Private Ryan (Military thriller):



The Accusation (sound practice)

Sound (Micro Element)

Micro Feature - Sound

 

The terminology and techniques used to describe sound on film are:

 

- Diegetic - the sounds that come from the world of the film i.e. what the characters can hear.

- Non-diegetic - refers to sound outside of the world of the film i.e. what the characters can't hear.

- On screen sound - the audience can see the source of the sound.

- Off screen sound - the audience can't see the source of the sound (enables extension of diegetic world).

- Parallel - the sound matches the actions on screen.

- Contrapuntal - sound that doesn't match the action (e.g. beach scene in 'Jaws' - happy scene with ominous music - gives the audience a clue as to what happens next).

- Sound bridge - helps create a smooth transition from one scene to another - creates a connection.

 

- Music is used to create a mood for the scene.

- Silence is used to intensify anticipation.

North By Northwest Analysis

North by Northwest Analysis

Plot of the story:

North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, when an innocent New York advertising executive is pursued across the United States by a group of foreign spies of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out a microfilm containing government secrets.

 

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writer:

Ernest Lehman

Stars:

Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason

Poster:

The advertising poster of North by Northwest and the trailer will appeal to the audience as it features key scenes in the movie without revealing the outcome (e.g. when Eva Marie Saint shoots Cary Grant), the name of a famous director and a star actor is presented and the action sequences entice the audience to see what will happen to the intrepid heroes next.

Hitchcock Trivia:

- In all his films Hitchcock planned every scene visually in advance. Before he began shooting, he learned the entire dialogue for that scene and rarely needs to look at a script. Hitchcock described it as ‘a conductor conducting an orchestra without a score.’

- When directing, Hitchcock never looked at the camera – he always imagined he was looking at a cinema screen.

- Mt Rushmore is a symbol of order – Hitchcock throws in disorder.

- Hitchcock said that audiences often need relief from suspense in a thriller film – a change of pace so to speak just to build up the suspense once again, possibly a laugh.

- Hitchcock stressed the visual importance of a film in a cinema. He preffered the subjective viewpoint. One of his characteristic trademarks is a close up on a face then what the character is looking at then a close up again as the character reacts to what has been seen, it almost transfers the emotions of the characters onto the audience. Hitchcock said he wants to transfer the menace that appears on screen into the mind of the audience.

 

In what ways was North by North West an archetypical thriller?

Thrillers are often characterised as fast paced and contain frequent action. This is shown in North By Northwest in …

Additionally, techniques such as suspence, ‘red-herrings’ and cliffangers are used within the genre. This is illustrated by …

A thriller is often described as a ‘villain driven plot’ which interprets into the villain is the root of the obsticles that the hero has to overcome. This is shown in North By Northwest due to the fact that the spies unwittingly throw an innocent man into a spy war in which he has to somehow escape from.

A McGuffin is a plot component that drives the plot of the story. The purpose of a McGuffin is that the characters in the story are willing to sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the McGuffin actually is (in this case, a microfilm containing government secrets). In fact, the specific nature of the McGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot. Often, by the end of the film, the McGuffin is often forgotten. It declines in importance as the movie progresses. Common examples are money, victory, glory, survival, a source of power, a potential threat, or it may simply be something entirely unexplained. It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the McGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the film.

Hitchcock has described the aspect of watching a thriller to be “putting their toe in the water of fear to see what it’s like.” This means that he allows the audience to experience the thrills and drama and adventure of experiences that they will undoubtedly never experience for themselves. Hitchcock has succeeded this in this film because