Issue 14: Book Reviews
What Have They Built You to Do: The Manchurian Candidate and Cold War America
By Matthew Frye Jacobson and Gaspar González
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-0816641246 (hbk). ISBN: 978-0816641253 (pbk). xv+234 pp. £37.50 (hbk), £14.99 (pbk).
A Review by Shannon Granville, Independent scholar, UK
Any history or film studies course on the culture of the Cold War usually has a number of solid stand-bys that tend to make the professor's final cut. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956), with its multiple readings as a depiction of the insidiousness of the communist threat or a critique of the enforced conformity and homogeneity of post-war American society, has the added schlock factor of the campy science-fiction horror film to provide both entertainment and discussion value. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964), combines seemingly non-stop sexual innuendo with darkly satirical commentary on the arms race, brinksmanship, and Soviet-American relations in a manner that has made it an all-but-required film in any classroom analysis of the cultural milieu of the early Cold War. Also included in this list would be a handful of lesser-known but equally appropriate works of the period, such as the staunchly anticommunist morality play My Son John (Leo McCarey1952) and the science-fiction invasion thriller Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954). Yet of all these films, few manage to combine topical political, social, racial, and gender themes in a manner that rivals The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) -- an adaptation of Richard Condon's 1959 book, starring Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, and Angela Lansbury. In their book What Have They Built You to Do? The Manchurian Candidate and Cold War America, Matthew Frye Jacobson and Gaspar González have put together a comprehensive and nearly exhaustive study of this classic political thriller. By exploring the social and political background against which the film was made and examining the film through multiple lenses of interpretation, the authors are able to pick apart the overt and hidden values of Cold War culture that The Manchurian Candidate simultaneously supports and satirizes.
As the story of an American soldier captured by communist forces during the Korean War and brainwashed to become the perfect assassin -- 'programmed' to kill and then to forget that he was ever ordered to kill -- The Manchurian Candidate offers several direct perspectives though which to critically and analytically study the American experience during the early decades of the Cold War. The plot of the film turns heavily on interpretations of the Korean War and McCarthyism, both of which were still prominent in public memory at the time of the film's release. The film's highly charged depiction of the sinister Soviet and Chinese communists and their nefarious Korean allies is prime material for scholars with an interest in cultural approaches to racism, specifically Orientalism. Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury) presents a particularly intriguing character for gender studies enthusiasts in her dual role as the domineering, emasculating, and sexually subversive 'mom' of the brainwashed soldier and as the hidden mastermind of the assassination plot. Jacobson and González analyse these and other key themes of the story, breaking down the 'culture of contradiction' that provides much of the underlying tension and suspense that drive both the book and its film adaptation.
The main chapters of the book examine specific themes and concepts highlighted by The Manchurian Candidate. Jacobson and González first look into the film as a product of late 1950s and early 1960s Hollywood, in which the repercussions of the blacklist and the still unsettled political milieu affected the initial negotiations over how best to adapt Richard Condon's novel to the screen. Part of this investigation involves an examination of the influence of several other films of the early Cold War, such as the abovementioned My Son John and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as less overtly Cold War-themed films such as Elia Kazan's medico-legal thriller Panic in the Streets (1950). The four central chapters explore the overarching socio-political themes present in the film: McCarthyism, Orientalism, and two different perspectives on the depiction of gender roles and sexual messages within the film (specifically the incestuous overtones of Eleanor Iselin's control over her son and the thinly veiled suggestions of emasculation and homosexuality that serve to cripple the main male characters of the film). Jacobson and González's careful research and methodical analysis show that they have given a good deal of thought to the myriad interpretations of a deceptively complex and nuanced film, treating it not just as an big-screen adaptation of an espionage suspense thriller but also as a key primary source for film and cultural historians.
Jacobson and González also pick up on a few noteworthy real-life social and political connections not often examined by those who study The Manchurian Candidate. One of these connections involves Frank Sinatra and the changing messages that his political affiliation gave to his involvement in the film. Jacobson and González point out that around the time of the film's initial release in the early 1960s, Sinatra was a high-profile friend of the Kennedy set; he remained a Democratic Party supporter well into the later 1960s. By 1970, though, he had started to drift to the right - he campaigned for incumbent President Richard Nixon during the 1972 election, was involved in the Democrats for Reagan movement, and was seen as a close friend of the Reagans during the 1980s. By the time of The Manchurian Candidate's re-release in 1987, Sinatra's position as 'the current president's most visible Hollywood supporter' (184) put a new spin on his role in the film, possibly even altering public perceptions and images of the film's story and overarching political message.
In a short postscript, Jacobson and González turn critical eyes on the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, and Meryl Streep. From the outset, they label the 2004 film as a "reimagining" of the story rather than a straightforward remake, taking into account the changes made to update the story for a post-Cold War audience (187). In the 2004 film, the Sino-Soviet alliance of Cold War villains have been replaced by a multinational corporation known as Manchurian Global - a sly nod, Jacobson and González suggest, to far-reaching government contractors like Halliburton (189). Several of the characters' roles have also been swapped around to 'update' the remake: Bennett Marco (Washington) is now the programmed assassin, captured and brainwashed during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s and set up to murder the presidential candidate, thereby allowing vice-presidential nominee Congressman Raymond Shaw (Schreiber) to assume the role that Raymond's ambitious mother, Senator Eleanor Shaw (Streep), had intended for her son. The remake was released during the height of the 2004 American presidential campaign, obviously and understandably acting as a commentary on the current state of American politics, and Jacobson and González do not labour the point. Towards the end of the chapter, though, they fall victim to the temptation to editorialise on the faults of Bush-Cheney administration and its connection to the "spreading tentacles of Halliburton or McDonald's or Wal-Mart (or Manchurian Global)" (193). It is a small digression, but a jarring one, and unfortunately its overall effect is to end the chapter and to some extent the book on a slightly sour note.
A few small weaknesses aside, What Have They Built You to Do? is a highly valuable resource for students and scholars of Cold War culture. Jackson and González have compiled a collection of thought-provoking commentaries on the values and prejudices of American society during the Cold War, alternately using the film to interpret the culture and the culture to interpret the film. They claim that the film is 'the repressed history of modern America' (193), and though this is an ambitious claim to make, let alone support, the book does a thorough job of delving into that repressed history and attempting to identify and express both the obvious and the less obvious aspects of Cold War culture so skillfully depicted in The Manchurian Candidate.