For some people a sad story, yet for others a message to the people that see the movie. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a movie made after the time of the Cold War (1945-1952) . Indeed, there are reasons to believe that this movie is anti-communist by the fact that it presents traits of some Cold War features such as espionage and maybe proof of McCarthyism. As an important part of the movie, the beginning, started with a troop of Americans in Korea that were caught by Russians due to a schemed trap. Basically, that marks the start of the espionage, by the fact that Raymond and his army colleagues were brainwashed to do whatever the Soviets or Koreans would like them to do. This part of the movie relates to the happening of the Cold War were the Soviets had a spy to figure out a way to steal the ideas of nuclear weapons in the United States to the Soviet Union. According to the book “The Unfinished Nation” by Alan Brinkley, in the Cold War1 section it says that “In 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former communist agent, now a conservative editor at Time magazine, told the committee that Hiss had passed classified State Department documents to him in 1937 and 1938”. This …show more content…
Some people that not account the story through the aspects of war and history may see this movie as a fiction movie due to its beliefs of people getting brainwashed or maybe a drama due to the ending. Others may see this movie as a threat to the president at that time, because one of the murder tentative was at one of the presidential candidates in the movie, which ended up to be a murder to the mother that was hypnotized her son and her elected husband. In details, Raymond (the son) was brainwashed by the Soviet Union and surprisingly his mother was also working with the Soviet Union. Indeed, the outcome finished with her assassination giving that it was an anti-communist movie from the
The Manchurian candidate is focus around the cold war period and it was originally a novel that concentrated on the idea of brainwashing. The cold war brought fear among the American community and this fear is seen through the film when numerous members of congress are falsely accused of being part of the communist party. The main character of the movie, Raman, is program to be an assassin. He is brainwashed to kill on command and then to forget about it so he is unable to feel guilt, and even if someone were to find him suspicious he would have no idea what he or she were talking about. The whole process happens when he is in Korea and he is captured by Korea’s army along with his unit whom are all brainwashed.
The whistle of dropping atomic bombs, the flash of nuclear explosion, the nightmare of Red boots marching across American soil. These are the horrors that Cold War American propaganda planted in the minds of the public. Through the use of posters, films, pamphlets, and a variety of other mediums, the U.S. government has always had an interest in the adherence of the general populace to perceived American values. This is most important during times of stress for the nation, such as war or international tension. Or as put by Professor of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins, Paul Linebarger, “Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public of mass-produced communication designed
In politics, elections are very important. In most cases, political hypocrisy has been used to gain an edge. Many politicians would do whatever possible to outwit their opponents. The Contender is a movie that is directed and wrote on the basis of political hypocrisy. It seems that everything is smooth for The Contender. However, the director Rod Lurie lacks courage relating to his convictions. The conviction of Rod Lurie is of great dismay. He is seen to be using his energy and performance honestly. This is evident in the efforts directed towards securing Oscar ballot box. The most shameful issue about Rod Lurie is his continued weaknesses of backing off on proactive issues. This is quite different from his father who was a political cartoonist. The Contender remains lively and entertaining. However, this turns appalling when he slips into platitudinous piousness and partisan politics.
American Psycho is a savage account of a wealthy investment banker in the late 80s that commits heinous acts of murder, rape, and torture. Although on the surface, American Psycho seems as though it is just another horror story, it actually has a much deeper message. This story is a harsh critique of a superficial Wall Street society in the late 80s that was rampant with materialism and greed. This is the society in which the main character Patrick Bateman lives–where appearance, material possessions, and status define a person. This superficial existence leaves him hollow and dead inside and turns him into a psychopathic killer. A society such as this, devoid of any morality, inevitably creates psychopaths such as Bateman. The film shows an excellent portrayal of a vacant, nihilistic killer with no feelings or emotions. However, there is something more to the story that the film did not quite capture. The book seems to not only be a satirical take on this society, but a tragedy as well. Recreating the dinner scene with his secretary Jean shows that underneath the surface Patrick Bateman is, indeed, a human being with real feelings and emotions, and that it is a great tragedy that this superficial society has turned him into a monster.
Joseph McCarthy was a Republican senator who used the heightened tension of the Cold War for his own benefit. He
McCarthyism was an unnerving development in the political landscape of the United States. World War II was a war like humanity had never seen before. The atom bomb was dropped on Japan twice; ending the war soon thereafter. Relations with the Soviet Union had been deteriorating due to factors such as ideological differences, conflicting interests in Europe, and the discovery by the Americans that their Russian ally had spied on their Manhattan Project. Angry at Stalin’s annexations from the war President Truman and most Americans who had no Socialist sympathies grew to see the Soviet Union as a threat to peace and democracy. Fears of a soviet nuclear weapon fanned the flames. Indeed, it would only be four years after the war when Russia
The Cold War started in 1945 and was the beginning of an intense post-World War II standoff between two world powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. They had just ended a war in which they were allies fighting against the Germans, Italians, and the Japanese. This prompted the use of both countries intelligence agencies. The Soviets relied on the KGB to collect intelligence on interior and exterior situations, and started out as their secret police and then turned into their main intelligence agency in 1954. The U.S.A. had all of their intelligence coming from the CIA, which was established in 1947 after President Truman decided that the U.S. needed an agency like them. Both the CIA and the KGB were collecting information about the opposite nation in terms of their abilities and scientific advancements. They were the two main players in this war because they were the ones who found out the “secrets” that their countries needed.
To get a clear view and understanding of the book, first must review the time period in history. The book was written in the mid 1950's during the cold war. Former General McCarthy, then U.S. Senator started a fire ball of suspicion, suppression, and incarceration. This had a very huge impact on the entrainment industry, which included everyone from playwrights to filmmakers, as well as writers and actors. If anyone in that time period was suspected of being a communist, the government could come and pull them out of their home. At the least a suspected communist would be banned, or put on a black ball list. Printed in the Times, McCarthy's First Slander, "Overnight, his speech sparked a media firestorm that played to the basest fears of Americans swept up in a frightening cold war and triggered loyalty oaths, blacklists and personal betrayals that cost an estimated 10,000 Americans their jobs and some shattered innocents their lives." (Johanna McGeary 28) This happened to a number of actors and film makers during that time period. The black ball list was a list of names of people who were believed to be communist. The people on this list came from the movie industry as well as writers. These people would no longer be able to get work ...
The United States was in a state of scare when they feared that communist agents would come and try to destroy our government system. An example of this scare was the Cold war. During the cold war the U.S. supported the anti-communist group while the Soviet Union favored the communist party. Many people who still supported the communist party still lived in the U.S. When the U.S. joined the Cold war, trying to rid the communist party from Europe and Asia, the U.S. were afraid that the people living in the United States that still supported communism were spies that would give intel back to the Soviet Union to try to destroy their government. If anybody was a suspected communist, if somebody just didn’t like somebody, or if they were even greedy they could accuse the person of communism and the person would be thrown in the penitentiary, thus, starting the second red scare.
The movie only offers basic knowledge about the totalitarian government, which could be dangerous because it changes the panorama for the viewer. This new perspective isn’t very practical because it focuses more on what is happening from a zoomed lense, leaving out the big picture. One thing's for sure, by the end of the book, the reader is left in with a vivid memory of not just particular scenes, but the summation of events that produce a desired effect : ponderment.
"McCarthyism and "The Great Fear" Framing the Climate of Cold War America." Joseph McCarthy as the Epithet of an Era. n. page. Print. Secondary.
The film tells the story of a deranged United States Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper who was the commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, launches a planed nuclear attack on the Soviet Union via his nuclear-armed B-52 fighter jets, which were holding at their fail-safe points, to move into Soviet airspace, based upon a twisted paranoia that the communist party was contaminating “our precious bodily fluids”. The movie follows the course of events proceeding General Jack D. Ripper’s ordered attack.
America’s well-being was shattered on November 22, 1963, the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Although authorities arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as the president’s killer, a multitude of citizens in our country believe a conspiracy was involved, and that Oswald was not the lone assassin. The film JFK encompasses facts that support conspiratorial actions being part of JFK’s assassination. These facts support a disparate opinion and gives viewers and movie characters the chance to formulate their own opinions instead of blindly following that of another. In JFK, Oliver Stone displays certain events in different perspectives in order to prevent blind following from inattention.
There are many accurate depictions of the political process in this movie, but there are also some areas where this movie was just being a people pleaser. The American President accurately portrayed the rolls of the media, the effects of polling, the impact of primaries, and it showed the process of introducing a bill to congress. However, it also was being a typical Hollywood movie at times. This was mostly true in the cases where the President came off being naïve, when he through caution into the wind for a girlfriend, and at other times, like when he was to dignified to join into the smear campaign.
In this essay, we will explore a couple films made in the last decade which were structured over a heavy infrastructure of paranoia and conspiracy themes. Often times, these movies feature one individual who daylights a controlling, malevolent force, often by a government agency or a small group of cunning plotters. Then, the protagonist will attempt, often with success, to destroy or interrupt the opposing conspirators. From the anti-masonic movement at the end of the eighteenth century to the McCarthy witch-hunt in the last century, we see that the conspiracy thinking has infiltrated popular culture. It appears in films since the cold war and continues in today’s hit movies, whether comedy or drama.