The Manchurian Candidate is a film which perfectly exemplifies force and agency in cinema, all while appropriately connecting their relevance as significant contributing factors in covertly allowing communism to infiltrate a country strongly opposed to it. In the film, Raymond Shaw’s power hungry mother, Eleanor Shaw, also known as Mrs. Iselin, uses her son and husband, Senator Johnny Iselin to rise to power as a “true American” while working as a double agent for the communists. Raymond Shaw became a tool under the subjection of force: a tool for his mother, for the Soviets and Chinese, and for communism. Simone Weil defines force as “that x that turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing” (Humanities Core Reader 27). Just as force …show more content…
We see force being exemplified through staging, lighting, and camera angles. Raymond’s brainwashing immediately and unwillingly makes him a victim to force and turns him into a weapon, activated whenever deemed necessary for his authority. An example of a scene from the film which employs all three of those techniques to portray Raymond’s subjection to force is toward the end of the film, when Eleanor Shaw explains to Raymond how he is to execute the president. Raymond has become a tool for his mother ever since she exerted her force as influence upon him and took control of his agency- or lack thereof. As she gives him careful orders, the staging is very significant because it represents authority and power. Raymond is sitting on a chair that appears to be low, and we can only see his back or his side for the majority of the scene whereas we can fully see Mrs. Iselin while she sits, stands, and walks around. The lighting upon Raymond is little and dark, whereas Mrs. Iselin’s figure is very illuminated, providing hard and soft lighting for emphasis where necessary. The camera angles are very significant in this scene because when the camera is placed at a low angle, we as viewers feel like we are sitting below, next to Raymond while we witness Eleanor Shaw giving her orders and directions. We experience her …show more content…
Hypnosis was a largely feared concept, but more so, what it could do to people. In her essay in regards to Manchurian Candidates and forensic hypnosis during the Cold War, Alison Winter stated that,“the 1950s and 1960s saw intense anxieties about practices with immense power over human perception, motivation, memory, and behavior” (107). Her argument and discussion is significant to the film and to the Cold War Era because it helped people recognize how easily agency could be stripped away; people realized just how susceptible they really were to mind control. Just as Raymond Shaw’s perception, motivation, memory, and behavior were not solely his, the same was being done to American citizens for them to perform as tools and puppets at the hands of communism. Winter elaborates that “psychology occupied a central place in Cold War anxieties about scientific techniques that could be used for political purposes, and hypnosis was often center stage in the fears people expressed” (107). We see in The Manchurian Candidate that Raymond Shaw was under hypnosis and trained to re-enter that stage of hypnosis each time he was triggered to (upon seeing the red queen of diamonds). Eleanor Shaw used Raymond for political purposes- to promote and safeguard
In the biographical film Mabo the Audience is positioned by the filmmakers to see Eddie Koiki Mabo as a hardworking, tenacious and strong man.
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
Ray takes advantage of the use of cinematic staging to enhance the emotions of both the characters and viewer. During Jim’s argument with his parents about going to the police, the use of back shots and full frontal shots mirror his inner conflict. While Jim and Judy speak privately in the mansion, their faces crowd the frame in a close up shot reflecting the vulnerability and intimacy of the
With the onset of the Cold War, a growing Red Scare would cripple American society – effectively plunging the nation into mass hysteria and unrest over the fallacious threat of communist infiltration. This reaction was precipitated by Republican senator, Joseph McCarthy, in his speech, “Enemies from Within”, delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia, on 9 February 1950. McCarthy paints communists in a particularly harsh light to generate anti-Soviet sentiment within the American public. He uses juxtaposition to engender both indignation and fear in the audience to achieve this effect.
Evans, M. Stanton. “Mccarthyism: Waging The Cold War In America.” Human Events 53.21 (1997): S1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
In the third decade of the Cold War, less than two years after the United States population had been scared half-way to death by the Cuban Missile Crisis, Dr. Strangelove invaded the nation's movie theatres and showed the country the end of the world. Touted by critics then and now as the film of the decade, Dr. Strangelove savagely mocked the President, the entire military defense establishment, and the rhetoric of the Cold War. To a nation that was living through the stress of the nuclear arms race and had faced the real prospect of nuclear war, the satiric treatment of the nation's leaders was an orgasmic release from deep fears and tensions. Its detractors argued that the film was juvenile, offensive, and inaccurate. Viewed, however, in its context of the Cold War and nuclear proliferation, Dr....
The 2006 film V for Vendetta, a cinematic remake of the classic graphic novel series by the same name, is the epitome of a Marxist fairy tale. The film is complete with a bourgeoisie government who spreads their ideology, via mass media, to a citizenry composed entirely of proletariats, and a hero who sets out to break said citizenry from the prison of false consciousness. If one examines the setting and environment of the film, and follows the main characters as they fight against, or break free from, false consciousness, evidence of Marxist themes are present throughout the film.
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
With every film, there are purposely intended details which are used that may seem unnecessary or irrelevant, but are vital components of the diegesis. For most, it can be helpful to re-watch a movie to get a better understanding for what is going on. To appreciate and completely comprehend a film to its full extent, one must look to identify the five principles of form. When analyzing the plot of Get Out, these principles must be addressed because of the significant details that captivate this entire story. When considering how the aspects of function, similarity and repetition, development, difference and variation, and unity/disunity shape the film, viewers can get a grip for why the director uses certain tactics to compose each scene for
Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.
Through the use of the telescreens, they are able to “spy” on people and get inside their minds in order to see what they are doing, acting, and thinking, and manipulate them. In Stalin’s regime, the use of “posters”, newspapers, and spies forced society to act and behave in a certain way. The posters convey a sense of trust while the newspaper serves as a source of a manipulative acceptance to the regimes actions. It is important to remember that in each case, the use of language plays a key ingredient in being able to convince and manipulate the way people act, think, and execute. Works Cited Basgen, Brian.
In the novel 1984 and the film “V for Vendetta”, the protagonist for both stories are captured while performing various acts of rebellion against the totalitarian government, of which is controlling their city. In punishment, the government tortures them with harsh, inhumane methods that are similar to those used in dictatorships during the 1900s like the USSR under Stalin’s rule. However, both protagonists are tortured by different sides, and by people from completely opposite ends of the political ladder: one a government agent, the other a rebel. Although the themes disclosed in relation to the purpose and meanings of torture are similar, the overall message and final opinion that is expressed and conveyed to the recipients are complete opposites.
In conjunction with psychological manipulation is physical control. The Party is a totalitarian government and controls every aspect of life. Technology is yet another important theme. Technology is what gives the Party their power and influence. Big Brother, the symbol, as well as the telescreens are motifs that help drive the main conflict.
“The Great Dictator”, an elegant speech composed by the magnificent Charlie Chaplin, was a particularly moving one that has gained widespread recognition and praise since it was given back in the 1940s. On the surface, it appears as if Chaplin is directing soldiers to think for themselves and to break away from dictators’ indoctrination, as “dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!” is a line that is reprehended throughout the speech. Further analysis of Chaplin’s speech seems to reveal, however, that he rather wants the soldiers to break away from the deeper aspect of tyranny that has been embedded within them, essentially controlling them. Chaplin wants the audience to take action and think for themselves; to help one another and to save humanity from war using three key rhetorical tools: ethos, organization and pathos.
Therefore, it is possible to notice how the cinematography, the mise-en-scene and the editing are used to resemble the peculiarities of the space in which the actions are taking place. For instance, the first part is characterized by long pan or tilt shots, the camera is steady but still manages to follow the characters actions. The editing points to the linear occurring of the events. Also, the characters and the objects are usually methodically placed in the scene. All of the elements are used to convey the rigid organization, efficiency and control typical of the military environment. On the other hand, in the second part, there are usually shorter shots and steadicam shots. The camera is free to investigate the space of action. Here, the editing is used to create a dynamic perception of the events. In this way Kubrick is able to bring in the spectators’ minds the chaotic reality of the war. Moreover, colors become another tool to communicate to the audience this sort of split within the film. In fact, after Pyle’s death the viewer can notice how those metallic and cold colors, that are present at the beginning of the film, shift into wormer colors. It is actually through Pyle’s suicide that the the spectator gets this switch. In that scene the dark red blood stains, and ideologically violates, the cold white tiles of the bathroom. This film is also different on