The Parallax View

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The Parallax View (1974), directed by Alan J. Pakula, mirrors some elements we find in Alfred Hitchcock’s films. There are deaths at the Seattle Space Needle, which is an iconic American landmark. Hitchcock showed treachery occurring at the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur and at Mt. Rushmore in North by Northwest. The point of using these types of settings for Hitchcock was to suggest that there is a sinister aspect below the admirable surface representation. However, Pakula said in an interview that he wanted to show how modern structures dwarf individual citizens. In a way, the larger structures show how powerful forces can dominate the less fortunate. Hitchcock also used the theme of those in power blaming an innocent man for wrongs he did not commit, and that individual tries to discover the truth below a surface of lies. This element also exists in this story.

The word “parallax” adds to the theme of seeing things from various perspectives. The word means that a variety of people can see the same situation in different ways. In the case of the main character, Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty), a journalist, he is an outsider who views the world as something to analyze below the surface of appearances. Others see him as an anti-establishment type, someone outside the mainstream. The fact that he is a recovering alcoholic adds to his outsider status. His name suggests the word “afraid.” Is he afraid of what’s happening, or is he, too, someone to be afraid of.

The opening sequence shows a totem pole with the Space Needle behind it to show how society has minimized a meaningful culture by replacing it with impersonal materialism. Senator Carroll (William Boyce) is in a parade wearing a fireman’s hat, a symbol of unselfish heroism. Inside the Space Needel one waiter appears to be the assassin of a senator while another waiter is the actual killer. This scene stresses how things are not what they seem. Both Frady and his ex-girlfriend, Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss), are there. The innocent man falls to his death as others wrongfully assume he is the culprit, and he falls to his death after a pursuit. What follows is a commission that declares there was a lone gunman. The declaration is not a press conference, so there are no questions, stressing how no contradictions will be voiced against the conclusion that there was no conspiracy. This element of the film reminds us of the Warren Commission which said there was no conspiracy in the killing of President John F. Kennedy. It also refers to similar findings that were made in the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Senator Carroll is an independent politician who may want to run for a higher office. IMDb notes that his name is the same as a signer of The Declaration of Independence, the last word there mirroring the senator’s nonpartisan status. His link to the Declaration paints him as a patriot like those at the pristine birth of American democracy. The fact that the opening takes place on Independence Day stresses Carroll’s “independence” and ironically contrasts with those defiling the tenets of the Founding Fathers.

Three years pass since the death of the senator, and we are witness to Frady’s anti-establishment combativeness. He argues and insults local policemen following his manipulation of an inept arrest where he exposes how they harass him. Frady’s newspaper editor, Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn), tells Frady he must “curb your talent for creative irresponsibility,” and that they are “in the business of reporting the news, not creating it.” The scene emphasizes Frady’s rebellious nature. Rintel’s office looks like an old-fashioned modest space, which he never seems to leave, not gleaming like a modern press headquarters. Pakula said Rintels is an “anachronism,” a man dedicated to “old-fashioned decency and optimism.” He seems to be someone who is isolated from the current society that has moved away from those values.

Lee has tried to contact Frady and shows up at his home by way of a side entrance, stressing her fear, which she reveals to Frady. She says that eight people have died who were at the event at the top of the Space Needle. She believes they were killed, and she could be next. Frady dismisses Lee’s fear because she is a neurotic who apparently had paranoid and suicidal thoughts in the past. He does learn that there have been two more deaths, and that Carroll’s aid, Austin Tucker (William Daniels) also believes there is a conspiracy.

The next scene is chilling as there is a shot of Lee’s body at the coroner’s building. She had alcohol and barbiturates in her system and died in a car accident. Frady is the last one to come into view through the doorway, which is the audience’s viewpoint, stressing the different ways things are seen, and we can see that he now believes there is something suspicious about the piling up of bodies.

Frady meets with Will (Kenneth Mars), an ex-FBI agent, who says that there is a pill that can fake a heart attack, which is how one of the persons in Seattle scene died. This fact is a foreshadowing of what happens later. Frady says he needs a fake backstory that shows him as a “hostile misfit.” Will says Frady doesn’t have to fake that. Again, we see that Frady, in his own way, fits the profile of those he is hunting. Will says they will set him up to be a man who was once a flasher so as to present him as a person with an embarrassing past to hide, which is the kind of person an organization grooming assassins might recruit. The two are at an amusement park and ride on a children’s train. Could the film be suggesting Frady is on the right track?

Frady visits the place in upstate Washington where a witness to the senator’s death died. He does not look like the locals since he has long shaggy hair and orders milk at a local bar where the male patrons dress like cowboys. A man named Red (Earl Hindman, eventually Wilson in the TV show Home Improvement) questions his masculinity. Unfortunately, Frady must prove his male strength and gets into a fight, eventually knocking out Red, who turns out to be a deputy. Sheriff Wicker (Kelly Thorsden) is one of the patrons, allowing the fight to continue. As Frady says he has a strange way of enforcing the law. The town is outside the mainstream idea of what normally stands for justice, and Frady is the outsider again here, showing his aggressive nature.

The conspiracy widens in the scene where the sheriff takes Frady to the spot below a dam where the witness died. The hugeness of the dam adds to that feeling of individuals overpowered by their surroundings. It was reported as a drowning since the dam sluice opened and the victim drowned. Then the alarm sounds which warns that the sluice is opening again and Frady realizes he will be the next victim. Luckily (a bit of contrivance) Frady has a fishing rod and he hits the sheriff who is pulling a gun, which is how he presumably killed the witness. They are both swept away. Frady survives, but not the sheriff. So, even local law enforcement is part of the deadly apparatus that lurks behind the façade of respectability. (This scene is a bit much since it would seem pretty suspicious that two witnesses to the senator’s death would have died in the same manner at the same location).

Frady goes to the sheriff’s house and discovers a briefcase that provides information about the Parallax Corporation. He escapes the pursuing Red in the sheriff’s police car which he used to get to the house. It is interesting that he must escape the shady local lawman in a car belonging to an officer of the law. Frady is even wearing the cop’s cowboy hat. He drives through an area that spews mud on the car and himself, implying that justice has been defiled. The images add irony to the scene.

Back in Portland, Rintels doesn’t buy Frady’s story, since he reveals that the sheriff and deputy were involved in a utility scandal and that is why they were hostile. Frady said he didn’t reveal he was a reporter and used a fake name. Rintels refuses to help Frady, which adds to the journalist’s isolation.

The briefcase contains psychological testing questions, which Frady brings to a psychology lab. The psychologist says the questions seek “to pull out anger, repression, frustration” which could identify homicidal tendencies. The psychologist has a man who committed gruesome crimes take the test. Frady wants to pretend the answers are his so he can infiltrate the Parallax Company. Apparently, the only way to enter a deceptive organization is by being deceptive.

The depth of the danger facing people who suspect the truth about the recent deaths manifests itself in the person of Autin Tucker, the dead senator’s aid. He learns about Frady’s search for him. He requires Frady to undergo a strip search before meeting him. He warns him that he is unaware of the enormity of the deadly investigation he is pursuing since he has escaped two attempts on his own life. At the dam and here, we have foreshadowing of what can happen to Frady. Tucker, a bodyguard, and Frady go out on a boat. In the water, alone, one would think it was a safe place. Not so. There is an explosion on the vessel, and again, Frady happens luckily to be at the bow of the ship and is blown free. The scene shows how pervasive is the reach of this conspiracy.

Frady revisits Rintels, who thinks the reporter died on the boat. Rintels is onboard with Frady’s news story now, but Frady doesn’t want to print anything yet so he can find out more. He wants to make it look like he did die so as to call off any further scrutiny. He asks Rintels to print his obituary, make a fake will, and appear to be clearing out Frady’s personal property. In the meantime, Frady will take on a false identity under the name of Richard Paley, the man who supposedly answered the Parallax questionnaire, and a potential assassin. He is putting himself in jeopardy, but also Rintels, since he is the only one who knows the truth, which is supposed to set you free, but, in this world, can get one killed.

Frady takes a room in a rundown building to show his outsider status as Paley. When a representative, Jack Younger (Walter McGinn) of Parallax shows up, Frady acts surly and angry when his pot on a hotplate overheats. Younger says it’s his aggressiveness is what makes Paley valuable. Is Frady putting on an act, or is he just unleashing his inner antisocial tendencies?

Frady goes to the address where Parallax does its recruiting. He visits the “Division of Human Engineering.” It’s an ominous title, implying that they can remake individuals into something other than what they currently are. What follows is an almost an extended surreal scene. Frady goes to a large auditorium (that dwarfing feeling again) where there is just one chair which measures his emotional responses to the images projected through his fingers. Words such as “country,” “love” and “enemy” appear with images of people suffering and imprisoned along with patriotic pictures accompanied by rousing as well as soft music. Also, there are still shots of a KKK rally, Hitler, and violent pictures along with an illustration of a comic superhero. The word that appears often is “Me.” The visuals seem to connect patriotism and family love with the individual’s ability to conquer adversaries. It is interesting that we do not gain any knowledge of Frady’s response to these images. Does he actually qualify as a person who fits in with the parallax view of those who will hire him? Here again we have a Hitchcock element since the audience is made to participate in the scene just as does Frady. In his essay, “Dark Towers,” Nathan Heller says that Pakula uses the camera as a “human” who “feels like a bystander.” So, in effect, we also are taking the test.

An effective suspenseful segment follows. Frady sees the man who Tucker showed him a picture of who was at the Space Needle. He was the actual second gunman who killed Senator Carroll. Frady follows the man, who has acquired a briefcase, to the airport. The man checks in the briefcase but doesn’t get on the plane. Frady boards the plane and hears that there is a senator on the plane who the newspaper compares to Carroll. Frady realizes the briefcase contains a bomb. Frady is able to warn a flight attendant anonymously by writing on a cocktail napkin that there is an explosive onboard. The plane turns around based on “technical difficulties” to avoid a panic. After the plane lands and everyone disembarks, the plane explodes. Frady performed a daring and courageous act here.

Younger is at Frady’s apartment when he returns. The man is in the dark mirroring his shady personality. He knows that Paley is not his name based on background checks. Frady makes up a story about hiding his alcoholic past. He is supposed to meet another operative at a hotel, but once more Frady sabotages another job Parallax is planning by sending his supposed associate away. We know Parallax is onto Frady because they send that same assassin to bring Rintels poisoned food which he regularly orders from a deli. They make it look like the editor died of a heart attack, as did a previous victim. More appearances being deceptive. The audiotape of the conversation with Younger that Frady sent Rintels along with other Parallax documents are gone. Frady doesn’t know about the death and that he is now on his own.

Frady goes to see Younger at the Parallax building. The man is not there but Frady sees the same waiter/assassin in the lobby. He follows him again, this time to the LA Convention Center. The large open area, said Pakula, was meant to seem uninviting and menacing, which fits in with the spatial intimidation theme of the story. What Frady doesn’t realize, and what the viewer doesn’t suspect at this point, is that he is being set up. Younger and other suited men are there as they observe from a room high above the floor below, like demonic angels watching their plans take shape. Younger leaves, absent from, and seemingly innocent of, the treachery that follows.

There is a college marching band rehearsing patriotic songs among a multitude of tables. On the floor students show placards of various past presidents. It’s almost a reminder of what Frady saw at the Parallax human engineering site. What will follow is anything but traditional patriotism.

The killer along with other assassins are on a platform above the proceedings below. Senator Hammond (Jim Davis) rides in on a golf cart as he is part of the rehearsal for a speech he will deliver that night. Frady is on a catwalk above the floor. He probably realizes that the senator is the next target. Sure enough, as the senator drives his golf car away from the stage, shots ring out and he is killed. The senator’s golf cart careens into the red, white, and blue tables, symbolizing the destruction of the patriotic scene.

The assassins planted a rifle to implicate Frady as the shooter. The band members see Frady and point at him, assuming he is the killer. It is the same setup that occurred at the Space Needle. As Frady runs toward a door to escape he is shot to death by an assassin who is masquerading as a security guard.

We again have an investigative panel that concludes that Frady killed Hammond. They state that Frady was obsessed with the Carroll shooting, thought Senator Hammond was responsible for the other senator’s death, and that he felt Hammond was out to kill Frady. Again, there are no questions from an unseen press, which implies that even they are impotent to stop the coverup. The lone gunman theory with no conspiracy decision is again presented, with history repeating itself, as it did with the Kennedy and King assassinations. The feeling that all of these decisions are linked is stressed by the camera zooming in on the commission members at the first panel and now the camera pulling away at the second commission, as if it is all one shot taking place at the same time.

The depressing ending concludes this cautionary tail of how even in a supposed open and free society, there can be a deceptive underbelly lurking beneath the benign appearing surface. (For conspiracy theorists, the actor who played Younger (McGinn) died in a car accident in 1977, and director Pakula died in an auto accident in 1998).

JFK

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

JFK (1991), directed by Oliver Stone, is a conspiracy theory film about an alleged plot to kill President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, that was propagated at the highest levels of the United States government. Donald Trump is not the only person who believes in the idea of a “deep state.” This movie is factually suspicious. However, the craft in making it, especially the editing and cinematography, is exemplary as it presents a vast number of clipped images that explode with information and power. As Roger Ebert said in his book, The Great Movies, the film has “emotional truth,” since it captures the feelings of the country whose citizens were confused, angry, and hungry for answers concerning this national tragedy. I think it might be best to see the film as a fictional thriller based loosely on actual events. Ebert also states that despite the numerous scenes, which include flashbacks, the feel is feverish, which fits the agitated drive that fueled the desire to answer questions about the killing of President Kennedy. The camera work often adds to the feeling of authenticity with the appearance of a documentary, as narrators speak while the images flash before the audience. Stone’s premise is that in a conspiracy, one must look below the fictitious façade to find the truth beneath.

The story is partially based on the book, On the Trail of the Assassins, by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner, who investigated the shooting of President Kennedy. The film starts with Kennedy’s predecessor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the general in the U. S. Army that led the Allies in World War II in Europe, who warned against the danger in the growing power of the “military-industrial complex.” (The opening narration is supplied by Martin Sheen). The opening states that Kennedy didn’t provide air cover for the anti-Castro forces at the Bay of Pigs, which was a disaster for Kennedy’s attempt to overthrow communist-led Cuba and its leader Fidel Castro. The movie states that Kennedy felt the CIA “lied” to him and attempted to “manipulate” him about the operation. In archival footage, Kennedy stated that it would be difficult to win a war in Vietnam. He also stated that he did not want the United States to dominate the world with its military, but instead wanted a one-world community. The film hypothesizes that “military-industrial complex” saw Kennedy as a threat to their existence.

Garrison investigated the New Orleans connection to the assassination by way of private pilot David Ferrie (Joe Pesci). Ferrie’s story about not knowing Oswald, who lived in New Orleans for a while, and who was in Ferrie’s military unit, and his contradictory comments about being in Texas after the assassination, cause Garrison to keep him for the FBI investigation. Garrison was rocking the boat by questioning the cover story of Ferrie, and eventually of the United States Government itself. The Federal Government dismisses any connection between Ferrie and Oswald without notifying Garrison’s office. After Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle Murray) kills the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman), the investigation ends. One member of Garrison’s team, Bill Broussard (Michael Rooker), says, after seeing Ruby shoot Oswald on TV in front of many policemen, “This is crazy.” His words reflect what practically everybody felt at the time.

However, Garrison, following the Warren Commission completed study of the killing in 1966, felt there were discrepancies in the report and reopened the investigation. There is a question as to Oswald’s ability to fire off his weapon with such accuracy and precision, and that shots were heard coming from the infamous “grassy knoll” near the assassination. Supposedly the route Kennedy took was changed which, according to Garrison’s team, would allow for a better attack from multiple shooters.

Jack Lemmon gives a great performance as Jack Martin, a frightened individual who witnessed Guy Bannister (Ed Asner), a brutal man who recruited for far-right extremist organizations and hated Kennedy, meeting with Oswald and Ferrie, along with Cuban anti-communist sympathizers in the midst of the American intelligence center in New Orleans. Bannister also conferred with Clay Bertrand (Tommy Lee Jones), a local bigwig. They were gathering guns for another Cuban invasion, which Kennedy shut down. Bannister considered the president’s death would bring about a “New Frontier,” ironically taking Kennedy’s words. Bannister beat Martin when he questioned Martin’s loyalty.

Effective supporting performances abound in this film. John Candy plays a sweating flamboyant lawyer (the sweat was real) named Dean Andrews, Jr., who says that his client, Clay Bertrand, also known, as we find out as Clay Shaw, a homosexual, wanted to hire Andrews to defend Oswald. Shaw was involved with Willie O’Keefe (Kevin Bacon) and Ferrie in gay parties. (Despite Costner's Garrison's denial of the homosexual element having anything to do with the investigation, the film portrays gay men as villains). Garrison finds out about these relationships when he meets with the imprisoned O’Keefe. The inmate says he met with Oswald once, too, through Clay. He says that Ferrie ranted about Kennedy being a Communist and that he could be taken out in an open area with triangulation of sharpshooters, with one man being sacrificed as a patsy, which is what Oswald said he was later. Garrison learns from witnesses that support Ferrie’s plan. But the belief that there were multiple shooters, and that Oswald knew Ruby were dismissed by the Warren Commission, which also showed that accounts of what happened as reported by people earlier were later changed. O’Keefe spouts pro-fascist beliefs, which makes Garrison question Oswald’s pro-communist backstory since O’Keefe said Oswald associated with far-right men. However, Broussard knows that O’Keefe’s sexual orientation and beliefs would make him less than a credible witness (especially in 1966). Garrison is funny when he says why is it that a woman, just because she is a prostitute, can’t have good eyesight.

Garrison’s group discovers that Oswald’s income tax and other records are “classified” so that even law enforcement people can’t obtain them. He supposedly defected to Russia but was able to get back in the country with his Russian wife with no problem. Garrison suggests to his team that Oswald was a CIA operative who was used by the intelligence community to take the fall for the assassination. Broussard begins to find it difficult to believe that the American intelligence community would kill the Commander-in-Chief. The movie challenges what we want to believe by suggesting there may be an alternative way of looking at what happened.

As Garrison becomes immersed in his suspicions about the assassination, his home life with his wife, Liz (Sissy Spacek), deteriorates, as he misses family events. He has nightmares about the contradictions he sees in the Warren Report. (There is a shot of Garrison’s child watching cartoons that show characters having a shootout and playing with toy guns while Garrison and his team discuss the case. These scenes show how early in life children are exposed to gun violence in the country).

As the story plays out, there is an increasing sense of doom as witnesses die, including Bannister and Ferrie, and Garrison’s investigation hits roadblocks. There is the possibility that unseen powerful forces are trying to tie up loose ends. Garrison’s office is bugged. Martin told Garrison he is “so naïve” to think nobody cares what they are investigating.

Garrison’s team supposedly finds evidence that makes it look like someone was impersonating Oswald, showing up in Dallas, acting conspicuously, so that witnesses would testify that he was staking out the area before the assassination. This activity would aid in setting up Oswald as the fall guy. This information adds to the theme of how false appearances appear to be trustworthy.

While the story continues, Stone inserts TV footage of the Vietnam War cranking up, which implies that that military-industrial complex was benefiting from the change in the presidency from Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson.

Garrison finds out that Clay Bertrand who was seeking counsel for Oswald and knew Ferrie, is really Clay Shaw, a prominent New Orleans citizen, who says he admired Kennedy. Garrison calls him in on Easter Sunday for an interview. The date seems ironic given that the holy day contrasts with the dire events that are discussed. It also adds to the idea that what is on the pleasant surface above hides the dark truth below, which is at the heart of all conspiracies. He accuses Shaw of having conducted business for the CIA, and is a secret operative, adding to the belief that the intelligence agency participated in the assassination. As Garrison said earlier, his team has gone through the looking glass, as did Alice in Wonderland, and reality is being reversed. Garrison says, “white is black, and black is white.” Garrison tries to cut through Clay’s Southern surface charm and hospitality as he tells Clay, who says he is a patriot, that he finds it odd that conspiring to kill a president is likened to being patriotic. Garrison is finding what people claim to be the truth here is suspect. After Shaw leaves, Garrison adds to the movie’s theme of hypocrisy when he quotes Shakespeare, saying, “One may smile, and smile and be a villain.”

After the interview with Shaw, the investigation becomes public, and Garrison suspects Shaw of publicizing Garrison’s actions. Reporters now hound the DA is and he is accused of grandstanding and misusing public funds. Ferrie feels he is now a target due to his association with Shaw and Oswald exposed to the public. In a hysterical scene, Ferrie admits to working for the CIA, as was Oswald. He claims Shaw is an “untouchable” in the Agency. He says that there was so much secrecy, that the truth was even hidden from the actual shooters in the assassination, so deep does the deep state go. He admits that the CIA and the Mafia worked together to try to kill Castro, which indicates that there is no defining line between what is legal and illegal.

Garrison meets with a Mr. “X” (Donald Sutherland) who was involved in “black ops,” and in many overseas coup d’états. He was transferred out just before the assassination and read a whole background story on Oswald in a New Zealand newspaper before Oswald was charged. His professional assessment was that it was a cover story (false appearance again) to distract people from the truth. He believes he was sent to the South Pole to stop him from allowing better security in hostile Dallas, where protection of the President was allowed to be lax. Kennedy fired several powerful intelligence officers and planned to withdraw what troops there were in Vietnam. Kennedy also was slashing defense spending. Kennedy’s actions were a threat to that military-industrial complex, which “X” believes got Kennedy killed. Here we have a man hiding under the surface, not even revealing his own name, but who actually wants to bring truth into the light of day.

After Garrison arrests Clay Shaw, he is dismissed as an agent involved in the assassination by Earl Warren, and the FBI gives no credence to Garrison’s assertions. There are lies put forth about how Garrison intimidated, bribed, and drugged witnesses, and that he was tied to gangsters. In this film, we again have a false front put on again, in this case a negative appearance to cover the positive motives of an individual. Garrison suffers tax audits and is forced to leave the National Guard based on what the movie sees as a persecution of Garrison for getting too close to the truth of the conspiracy.

Broussard can’t tolerate the idea that Lyndon Johnson might have been involved in the assassination, as Garrison implies. He leaves the investigation, but he returns later to tell him that he heard of a hit placed on Garrison, which follows a previous threat against the DA’s daughter. But Broussard trying to help Garrison is phony, and he actually tries to set Garrison up at an airport restroom to insinuate that Garrison had a homosexual encounter. The team discovers that Broussard turned all their findings over to the FBI. The traitor (again, someone who appears to be other than he is) in their midst is especially upsetting to Garrison and his people, who are besieged on all sides.

Martin Luther King, Jr., an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, was assassinated in 1968. and a couple of months later, Robert Kennedy is killed. Garrison predicted that “they” wouldn’t allow Kennedy to get elected and carry on his brother’s anti-military policies. Garrison’s wife now believes her husband’s quest is a just one as the enormity of what is happening hits them both. Garrison confesses that he is now truly “scared,” not for himself, but for the country, as democracy and the virtues on which the nation was established are threatened. They find solace in each other’s arms as a sanctuary from the assault on the nation.

The trial of Clay Shaw begins, but Garrison has trouble getting subpoenas and extraditions. The defense attorney attacks the character of the state’s witnesses, accusing one of being one a liar, another a drug addict, and another unbalanced mentally. The lawyer Dean Andrews now disavows under oath any of the statements Garrison says Andrews made to him. The judge says that Saw admitting to the alias of Bertrand is inadmissible because a lawyer wasn’t present, which Garrison says is never required when someone is being asked if using another name. Shaw of course denies doing anything wrong or even knowing those who supposedly he conspired with.

Then comes the long speech by Garrison that includes discussion about the “magic bullet” theory propagated by the Warren Commission. He details how impossible is the theory of so much damage being done by one shot. By using the Abraham Zapruder film, which was locked away for five years, his point is to show to what illogical lengths the conspiracy has gone to cover up the truth.

The jury found Clay Shaw innocent based on the evidence, but one juror stated that there was a belief that there was a conspiracy. The end credits note that, later, the CIA admitted that Clay Shaw was a part-time contract agent for the intelligence agency, and that secret records concerning the assassination would not be released until 2029. Some were later released by the Trump Administration.

Garrison at the end of his speech says, “it’s up to you,” to fight for truth, to look behind the lies and preserve the ideals of the United States. He is talking to the jury, but Costner is looking right at the camera, and at us. We are the ones Oliver Stone is addressing.

The Manchurian Candidate

SPOILER ALERT! The plot of the movie will be discussed.

Last week’s film, The Ides of March, dealt with the theme of political betrayal. This movie, released in 1962, and directed by John Frankenheimer, covers similar territory. Here, we have a story full of disguises, and if one cannot see through the deceptive exteriors, then betrayal is more easily carried out.

The movie begins during the Korean War. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is a sergeant in a company commanded by Captain Marco (Frank Sinatra). Raymond shows his contempt for his almost-out-of-uniform fellow soldiers when he breaks up their party with half-dressed women as they play cards (an omen?) and drink. There is a sign on the wall that says “Home Sweet Home,” a lie, since they are far away from their homes, in danger, in a war zone. Is Raymond just a condescending prude, or, as we later see, has his domineering mother destroyed all of his ability to enjoy life? Perhaps, the soldiers are shown to be disarmed, literally and figuratively, and not prepared for the subterfuge of the enemy. Along with the soldiers on their next mission is a Korean, Chunjin (Henry Silva) who is supposed to be an interpreter and guide for the men. At least that is what he appears to be, but he steers the Americans to a place where they are ambushed, knocked out, and airlifted to the Pavlov Institute in Mongolia. However, we next see Raymond arriving in the states to receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism in rescuing his company of men. His mother, Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury, who was almost the same age as Harvey at the time) and her husband, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), grandstand his homecoming for political gain. The sign over Raymond’s head says that he is Iselin’s “boy,” which is a deception, as Raymond is adamant to point out, since he is Iselin’s stepson. As opposed to the Iselins, Raymond is brutally honest when alone with them when he says he has taken a job with a left-wing journalist because he loathes his mother and Iselin.

We realize that there is something not true about Raymond’s heroics when we are privy to now Major Marco’s recurring nightmares, and later the dreams of Corporal Allen Melvin (James Edwards). At a time before digital special effects had been invented, Frankenheimer presents us with a dazzling display of scene cutting and imagery in the dream sequences. In them, it appears that the soldiers are at a women’s garden club meeting. A rotating set was used to let the scene change seamlessly from this benign image to the real one, which is a gathering of Chinese and Russian communist military and scientific operatives at a demonstration led by Dr. Yen Lo (Khigh Dhiegh). At certain points the two worlds bleed into each other, as happens in dreams: the Russians and Chinese show up at the garden club, and a bayonet turns up in the hands of one of the women. The scientist’s words are spoken by one of the women. The soldiers appear bored as Lo orders Raymond to strangle one of the men and shoot another, the latter followed by blood splattering, appropriately, on a large picture of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Raymond’s politeness, and the accommodating demeanors of the smiling soldiers, are manipulated, sham behaviors elicited because the men have been fooled into thinking nothing threatening is happening; the benign mental constructs built by Dr. Lo are window dressings that do not allow them to see the killings occurring right in front of their eyes. The contrast between what is happening and the calm of the participants is chilling. This film uses the stereotypical impression at the time that women are weak and defenseless, and turns it on its head. The soldiers are lulled into thinking their surroundings are safe in their brainwashed state. (Melvin, an African American, pictures all black women present, making him feel more secure). But these women are a disguise meant to disarm them, camouflaging the present danger around them. We learn that Raymond’s heroic actions are a ruse to cover-up the real reason that the company was missing, which is to turn Raymond into an assassin. Also, by making Raymond appear like a patriotic hero, he will not be suspected of being just the opposite, a threat to American security.

Marco tells his superiors of his nightmares. But, when asked what he thinks of Raymond, he says he is “the kindest, bravest, warmest most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.” (Melvin repeats the same statement, word for word, like an automaton, when his wife asks him about Raymond following one of his nightmares.) Now Raymond doesn’t even like Christmas, saying one day of the holiday is bad enough, let alone twelve. He later admits that he simply is not a lovable person. Marco knows something is wrong because two opposing beliefs are in his head – one that Raymond is a wonderful person, and the other, illustrated by him saying, “It isn't as if Raymond is hard to like. He's impossible to like!" His attempt to distinguish the lie from the truth pushes him to the brink of a breakdown, and he is put on disability leave. When he seeks out Raymond to see if the ex-sergeant, too, is having nightmares, he encounters Chunjin who has become Raymond’s valet. Here we have another disguise, with the Korean pretending to be someone taking care of Raymond, while actually spying on him. Marco, whose alertness to the enemy is more advanced than the others so that his subconscious surfaces into his conscious state, realizes that Chunjin is a threat. (Evidence as to Marco’s insight is the fact that he reads a great deal, and among the titles we see are The Trial and Enemies of the State, showing his research into conspiracies). He yells at the Korean as they fight (the first karate battle in a Hollywood film), asking him what was he doing there at the meeting in his nightmare, and what was Raymond doing with his hands (Marco remembers seeing Raymond moving his fingers, as if holding something, another form of pretending).

The police arrest Marco after he helps wreck Raymond’s apartment in the fight, and he calls Rosie, (Janet Leigh – more about her later), to bail him out. We see something curious at the police station. There is a man in the background who appears to be putting on his trousers. This image echoes back to the soldiers at the club in Korea, who are in a state of undress. Is this policeman being “caught with his pants down,” symbolizing a country not really knowing who the enemy is? After his release, Marco shows up at Raymond’s place, and the occupant is outraged by Marco’s actions. The latter does discover that Melvin, still unaware of any threat, sent a letter to Raymond, thinking absurdly that Raymond was his best friend in the Army, asking him if he, too, is having similar disturbing dreams. Marco is relieved because he now knows he is not going crazy. He brings this information to his superiors in Army Intelligence, and he recognizes the pictures of two Russian and Chinese intelligence agents who were in his nightmare. Melvin identified the same two. The Army assigns Marco to stay close to Raymond to discover what is going on.

Raymond receives a phone call. The voice tells him to pass the time by playing solitaire. After the Queen of Diamonds is exposed, this supposedly harmless game becomes a sinister tool, turning out to be the mechanism to trigger Raymond’s subconscious conditioning. The game of solitaire is efficient because Raymond does not have to interact with anyone else; it also is significant because it mirrors Raymond’s alienated, lonely nature. When he is awake, even though he is unlikable, Raymond does not pretend to be anything but himself. But, when he plays the card game, he turns into a programmed robot-like being, with no emotions. In many ways he looks like one of the “pod” people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, who, after being taken over, present a disarming, normal appearance, but are really dangerous. Just like that 1950’s movie, there is here the theme of self-betrayal.

Raymond is ordered to check into a hospital to determine if his conditioning is completely intact. The conspirators concoct a fake story about Raymond being involved in a car accident – more deception. The place where Dr. Lo examines him is, too, a phony, a clinic run by the communist agents, appearing to be so authentic, it passes for a capitalist institution, and makes a profit. Lo says he has constructed a perfect weapon because there is no memory of the murderous act which eliminates the emotion of guilt. And, since the killer does not know that he committed the act, he has no fear of being caught. Lo drives home the idea of the danger of this deceptive disguise by saying Raymond will “appear” to be a productive, normal member of society. Before he is turned over to his American operative (mystery added here as we now know that there is an unknown American mole), as a test to see if Raymond will still carry out a kill order, Lo tells him to murder his boss, Holborn Gaines (Lloyd Corrigan). In another chilling scene, because of Raymond’s calm, polite manner, he shoots his employer who was kind enough to give him employment, adding to the list of betrayals. Where is Gaines murdered? He is in his sleep-inducing bed, comforted by wearing his dead wife’s sleep wrap, ready to be lulled into a state of non-alertness, where he, like the rest of us, think he is safe. The film is saying, “Think again.” What appears to be a sanctuary can easily be compromised by someone you think is a friend.

In trying to get close to Raymond and discover what plan he is involved in, Marco gets his ex-Army comrade drunk. We learn that Raymond has a “lovable” side, because he fell in love in the past with Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish), daughter of left-leaning Senator Thomas Jordan (John McGiver). The Senator had reason to sue Raymond’s mother in the past for slander. She and Iselin are crusading anti-communists, and she named Jordan as a member of the party. There are noteworthy aspects in Raymond’s meeting up with Jocelyn and her father. A poisonous snake bit Raymond, and Jocelyn happened by on her bicycle. Since her father has a heightened awareness of deadly snakes, his daughter carries medicine with her. She only has her blouse top to tie off the circulation at the wound near the ankle. She takes it off, revealing only her bra underneath. Yet, there is no shame or negativity about this partial disrobing, which contrasts to the undressings in previous scenes, because she uses the discarded garment as a tool to fight something threatening. It seems we have here a reversal of the Garden of Eden story, and another subversion of the weakness of women; Jocelyn is innocent, before the fall, unashamed of her body. She is not an instrument of the devil, aka the Serpent, here, as she thwarts its poison. Senator Jordan, like Marco, is on alert against true enemies, which his awareness of poisonous snakes hiding in the grass, ready to spread poison throughout a healthy body – the nation’s democratic freedom – symbolizes. However, Raymond’s mother exerted her control over her son, and had him send a “vile” letter, cutting off the relationship with Jocelyn.

It is now right after Christmas, usually a happy time of the year in most stories, but which contrasts with the current goings on in this tale. Raymond, arrives at a bar to meet Marco, and accidentally overhears a bartender talking to customers about playing solitaire. He uses the establishment’s deck of cards, sees the Queen of Diamonds, and the bartender says he told someone to drive to Central Park and jump in the lake. Marco arrives just as Raymond leaves. He follows him and then helps him out of the lake. Marco now realizes that in his nightmare Raymond could have been pretending to play cards with his hands. He also noticed that he went off after the Queen of Diamonds appeared. After talking with the military’s psychiatrist, Marco remembers from his dream that the scientist said, “The Queen of Diamonds is reminiscent in many ways of Raymond’s dearly loved and hated mother … and is the second key to clear the mechanism for any other assignment.” So, Marco now thinks he knows how to reverse the plot involving Raymond, whatever it may be.

Mrs. Iselin, too, subverts the notion of women being weak and non-threatening. She is the power behind her dim-witted husband, who, unlike Raymond, is an awake, conscious puppet. He is an obvious reference to Senator Joe McCarthy, calling everyone a communist, in this case per his wife’s orders. All he wants is for her to stop changing the number of fictitious communists in the Defense Department, and give him one easy figure he can remember. She sees him using a bottle of Heinz Ketchup, and settles on “57,” the number of varieties of products the company offered. This incident is a funny, but cutting comment which shows how a simple everyday product can be used as a tool to tell a dangerous political lie. She learns that Jocelyn is returning from living abroad, and decides that reuniting Raymond with her will cause her father not to block her husband from becoming the vice-presidential nominee. She decides to throw a homecoming party for her. But, significantly, she makes it a costume party, which emphasizes the disguise motif of the film.

 At this party, Raymond’s mother (deceptively dressed as Little Bo Beep, although she manhandles her husband with her staff, revealing her true nature) brings him to the study to be alone with him. She then tells him to play a game of solitaire. This horrifying revelation is the ultimate betrayal, both in a family and national sense. What can be worse than turning your own son into an assassin? He turns over the Queen of Diamonds (who not only represents, as Marco remembers, but actually is Raymond’s mother), but Mrs. Iselin must meet with Senator Jordan who has attended at his daughter’s request before she can give her son his assignment. She removes the card to avoid “mischief.” But, in a bit of contrived, but symbolically appropriate storytelling, Jocelyn comes into the study wearing a costume with a large Queen of Diamonds on the front. Again, Jocelyn plays the role of trying to save Raymond. She is the anti-Queen of Diamonds to his sinister mother’s version. They kiss and go off together. They are married, and Jocelyn gets Marco to allow them forty-eight hours to have a mini-honeymoon. (In a sense, Rosie, too, is also a powerful woman, who could under malignant influences, been as manipulative as Raymond’s mother. In the train scene, where the two eventual lovers first meet, and which contains some illogical, funny dialogue which fits the movie’s non-linear plot, she looks like she is brainwashing the broken down Marco, repeating her phone number and address. Lucky for him, she is there to help, not destroy, him.)

The Iselins originally appeared to be insincere and opportunists, but we now have learned that they are a much greater threat to the country. When Senator Jordan vows to stop Iselin at all costs, he says, “There are people who think of Johnnie as a clown and a buffoon, (an impression held by some now of a particular presidential candidate?), but I do not. I despise John Iselin and everything Iselinism has come to stand for (substitute McCarthyism). I think, if John Iselin were a paid Soviet agent, he could not do more to harm this country than he’s doing now.” There is a rich irony here, since Iselin is a Soviet agent. Here is also the argument of the movie: by going on witch hunts, saying everyone is the enemy, it makes it very difficult to know who the true enemy is. And, when one always points to all members of a movement or of a belief system for causing problems, one can throw off suspicion from oneself for any wrongdoing.

There are several times during the film where Abraham Lincoln’s noble, revered image is undermined by the Iselins. Iselin looks into the glass-covered portrait of the former president, significantly one who was assassinated, seeing his own reflected image, which symbolizes the threat to the country for whom the great president sacrificed himself to preserve. The bust of Lincoln sits in the Iselin study, desecrated by the occupants who participate in the worse type of betrayal – treason. At the costume party, Iselin dresses up like Lincoln, turning the great man into a caricature as Iselin dances the limbo (how low can we go to have this man in a high office?). A particularly satiric, and scary image is the one of this faux Lincoln digging into a caviar representation of the American flag, desecrating the symbol of the country’s unity and history, and literally devouring it. At the same time, he hides his true allegiance by saying of the caviar that it’s not Russian.

When Raymond returns to his mother’s home to stop Iselin from trying to get Senator Jordan impeached and tried for treason, Mrs. Iselin, in an ironic act of retribution, uses Jocelyn’s Queen of Diamonds costume to turn Raymond away from his wife by exerting her power over Raymond. Because Jordan is a threat to her husband, she orders Raymond to kill the senator. Again, the killing takes place in a place of presumed security, Jordan’s home, and even he, in the relaxed clothing consisting of pajamas and a robe, is not aware of the imminent threat. The bullet goes through a carton of milk he is holding, its pristine, white liquid ironically mixing with the betrayed blood of his wound. But, the ultimate horror occurs when Jocelyn appears, and according to Lo’s orders, Raymond shoots her as a witness. Here, love does not conquer all. When Marco brings a newspaper into his home with the headlines informing the reader of the deaths, the camera angles are askew, showing how the world has been knocked off-balance. Despite no evidence, Marco knows Raymond is the killer, and feels guilty for giving Jocelyn the time before acting to bring Raymond in.

Raymond, his subconscious guilt attacking his programming after reading about the deaths of Jordan and Jocelyn, calls Marco. The Major visits him in a small rented room just across from the convention center. Marco shows up with a deck filled with the Queen of Diamonds face cards. He finds out the whole scheme from Raymond, but does not yet know his true mission. Marco basically tells him that his brainwashing is over, that he is not to play any more solitaire, and that he should call Marco when he knows what the end game is. Raymond gets a call, tells Marco it’s from his “American operative,” and then says, “Yes, Mother,” and leaves to meet her. Marco’s eyes widen in surprise at the depth of the manipulation. We also learn that Iselin has won the vice-presidential nomination with Senator Jordan eliminated as an impediment.

Mrs. Iselin reveals Raymond’s purpose in the plan. He is to kill the party’s presidential nominee during his acceptance speech, so that Iselin can give a speech, worked on for years in Russia, and they will sweep into office with powers granted to them to protect the country “that will make martial law seem like anarchy.” The question then arises, who should we most be on alert against, the obvious foreign enemy, or the domestic one who only pretends to know what’s best for the country? But, Raymond’s mother is planning a betrayal of her own. She asked for “a killer from a world full of killers,” but they chose her son because according to her, “they thought it would bind me closer to them.” But, she says when she takes power, “they will be pulled down and ground into the dirt for what they did to you. And what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me.” Her depraved influence on Raymond comes to the surface as she seals her promise with an incestuous kiss on his lips. Be afraid, be very afraid.

In another bit of disguise to falsely reassure others of the absence of a threat, Raymond dresses up as a priest. He heads to a small booth near the ceiling of the hall, and assembles a rifle that Chunjin provided him. Marco, sweating profusely, as he does throughout the film emphasizing the tension he is under, waits for the call from Raymond that does not come. On the television, we see a couple of convention delegates wearing the Lincoln beard, implying that Iselin’s political poison is going viral, and who appear as harbingers of an assassination. Marco decides to go to the convention to stop Raymond. He sees the booth lit up and rushes to it. Raymond, instead of killing the nominee, shoots Iselin and his mother. He puts on the medal of honor, and as Ben breaks into the booth, says that only he could have stopped them. He turns the rifle on himself, and commits suicide.

The film ends with Marco reading about men who earned the Medal of Honor. He delivers a testimony to Raymond, whose only audience consists of Rosie and himself. The unlikable soldier who had his soul stolen, the phony hero, redeemed himself by earning his medal, saving his country from tyranny. Raymond was supposed to shoot the nominee right after he said that he would give up “my life before my liberty.” If Raymond would have killed him, he would have lost his life, and the country would have forfeited its freedom. But, in the end, Raymond sacrificed his life to preserve his country’s liberty. But, this is a sad, frightening tale. Marco’s last words are “Hell. Hell,” which is where he, and perhaps, us, feel, in horrible times, we reside.

The next film is Unforgiven.