The obsession and enthusiasm for mysterious and supernatural events, I think, is the childhood memory of many boys. UFOs, aliens, Mayan civilization...As long as you come into contact with these magical knowledge, it's like being fascinated. At that time, we always believed that the US government must have concealed news about aliens. The nine-season American drama "X-Files" not only shadowed countless people's childhood, but also strengthened the existence of that conspiracy theory. Just like the line in the play said: "i want to believe!". The pursuit of truth has never been so strong!
In the same way, I was such a fan of mysterious events in my childhood. I always look up at the sky boredly when I walk down the street. I hope to find the UFO I want in a sky with nothing. To escape from the real existence is extremely tempting for imaginative children. I am glad that I grew up from such an imaginative childhood.
In addition to the American drama "X File" mentioned above, of course there are other books and movies like "UFO Exploration" and "Mystery" that accompanied my growth. In fact, for me now, they are all textbooks that have meaning. They taught me to be curious about the world, every window must be opened to see. This is more beneficial than the teacher teaching you how to learn rigid knowledge in a regular manner. I learned to think about unsolved mysteries and also made me doubt everything that seemed normal. The movie "Manchurian Candidate" gave me such an inspiration.
My first look at "Manchurian Candidate" should be when I was in the third year of junior high school. I remember that when it was broadcast on the movie channel, it was not a literal translation but the translation of "The Bourneman". When 15-year-old children watch this movie, they are somewhat substituted from the perspective of science fiction films. Because the technical ability to control people's minds in the film seemed a bit detached from reality to me at the time. But now think about it, hypnosis can also control people's hearts. However, it is hard to say that it is impossible to transform the human brain from the brain cells to be controlled by the outside world. This is just my personal guess, because the US military, which has the world's top technology, does not know how much technology is beyond the imagination of today's human beings. Therefore, in terms of authenticity, it is very demanding to require the film to be true to the full details of technology in terms of technology. Everything is real, so how can the drama unfold?
The significance of authenticity and drama in a movie seems to be two extremely contradictory directions most of the time. In my opinion, to judge a good movie, first of all, it cannot be based on a unified standard evaluation. Because science fiction films should have more freedom in authenticity than ordinary drama films. You can't say that "A Space Odyssey 2001" is not real enough (no matter the time when the film was filmed, or the level of human technology in 2001), even if the plot is like a space opera, it still cannot be called a classic movie history, right? Of course, it depends on the standards of personal likes and dislikes. It is difficult for you to ask a person who criticizes "Transformers" for not being true enough and not from the perspective of the plot to accept a set of completely different standards. The question is, when evaluating the authenticity of the "Manchurian Candidate" movie, should we judge it by the standards of science fiction films or drama films?
The reason why we have to make this problem clear is because many netizens complained about the fact that the movie was not true enough. Seeing these comments, I feel that it is slightly unfair. When evaluating the authenticity of "Manchurian Candidate", how should we evaluate it? I think it should be clear if it is a science fiction film. Let's take a look at the explanation on Wikipedia: Science fiction movies are a category of movies that use science fiction as the subject matter. To be precise, a science fiction movie is a movie based on a fantasy scene or hypothesis based on science to develop a narrative. The scientific theories used in science fiction movies are not necessarily accepted by the mainstream scientific community, such as alien life, alien planets, superpowers, or time travel, etc. First of all, science fiction movies are based on scientific fantasy scenarios or assumptions. The science and technology used in the film to control people's minds has not come true to this day, I think. Although the current so-called hypnosis can control the human heart in a short period of time, it is far from the technological breakthrough shown in the movie. It can transform the human brain at the level of brain cells to delete memory and control the human heart (in the movie, this The technology is not perfect. Soldiers who have undergone brain surgery will dream and recall the real scene, which provides the protagonist denzal with the motivation to pursue the truth, so the story can happen). Even if it is achieved, it will not even be announced. Because such technology can only be developed and used by the US government or the military. Of course, they will not do anything good. The film is a story based on a conspiracy that the military masters such a terrible reality that does not exist (or exists, but we don’t know) technology. Therefore, speculation on the rationality of the film must be based on its assumptions. That is that technology does not exist in reality. Therefore, "Manchurian Candidate" is a drama with a suspenseful and even thrilling plot. But when speculating on the authenticity of a film, you should classify it as a science fiction film.
In fact, why it is difficult for such a science fiction film to be regarded as a science fiction film is that it does not have the universal signs or standards of ordinary science fiction films. No robots in "Artificial Intelligence", no aliens in "ET", no spaceships in "Star Wars", and no crossings in "Back to the Future"...not even "Apes" The orangutan in "Rise". Audiences who are accustomed to watching these Hollywood science fiction films will naturally accept the signs given by Hollywood as the criteria for judging a science fiction film. The things that are used to conform to the tastes of people with inertial thinking. So science fiction movies will only appear more and more. Until a movie like "Manchurian Candidate" appears one day, they will naturally find it difficult to classify it as a science fiction film because the military in the movie is not an evil technology developed with aliens. Therefore, in my opinion, if it is classified as a science fiction movie, it can only be classified as a non-mainstream science fiction movie.
Although "Manchurian Candidate" is a non-mainstream science fiction movie, I prefer to treat it as a suspense movie from the perspective of a feature film. Because as a suspense movie, it is undoubtedly more successful. Suspense movies always give one or several mysteries, and the solution of this mystery becomes one or the main core of the story. The suspenseful mystery in "Manchurian Candidate" is the core of the main story, and of course it is a suspenseful movie. How can we evaluate whether a suspense movie is good or not? I think it lies in packaging this mystery, but the process of uncovering the mystery is terrifying, and the final answer is convincing. There are actually two main mysteries in the film. At the beginning of the film is the description of the combat mission. Of course, the most important thing is the rescue operation led by Raymond. The plot is not shown. This constitutes the main suspense of half of the film. Until Denzal actively found Raymond and bit out the identification setting on his back, and until the plot of Denzel's dream was fully revealed, the mystery was basically solved. The second mystery in the film is whether denzal and the FBI can successfully undermine the military's conspiracy. The design and uncovering of these two mysteries are very interesting and ingenious. The steady narrative rhythm of the film undoubtedly adds the charm of the story to the film. The setting of each character is also quite meaningful, and does not exist for no reason. For example, some seemingly supporting roles may not even understand the director's intentions without thinking. For example, the mysterious old man and the FBI female undercover agent. Perhaps many people would think that the mysterious old man is a military person, but in fact, the FBI female undercover agent is also a military undercover agent. The female undercover rosie does not represent the righteous role of the US government in destroying the military's conspiracy. She looks righteous, but she is not. She is also a key figure in whether the audience understands the plot. In fact, the military has realized that the Manchurian Group's technology has not reached the point of perfect control of people's hearts. Therefore, when the conspiracy has not been completely exposed, it wants to abandon this plan and directly take the Manchurian Group off the water to replace the military's guilt. By the way, the puppet Lei Meng and his political family were also destroyed. And Rosie was sent by the military to watch Denzel's undercover, silently monitor him by his side, and even help him seek the truth. This can be seen from some details. For example, Denzel woke up after receiving electrotherapy from the old man and went straight to Rosie's side. And Rosie’s first sentence is "do you go blank on me again?" This is the same as what the evil scientist said to Raymond in the secret laboratory.
Speaking of these, I have to say that "Manchurian Candidate" as a political film is also very ironic. The same thing with "X-Files" is that they are both talking about a conspiracy theory related to the US government. The difference is that "X-Files" is hardly offensive in terms of political satire, and at most only talks about the lack of openness and transparency of government information. When the audience is watching this American TV show, they are only attracted by the monsters in each episode. As for whether the US government really has any alien corpses, they can only be happy about it. Because most rational people still believe in the relationship between science fiction and reality, sometimes very close, but most of the time far away. We can't attack the evil regime of American imperialism with things that we half believe or not or even use for joy. Of course, this is not the intention of "X Files". But the intention of "Manchurian Candidate" is obvious. In this age of conspiracy theories, I think most people may believe in the conspiracy of the Rothschilds and Freemasonry. Because it is too far away, it has nothing to do with me, but I believe it. But when the real conspiracy theory movie comes out, maybe most people still believe that the conspiracy theory in the movie is still in the movie.
It has to be said that "Manchurian Candidate" is a remake of an old movie. In fact, the original work is a novel. The location of the story is on the Korean battlefield. The characters are actually brainwashed in Manchuria and eventually become political killers controlled by the Soviet Union. The movie was released in 1962, and Kennedy was assassinated the following year. If you talk about political satire films, most of them are based on what has happened. But predicted in advance and ironically, this is really rare. Therefore, the film was not screened for ten years after 1963. However, the 2004 remake has made many adaptations compared to the original. One of the most significant adaptations was the replacement of the villain from the Soviet camp during the Cold War to the U.S. military during the Gulf War. This is of course also in response to the needs of the times, but it has also changed the theme of the work to some extent. Mainly in political satire, it is no longer an evil description of how to persecute the Western free world in every possible way against the hostile camp of the Cold War. Instead, it turns to the fact that American political power is manipulated and manipulated by collusion between the military and political groups, and the people cannot be the masters of the country Deeply complain. This is also the time when the film was released, right after the 9/11 incident, when the United States used counter-terrorism to increase government control measures. What the movie wants to express is naturally very clear. Although this story is a fantasy, all the fables have reality projections. The military wants to expand the war through counter-terrorism, and the arms companies also want to sell more weapons through the expansion of the war. The political family seeks a position in the presidential election, so they collude and use high-tech means to control the hearts of the people and plan a conspiracy to elect a puppet-like president. candidate. Such political fables are extremely dark. Human control of power has never reached such a terrible level. That is-you don't know anything, but I control everything.
As I said at the beginning, when you believe in conspiracy theories, you must be in a dream. But when you don't believe in conspiracy theories, the Prism Gate has already happened. For them, you know nothing; for you, they know everything. At this moment, you have to wonder if it is in a dream.
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