Gaudy, surreal, inexplicable, sensible.

| Dec 7, 2022

Its unreal characters [are] essentially relevant to ourselves in the Cold War, its extravagant fears for the future rooted logically in the recent past.

| Mar 6, 2020

The direction and acting are good, so interest is maintained. Frankeheimer's handling of the early sequences, in which he attempts and succeeds in creating on film the corruption of the mind, is imaginative filmmaking.

| Mar 1, 2018

Don't bother with Jonathan Demme's toothless 2004 remake; the rereleased classic cold war thriller from 1962 by John Frankenheimer packs a harder punch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2010

powerful experience, alternately corrosive with dark parodic humor, suspenseful, moving, and terrifying.

| May 7, 2008

Every once in a rare while a film comes along that works in all departments, with story, production and performance so well blended that the end effect is one of nearly complete satisfaction. Such is The Manchurian Candidate.

| May 7, 2008

A masterpiece.

| Jun 24, 2006

The Manchurian Candidate pops up with a rash supposition that could serve to scare some viewers half to death -- that is, if they should be dupes enough to believe it, which we solemnly trust they won't.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 20, 2003

Angela Lansbury's frighteningly in-check performance is alone worth the trip.

| Mar 10, 2003

This genuinely frightening and daring film blew holes in the political complacency of post-war American cinema.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2001

Its story of Cold War intrigue, murky East-West dealings, assassination, brainwashing -- and the idea of a glorified cue-card reader playing president -- resonates today like never before.

| Jan 1, 2000

Not a moment of The Manchurian Candidate lacks edge and tension and a cynical spin.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Has an excoriating, destabilizing wit that seems as knowingly sophisticated today as it must have then.

| Jan 1, 2000

A dazzling spy thriller that's still amazing.

| Jan 1, 2000