: Study Questions: Week Three

The Decline of the Cold War Political Consensus.

Catch 22 (1970)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962).

Cold War Values Satirized

Unlike Rebel Without a Cause and Peyton Place, the films we will examine this week are explicitly political, and the politics is shaped by the Cold War. Both John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate and Mike Nichols' Catch-22 were reactions to an increasing skepticism about the influence of the Cold War (and the hot war in Vietnam that was triggered by the Cold War) on American society. Although Catch-22 is set in World War two, its treatment of military systems is more in the mood of the late 1960s when the disasters on Southeast Asian battlefields encouraged an increasingly vocal anti-war movement in the United States.

The Manchurian Candidate is based on the experience of American prisoners of war in Korea. Evidence that they had collaborated with their captors led many to believe they had been the victims of "brainwashing," which transformed them into agents of an international conspiracy. Frankenheimer's film offers a very different interpretation of the anti-Communist crusade inspired by the Cold War. The crusaders are not only treated satirically, they are also equated with their communist enemies. Even the traditional American values which they hypocritically embrace seem to turn destructive. During the 1960s, the Dream had soured, leaving the country divided politically and culturally.

1. One of The Manchurian Candidate's dominant motifs, the Queen of Diamonds, appears first in the opening credits. How does it identify the film's arch villain(ess) and link the film's psycho-sexual and political themes?

2. During the homecoming sequence, Raymond Shaw's (Laurence Harvey) mother (Angela Lansbury) refers to him and to her husband (James Gregory) as "my two little boys," for whom she wants only the best. Given her secret life and her her imperious character, what does her comment reveal about her view of men? Why is Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish) also linked to the Queen?

3. The film's hero (Frank Sinatra) is named Bennett Marco. How does his name reflect the social assimilation of ethnic characters? Consider how he got his first name as well as the ethnic echoes of his family name.

4. In what ways does the dream that haunts Major Marco and a former corporal, Al Melvin (James Edwards), constitute the ideological and thematic center of the film? To be more specific, why do the communist brainwashers become transformed into a group of well-to-do, motherly American women attending a suburban garden club meeting. Why do they reflect the race of the dreamer?

5. What political figure of the 1950s is satirized in the figure of Senator Iseland? What irony is evident in his going to a costume party as President Lincoln? Why does a character claim that if the Senator "were a paid Soviet agent, he could not do more harm [to his country] than he is right now"?

6. Why, does the film indicate, is Shaw so unlovable? Why does he sneer at the Army, at TV, at Christmas, and at family life? Why, in short, does he hate the American Dream?

7. When Shaw saves Jocelyn Jordan, there is a reference to her father's fear of snakes as "very Freudian." In what ways might the entire film be seen as "very Freudian"?

8. Throughout the film, flags, eagles, and busts of national heroes are prominent in various settings, from the picture of General Douglas MacArthur in a Korean brothel to the bust of Lincoln in the room where Shaw's mother gives him his final assignment? What is their symbolic significance, and how to they serve as ironic comments on their settings?

9. How is the relationship between Marco and Rosie Cheyney (Janet Leigh) offered as a contrast to the other couples in the film? How do they serve to redeem the American Dream?

10. Describe a few of the reasons why The Manchurian Candidate might be regarded as the antithesis of The Caine Mutiny?

11. How do the contrasting fates of the lovers in Rebel Without a Cause (Jim and Judy) and in this film (Raymond and Jocelyn) reflect increasing disillusionment with the promise of love and marriage?

12. The film opens in Korea during 1952. In what ways is the Korean War an appropriate setting for a film dealing with political betrayal, deep social division at home, and the dark underside of the American Dream? Consider the nature of the enemy, the way the War was concluded, and the political conflicts within the United States.

13. How does the opening sequence of Catch-22 (behind the credits) used to satirize earlier films about World War II and set the the of the film?

14. What failings of the military as an institution are embodied in these three characters: Col. Cathcart, Col. Korn, and Gen, Dreedle)?

15. What is the symbolic significance of Snowden the wounded gunner. How does the gradual discovery of his wound (in a series of flashbacks) serve to unify the film and point up one of its central themes?

16. In what ways can the disenchantment with heroes and heroism in Catch-22 be contrasted with The Caine Mutiny?

17. The targets of the film's satire includes more than the military and war. How does the portrait of Milo Minderbinder satirize free market capitalism and the corporate culture which dominated post-World-Two American culture?

18. Who is the "soldier in white, and how does he become a symbol of the predicament facing Yossarian?

19. What is the thematic significance of Yossarian's trip through Naples at night? How does Arfie's crime fit into the other street scenes Yossarian observes?

20. How does the squadron's attack on its own airfield exemplify the insane logic which can be found in the meaning of "catch-22"?

21. Is Chaplin Tapman to be taken a a basically good (if naive) character, or does he exemplify the powerlessness of religion in modern society?

22. Look carefully at the final shot of the film as the camera climbs into the sky to present Yosarrian alone in his small raft on a great expanse of ocean. Does the shot suggest that Yosarrian will make it to Sweden or not? To put the question another way, is the ending optimistic or ironic?