MovieChat Forums > The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Discussion > Soviet/Communist/Isel in plot was cr...

Soviet/Communist/Isel in plot was crazy + wouldn't have worked

posted 16 years ago by Altho73
20 replies | jump to latest

The Soviet/communist/Iselin plot was crazy and wouldn't have worked even if the brainwashed medal of honor winner, Raymond Shaw had succeeded in assassinating the President of the United States.

The intention of the C.B's (including Raymond's nutjob mother) was that once the President had been assassinated, right wing Republican Vice Presidential candidate (and nutjob) John Iselin would step forward make a rousing speech about how the C.B's and the Soviet Union had been responsible and whip up a frenzy of right wing patriotism that would sweep the right wing Iselin into an overwhelming victory as President.

But look at what happened in real life - a year after this movie was released the President of the United States WAS assassinated and by a 'commie with links to the Soviet Union as well'!!!!!!!!! The public DID NOT then overwhelmingly vote in the very conservative, right wing, anti-communist Barry Goldwater. Quite the opposite, Democrat Lyndon Johnson (with his socialist 'Great Society') was elected President with an overwhelming majority (486 - 52)

Going back to the movie - the American public would have listened to the John Iselin candidate for about 30 seconds, then the vast majority would have thought,
'Who the hell is this nutjob??? Let's vote for Lyndon Johnson instead'
Then they would have gone to the polling booths and cast their votes for 'Landslide Lyndon'.

[–] LightningLad 16 years ago

Yes, it is quite a flaw that the movie didn't predict the future with 100% accuracy. I'm never going to watch it again.

But seriously, key is that the presidential candidate here was right wing, and JFK was left wing. As you said, the democrats were re-elected, which suggests that sympathy will lie with the party whose leader has been assassinated. Which actually does make the plot workable.

And if the plot really wouldn't have worked? Well, the Iselins still needed their skulls aired out.

[–] Altho73 16 years ago

The public re-elected Lyndon Johnson in 1964 because he appeared to be the level headed candidate, the voice of calm and reason,
('I will not send American boys 8 or 10,000 miles away to fight a war that Asian boys ought to be fightin' for themselves')

Goldwater on the other hand sounded like a hawk (but he wasn't a nutjob like Iselin), the public reckoned that if elected he's bomb North Vietnam and send hundreds of thousands of US troops to fight in South Vietnam.

So they voted in Lyndon Johnson who then bombed North Vietnam and sent hundreds of thousands of US troops into South Vietnam.

[–] sourpussc 16 years ago

they weren't running against each other to be president, they were members of the same party, running for the nomination to be the presidential candidate...the plan probably would have worked to that end (if the party was already favoured to win)...

what if the hokey pokey really IS what it's all about?

[–] tracyfigueira 16 years ago

The Manchurian Candidate is taking place in the 1950s, not 1963, when the movie was made. The climate was different.

[–] mattaki 14 years ago

kennedy was left wing? left wing about what? facing the commies down in berlin and cuba? just because he didn't let the lunatic curtis le may talk him into invading cuba and starting world war iii doesn't mean he's left wing - it just means he had a brain.

speaking of which, since the fall of the berlin wall, it came out that not only had the soviets put nukes on missiles on the island, but the soviet units protecting the cuban beachheads were armed with tactical nukes as well. the american invasion force would've gone up in a puff of radioactive smoke, as would've the eastern seaboard and eastern europe. way to go, cowboy!

[–] gevansmd 13 years ago

We also found out they never actually removed the weapons until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[–] tracyfigueira 16 years ago

Sure it was crazy, but so were some of the CIA's plots to get rid of Castro (dusting his cigars with LSD, etc.) People in the intelligence community don't think like the rest of us.

[–] wolfsblood66210 15 years ago

Also can you imagine if this had happened in real life how the conspiracy theorists would have had a field day studying the films of the convention prior to the assassination? The lip readers who would have been able to make out Mrs. Iselin's comment to her obviously worried husband "Don't worry, he's never missed a shot in his life."? I don't think they'd have gotten away with it for long.

[–] blktoptrvl 15 years ago

I think the point was that the "hero" would step in and whip up the crowd and the hero's cause would win - whatever cause he called for - not because it was a far right wing call out.

[–] movieghoul 15 years ago

IMO the biggest flaw was the fact that the assasination would have closely followed the presumably unsolved assasination of Sen. Jordan.

[–] movieghoul 15 years ago

A better analogy was the election of Richard Nixon after the RFK assasination.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gevansmd 13 years ago

Lyndon Johnson was the Manchurian candidate in real life. :) Actually, he was a nut job who drove the Secret Service crazy.

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 12 years ago

First, Johnson tried to dampen the anti-Soviet furor that could have come about after JFK's assassination, rather than fanning the flames. Second, Johnson was a hard-core anti-Communist who prosecuted a bloody war in Vietnam on a level we can't even comprehend today.,just to contain communism.

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