This was a very fascinatingly crafted political thriller from John Frankenheimer, which turned out to be something I wasn’t really expecting. For some reason I was expecting a more serious and more ‘conventional’ thriller, even though the word ‘brainwashed’ is used in the description. I found this film to be more of an experimental sci-fi-esque political thriller, with all the brainwashing and mind-control ideas that were so prevalent in the plot. I did really enjoy all of these out of the ordinary concepts and thought they nicely played into the political storyline, maybe Frankenheimer wanted to create some sort of right-wing political satire on the communist state brainwashing Americans, although this idea could be disproved by the penultimate scene. Saying this I think the film is some sort of a satire, maybe I’ve just been a bit ignorant in my initial judgement. The technical and cinematic aspects of this film were superb, I loved the almost noir-like atmosphere within the sharp black and white photography and the Bea compositions, I also found the editing to be very pleasing in its often fast pace; that brainwashing scene was so cleverly done, I adored it. I was also surprised by Frank Sinatra’s performance due to my pretty low expectations of his acting skills, he was convincing and pretty compelling. Laurence Harvey’s performance was exceptional as the miserable colonel, it’s such a shame he died only 10 years after this film’s release, I wonder if he would’ve been a more recognisable figure in Hollywood. Overall this was a terrific political (sci-fi) thriller that stayed engaging throughout and surprised me with its brilliant satirical ideas.
This was a very fascinatingly crafted political thriller from John Frankenheimer, which turned out to be something I wasn’t really expecting. For some reason I was expecting a more serious and more ‘conventional’ thriller, even though the word ‘brainwashed’ is used in the description. I found this film to be more of an experimental sci-fi-esque political thriller, with all the brainwashing and mind-control ideas that were so prevalent in the plot. I did really enjoy all of these out of the ordinary concepts and thought they nicely played into the political storyline, maybe Frankenheimer wanted to create some sort of right-wing political satire on the communist state brainwashing Americans, although this idea could be disproved by the penultimate scene. Saying this I think the film is some sort of a satire, maybe I’ve just been a bit ignorant in my initial judgement. The technical and cinematic aspects of this film were superb, I loved the almost noir-like atmosphere within the sharp black and white photography and the Bea compositions, I also found the editing to be very pleasing in its often fast pace; that brainwashing scene was so cleverly done, I adored it. I was also surprised by Frank Sinatra’s performance due to my pretty low expectations of his acting skills, he was convincing and pretty compelling. Laurence Harvey’s performance was exceptional as the miserable colonel, it’s such a shame he died only 10 years after this film’s release, I wonder if he would’ve been a more recognisable figure in Hollywood. Overall this was a terrific political (sci-fi) thriller that stayed engaging throughout and surprised me with its brilliant satirical ideas.
