Aside from those women I loved this movie. My favorite part was when Senator Iselin wanted just one number of how many communists were KNOWN to be in the defense department and Lansbury picks 57 off the Ketchup bottle.
I bet Dr. Freud would have a field day with this movie...Mommy as the puppet master. Raymond hates his mother and stepfather. I feel like there is a little bit of Hamlet in this movie.
Does hypnotism really work like that? Can Ben really break the hold the over Raymond by showing him 52 red queens? I want to know why Raymond focuses the gun on the Presidential Candidate instead of his mother if he was going to kill mom and dad, is it to show the uncertainty of loyalties and the fear that no matter how hard you try you cannot break a governments control over the minds of its victims?
The fear of communism is played off like a joke...how many known communists Senator Iselin? The real fear of communism isn't there, the fact that being accused of communism would ruin your life and that of everyone you know isn't there.
Well, hypnotism doesn't really work that way, and it didn't really work all that well in the movie either. But people really did believe in brainwashing and mind control back then--it's since been debunked, but some people still believe in it.
ReplyDeleteI'd have liked to see you try a Freudian reading with this. Some of it's obvious, but some of it less so.
What did you think of Rosie's odd behavior? Some people think that she was mind-controlling Shaw, and was his 'operator.'
As far as the whole targeting the president and then turning and shooting his parents, I think that just has to do with creating suspense. I thought the same thing and saw it as just a way for the filmmakers to build tension and drama. I think it has everything to do with making us think that Shaw is not fully cured and keeping us on the edge of our seats. I could be wrong but I don’t think there has to be any deeper meaning to it.
ReplyDeleteI’m very interested in figuring out the exact role that Rosie plays in the film. As professor McRae mentioned, she was such an odd character and there was a lot of tension and awkwardness between her and Marco. One thing that really stuck out to me that seemed a lot like mind control was when she kept repeating her address to Marco. Her whole character seemed very cryptic to me.
If she was an operator don't you think she would have brought Marco under the good doctor's ministrations so that he wouldn't remember anymore. But you are right about her repeating her number, she seemed way too forward
ReplyDeletebut then again all the women were forward in their approach to men and getting what they wanted.
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