94
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAngela Lansbury's frighteningly in-check performance is alone worth the trip.
- 100Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumA veritable salad of mixed genres and emotional textures, this exciting black-and-white cold war thriller runs more than two hours and never flags for an instant...A powerful experience, alternately corrosive with dark parodic humor, suspenseful, moving, and terrifying.
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertHere is a movie that was made more than 25 years ago, and it feels as if it were made yesterday. Not a moment of The Manchurian Candidate lacks edge and tension and a cynical spin. [Re-release]
- 100EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanA dazzling spy thriller that’s still amazing.
- 100Los Angeles TimesSheila BensonLos Angeles TimesSheila BensonThe Manchurian Candidate proves that its fascination is intact. [12 Jan 1998, p.C1; Re-Release]
- 100The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelIt may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood. (As quoted by Roger Ebert)
- 91Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyThis gonzo satiric thriller is a riveting portrait of early-60's paranoia. [15 Nov 1996, p.82]
- 90TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissThe performances are daring and assured, especially Lansbury's holy terror of Momism and Harvey's snide, pathetic pawn, brainwashed by both KGB AND CIA. [21 March 1988, p.84]
- 70Film ThreatFilm ThreatComplaints? Sure, I had a few: The liberal use of insta-sweat whenever the character in question is experiencing tension, Harvey's aforementioned accent, one over-used shot composition that places the action at a great distance with a giant-headed supporting actor in the extreme foreground. [Re-release]
- 60The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe film is so artfully contrived, the plot so interestingly started, the dialogue so racy and sharp, and John Frankenheimer's direction so exciting in the style of Orson Welles when he was making Citizen Kane and other pictures that the fascination of it is strong. So many fine cinematic touches and action details pop up that one keeps wishing the subject would develop into something more than it does.