Recall Simone Weil's essay "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force," in which Weil defines force as "that x that turns anybody who is subjected to it into a thing" (Humanities Core Reader 27). For Weil, "the true hero, the true subject, the center of the Iliad, is force. Force employed by man, force that enslaves man, force before which man's flesh shrinks away" (27). The film The Manchurian Candidate takes up this subject, capturing the physical subjection of its characters to a force (or to forces) not their own. Using the formal components of film, both visual and aural, it poses many of the questions about human agency that we have considered in The Iliad and other texts so far this year.
Analyze how The Manchurian Candidate uses film techniques (such as mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing and sound) to make an argument about force. What account does the film offer of the possibilities and limits of human agency during the Cold War?
This paper should be between 5-6 pages and will be worth 30% of your grade. You will be required to integrate an academic, secondary source into your essay.
