Parallelism: Manchurian Candidate and Homeland
Although The Manchurian Candidate and Homeland are two different pieces of film, there can be parallels drawn from each. One of the main comparison’s between The Manchurian Candidate and Homeland is the connection between Raymond Shaw and Nicholas Brody, in the way that they are disconnected from the society around them, both mentally and physically. The Cold War and War on Terror both present us with different ways of dealing with possible threats to our society. Both Nicholas Brody and Raymond Shaw returned from war as war heroes, that were respected and looked up by the society they were a part of. When Brody returned the first thing he asked for was his family and when he met them the connection he once had with his children and wife wasn’t there anymore. This same perspective is represented in Raymond’s family, with his mother and step- father. There was no emotional happiness or gratitude that their son had come back home after so long. Rather Raymond’s parents expressed a clearly fake and un-genuine attachment to him. Their primary focus was just using Raymond as a pawn to advance their own power, they didn’t have any real emotion connection to him otherwise.
On a bigger level when both individuals returned, the countries and governments they were a part of didn’t care about their well- being. The main concern they had was if they had told their enemies any information or if they had been betrayed. When Raymond Shaw returns he’s automatically questioned by the army, which is understandable, but they don’t take account what being captured may have done to him. Same thing happened to Brody when he was found and returned, he was repeated questioned by Carrie, but there was no mention about the condition he was left in. The government didn’t care about the mental or physical health of individuals and as a result they are left to adapt in a society by themselves.
A key difference between the Cold War and War on Terror was who was involved and the reasons behind the wars. The Cold War was waged in an attempt to stop the spread of Communism and the War on Terror was started by a terrorist attack from Afghanistan. The Cold War involved South Vietnam, Korean, and the Soviet Union with the United States, where as the War on Terror was between the United States, Iraq and Afghanistan.
