122. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Directed By Frank Capra

Synopsis

Mr. Smith becomes a senator because he is a rube and therefore easily controllable... Well, he is a rube but not easily controllable and he fights the power by filibustering.

Review

Frank Capra is the king of the feel good film, and both here and in Mr. Deeds he manages to marry the feel good film with the very good political point film. Mr. Smith is a film about the Rupert Murdochs of this world and their pernicious effect on society. The bad guy in this film is not really the corrupted senator, which is just another victim, but the guy who owns all the land as well as the newspapers and has senators in his pocket.The bad guy is the guy who controls the media for his own political and economic games, filtering what the public gets to know and shaping popular opinion for his own petty ends.

The film is unfortunately as relevant today as it was in 1939, the same characters still exist even though they might have changed name and their tactics - Murdoch probably never ordered a hit on children. Mr. Smith on the other hand is what we wish all politicians could be, wide-eyed, enthusiastic and with a genuine belief in a better world.

One of the saddest moments of the film comes when Mr. Smith has the American Dream shattered by the corrupt politicians, when he sits crying on his suitcases on the Lincoln memorial. But it all ends well after a particularly stunning performance by the always excellent Jimmy Stewart, who is only second to Cary Grant for actors in the late 1930's. So something you really need to get, films aren't often uplifting, funny and make good political points all at the same time, but this one does. So get it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

When it was first released, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was attacked by the Washington press, and politicians in the U.S. Congress, as anti-American and pro-Communist for its portrayal of corruption in the American government.

The film was banned in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Falangist Spain. According to Capra, the film was also dubbed in certain European countries to alter the message of the film so it conformed with official ideology.

When a ban on American films was imposed in German-occupied France in 1942, some theatres chose to show Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as the last movie before the ban went into effect. One theatre owner in Paris reportedly screened the film nonstop for thirty days after the ban.


The end of the filibuster: