Meet John Doe: Radical Sentimentality

Frank Capra is the kind of director who I think is often misunderstood. His films are sometimes misrepresented as too sweet, and sentimental with no real hard edge to it. One reviewer described his films as "Film Blanc" the opposite to film noir, which pretty much is defined as no darkness and only light, anyone who thinks Frank Capra didn't have a dark side obviously has never really looked at his films. While I think it's true Frank Capra had an optimistic point of view to the world, it can be argued he was very cynical about it as well.

Capra's under appreciated "Meet John Doe" may very well be his most cynical film he ever made, as well as his most political. For anyone who might be confused about Capra's ideals, "Meet John Doe" makes them bluntly clear.

One thing you could say about Capra is the man was not subtle about the point he wanted to get across. The opening shot of "Meet John Doe" shows a man demolishing a "Free Press" sign outside a newspaper building. We find out this certain newspaper has been bought by a big oil tycoon named D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold). The first thing we see happen in the building is the sight of employees getting sacked rather coldly. One such person is columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) who won't take her getting fired lying down. She decides to write a phony letter to the editor that will cause a media sensation. The letter is from an anonymous John Doe who writes that he is so fed up with the state of the society and how people are treated that as a form of protest he will commit suicide by jumping off a government building on Christmas Eve.

As Ann predicted, the letter causes an uproar with people becoming obsessed with who the mysterious John Doe really is. After Ann confesses to her boss that the letter was a fake, she convinces him that they can string along the story longer to get a bigger circulation, all they have to do is find someone to pose as John Doe. Enter the perfect man for the job, an ex-baseball player named John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) who is down on his luck looking for money to get an operation on his arm so he could play ball again. In the beginning it's a win win situation for all involved, Ann gets to keep her job, John gets his arm fixed, and the paper gets its circulation.

Things start to get complicated when John is asked to make a radio speech which completely turns the tables on the whole ball game. After the inspiring speech, John becomes a folk hero to millions. Soon "John Doe Clubs" start sprouting around the country based on the ideas and principles John stands for. It isn't soon after this frenzy, that D.B. Norton decides to use the John Doe movement for his own political gain.

What gets me about this movie, and what makes it topical for its time and for today is how radical a message Capra seems to be saying. The whole message in the John Doe movement can be interpreted as people rising up against political parties and corporate organizations and taking control of their own happiness. Capra adds doses of the golden rule such as "love thy neighbor" and "The Meek shall inherit the Earth" I think to make his message seem a little less harsh, but if you look at what he's really saying, it's a very anti-government stance. There are other targets Capra goes after such as the media and how they seem to be only interested more in a story that sells papers and less about the facts, and then there is the most damning scene when John Doe is revealed as a fraud and the hypocrisy shown by the John Doe club members. What started out as an idealistic pursuit becomes its own victim of mob mentality.

Like most of Capra's great works, there must be darkness before there can be light, and the film is concluded somewhat controversially in that fashion. John in a way goes through his own Crucifixion only to be reborn again in the people's minds. It is said Capra never could figure out how to end the film, and to some it doesn't seem to work, but for me I think it does, since it leaves on an optimistic note, which is the only way Capra could end a film, and also states clearly probably better than any of his other films what exactly his beliefs are. Perhaps the message is hard to swallow in this day and age, but at least Capra doesn't make it easy to come to this conclusion. Everyone in this film from the heroes and villains are asked to believe in something, and Capra makes them all very human in that respect. Perhaps we don't have to believe that a John Doe movement is possible, but what makes this film work is Capra wanting us to believe it could.