If I were to pick one director who encapsulated both the despair and the hope of America during the depression, it would be Frank Capra. Today Capra gets a bad reputation of being sentimental, which some would claim dates his films. Capra was indeed sentimental, but I never thought of that as a bad thing, John Ford was sentimental, even David Lynch could be from time to time as well. Sentimentality is a tricky thing and only the real good directors could pull it off without it becoming overly manipulative, Capra was probably the master of it. The thing often forgotten about Capra's work was how very dark they tended to be. The most famous being "it's a Wonderful Life", which is the ultimate Christmas movie, but is in fact about a man at the end of his rope and has chosen to commit suicide.
The bright light through this darkness was Capra's optimism, he had faith that in the end, people would do the right thing, they just needed to be pointed in the right direction. But apart from his high ideals, Capra was also a realist, he understood the world was a complicated place, and the real world was always the place where his heroes would rise up.
Now let's look at "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", Capra's last great film of the thirties. The story is set in the Washington of today, if you look at it, you will find nothing much has changed. The main villains or Goliaths in Capra's fables are the corrupt politicians and big businessmen, who control every aspect of public opinion. Also there are the newsmen who are either fast talking ambulance chasers who twist the truth to make it into a better story, or the ones controlled by the main villain James Taylor (Edward Arnold) who plays Washington like a puppet.
For the hero, Capra chooses a naive simpleton named Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) who quotes Lincoln and Washington, but has never been in politics in his life. Smith is chosen to fill the seat of a recent deceased senator. He's chosen because he is basically an innocent, and the villains think he would be easy to manipulate. However as Jeff comes to Washington what he uncovers is a wave of corruption that is orchestrated by Taylor. In the middle of this, Jeff also discovers his fellow Senator and the man who was once an idealist like him Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) has also compromised his ideals in order to further his political career.
The world of Washington that Capra depicts here isn't a fairy tale one, in fact upon its release in 1939, it received criticism from many political groups who didn't approve of it. Capra must've known he was on to something when it struck a nerve.
Today you can definitely see parallels with this film and politics as it is done today. It's no secret senators, congressmen, governors, and presidents have all been accused of corruption, and we now live in a world where even the media cannot be trusted, Capra knew this even in '39, and went further with it in his 1948 film "State of the Union".
But the real reason "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" should be celebrated as a classic is in its construction as a very well crafted, expertly acted, and emotional story. I first saw the film early in life on the television one Sunday afternnoon. I was taken right away by the fast pace of the film, it had a drive that got me interested in the story right away. The film is a testament to Capra's brilliance as a director at how he really brings us into the world of American politics. Being an outsider of the world himself, Jefferson Smith is the perfect character for the audience to follow, we learn as he learns, I remember watching it as a child never being confused and always understanding what is going on. It's really in Capra's simplicity of plot, and choosing more to foucus on emotion and character.
The film was the breakthrough performance of Jimmy Stewart, he became a star over night. He received an Oscar nomination for his performance and should've won. Jean Arthur plays Saunders, Smith's secretary and soon to be love interest. Arthur was always one of the smartest and funniest actresses around and along with Barbara Stanwyck was one of Capra's favorites, she was actually the first one asked to play Mary in "It's a Wonderful Life". Saunders is someone who's played the Washington game long enough, and has grown cynical but is reawakened by Smith's idealism. Arthur was one of those long underrated actresses, and it's hard to believe after watching this film she was not recognized, after all she has about as much screen time as Stewart.
The other interesting character is Senator Paine, played by Claude Rains in one of his greatest roles. We learn Paine had high ideals once before, he was a struggling lawyer who once worked with Smith's father who was a struggling newspaper editor. They fought for lost causes, but somewhere he lost his ideals. Paine is probably the most realistic character in this whole film, and perhaps the one Capra could sympathize with the most. The story of Paine is not unlike the story of many politicians who decided to compromise their own principles in favour of getting ahead, but Capra seems to point out, it doesn't just stop once you do it.
The centerpiece of the film is the final filibuster, where Smith takes over the Senate to prove himself innocent of corruption, Capra uses the senate has his stage and takes command, never has talking and arguing been so entertaining. Capra sustains the drama by keeping the pace rapid by the actor's dialogue and his impeccable editing technique. For his part, Stewart controls the screen with every speech he's given, and every close-up as we see him slowly coming apart as the filibuster takes his toll on his body. Stewart's performance is one of the cinematic greats, and it's no wonder this actor/director team are so closely associated with one another.
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was the end of a great run of films for Frank Capra, it would be the last one he did for Columbia Pictures, a studio he pretty much single handidly saved from bankruptcy. In the 40s he would continue to make powerful films about the common man, but after too many flops and the failure of his independent company "Liberty Films" he had to resort to becoming a Producer's director. He could no longer pick his projects as freely as he once did, but films like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" are testaments to a man who truly believed in what he was saying.
Many films today try to emulate Capra's style, but to me most of those films come off as phony and even cynical. The missing ingredient in those films that you could find in the best of Capra's is sincerity.
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