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Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) 130 minutes (Columbia) Story by Lewis R. Foster. Written by Sidney Buchman. Directed by Frank Capra. "I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary kindness... and a little looking out for the other fella, too."  With
breathtaking efficiency, Frank Capra and Sidney Buchman plunge us into
a brilliant construction in the first 10 minutes of the film: a senator
dies, the governor must appoint a replacement. The machine demands
a pliable candidate so they can protect a crooked land deal, the party
demands one of their own be chosen and, in a bungled (or fate driven, or
divinely inspired) coin toss, the governor lands on a third possibility:
Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart). As the name implies he's an every
man with high ideals, recently a public hero, who leads a Boy Scout-like
organization ("Boy Rangers"). Unbeknownst to the governor (Guy Kibbee),
the boss (Edward Arnold) , or the senior senator they count on to control
their new recruit (Claude Rains), Smith is the son of a man who was a friend
to Rains' corrupted character way back when he was a decent and honorable
man. Jefferson Smith's father was murdered for holding on to his
ideals. The recollection is visibly painful to Rains and a constant
mirror held to his moral decline. And perhaps to ours.
It's a film that pings along like a high speed locomotive from the 30's, constantly evoking the timeless battle at the center of the American character: hope and cynicism. And pushing the limits on the thing that the great American political experiment relies most heavily on: integrity. Stewart's character nearly crumbles before our eyes on the floor of the Senate when attacked mercilessly by the aggregate forces arrayed against him. Will the American Dream of justice and ethically motivated politics survive? Have they?
One of the undeniable truths that becomes self evident in this film is the certain tyranny of capitalism, when unregulated by the constraints of a legitimate democracy. And how important the sincere compassion of the human heart becomes in that democratic process. There are many important "conversations" in the facets of this American dream. And parallels to the spiritual journeys we all make. Stewart plays a decent and good but "untested" man who enters a world designed to test him. We are all tested. essay © Jerry
L. Jackson
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The
tone of the film shifts from the earnest Stewart, on his arrival in Washington,
gawking in awe at the symbols of American government (the Capitol, the
White House) to the most sinister form of character and spiritual mutilation
at the hands of a morally bankrupt press and political machine. Capra
was well aware of the power of the emerging mass media and the willingness
of the public to be swayed. People tend to forget that Capra always
had a dark side. And here amid the iconographic trappings of power,
it becomes palpable. Pay attention to the subtle but relentless shift
in lighting and camera work by frequent (20 films in 17 years!) Capra collaborator,
Joe Walker.