Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

It is easy in this modern era to look back at the films of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart with a jaded eye....those were simpler times, they had a child's view of the world and so on. It's easy to understand why this is but it still remains wrong. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON was released in 1939 less than a month after what is considered to be the beginning of World War II.....indeed the times were not simple! The story should be well known to you by now, honest politician goes to the big show and is confronted by corruption on the "hill" and decides to do something about it. It is heroic democracy at it's very best and it is only because of Stewart's body of work that I don't single it out as his best performance. What is so great about this film is that it pissed EVERYBODY off from the U.S. government to the press to the Boy Scouts of America and even Hitler and the Nazis themselves! On this side of the pond we had the powers that be upset at it showing a disfuctional system while overseas they feared it showed democracy working! Hell, Stewart and Capra had to break the law just to get shots with many of the Washington landmarks as the feds would not give them permission to shoot! Their work paid off as it was nominated for a then amazing eleven Oscars though no doubt due to political outcry it only managed to take the once for best original story. This is one you DON'T want to watch on television, you want a clean viewing for this look at an ideal America, one many wish existed today.