Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

[fearlesstemp]

A while ago, I posted something about how ALL I wanted to do was talk about movies, and then I proceeded to remain silent on the topic for a month. But I mean to write something! I do!

One of the things I wanted to talk about was Jimmy Stewart, and I saw that tonight TCM is featuring Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as part of their program The Essentials: Movies that define what it means to be a classic. The website has a cute and clever slideshow about the movie that captures pretty well everything I'm going to try to talk about here (I found the slideshow after typing up the following paragraphs).

The movie isn't perfect - it's corny in some places, and slow in others - but I still really like it, and there are a lot of things I think it does pretty well. One thing is Jimmy Stewart's performance, which is pretty fantastic - I'll include a clip here, picked up from YouTube, though I don't know how effective it is out of context. An emotion I feel a lot (especially lately), but rarely see expressed on screen, is outrage at political misconduct or corruption. A brief clip from one of Mr. Smith's speeches after he discovers the corruption in the Senate:

Mr. Smith argues in the Senate chamber.

I feel like it may look like overacting to people, but to me it's just perfect, because that's just how I act and sound when I'm upset about something in Washington. And it's all about me. ME!

I also think the movie is interesting because of its resolution. Is Capra presenting a vision of the triumph of American democracy, or a vision of its flaws and failures, or a little of both?

I know Wikipedia isn't the height of accuracy, but I think this is interesting:

When it was first released, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was attacked as an anti-American pro-Communist film for its portrayal of corruption in American Government.

The film was banned in Nazi Germany, and in other Fascist countries such as Italy and Spain, dubbing was used to alter the message of the film to conform with official ideology, according to Capra.

In 1942 when a ban on American films was imposed in Nazi-occupied France, the title theaters chose for their last movie before the ban was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. One Paris theater owner reportedly screened the film around the clock for 30 consecutive days prior to the ban.

Also: This movie is being shown as part of a marathon featuring Jean Arthur, who plays the female lead in Mr. Smith and is shown in this icon alongside Jimmy Stewart. I just think she's great.

Comments

[suzy_queue]

I can see your problem with the Philadelphia Story. It really bugged me at first, especially the scene at the end with her father the ass, who was portrayed as right and wonderful. Bah. But there are so many scenes and moments that I adore that I've managed to analyze it in a way that isn't totally mysogonistic. *g* I can't quite remember all of the details now, but it involves all people, not just women, allowing other people to be imperfect and live their lives in the manner that makes them happy even if it doesn't make sense to you. Tolerance and all that jazz. It makes it easier to watch. *g*

I just bought that Cary Grant set you speak of. I need to rewrite The Awful Truth for SGA, and therefore need to WATCH the damn movie, and only was able to give Holiday a cursory watch before it had to leave my TiVo forever, so I was thrilled to find the set. I only had owned His GIrl Friday, and that was a cheapy $5 Canadian product that didn't even have closed captioning, so it worked for me. I think, actually, I can make you a copy of Holiday if you want. In VHS or DVD. I've not actually played with that feature of my new DVD recorder, but it's about time I start, really. *g* Want me to try for you?

[fearlesstemp.livejournal.com]

I will definitely have to rewatch The Philadelphia Story with that analysis in mind! I'd love to find a way to like the movie, since the people involved and the performances are so great.

I only own HGF, too, but it was one of the snazzy ones with commentaries, etc, so I'm having a hard time justifying buying the whole thing. Maybe after I get my graduation money! :)

But if you ever are inclined to try out your DVD burner to make a copy of Holiday, I would LOVE it!

Also, you know, I don't know if I've ever seen The Awful Truth. Do you like it? I always mix it up with Libeled Lady (this makes no sense, since I don't think the movies share any actors). Is The Talk of the Town in the box set, too? That's another one that I've never seen - actually, if you tell me that they're both excellent, I might have to go get the box set in spite of having HGF! After all, can one have too many copies of such a fab movie?