In the 1930s, director Frank Capra changed his creative route and shot four films on political and social themes in a row, which confronted a series of social problems in the United States at that time, and also outlined the face of the ideal country in the director's mind, which can be called the most classic "national general education class" in Hollywood in the 30s that can be passed down for a hundred years.
Among them, there is this legendary classic -
"Mr. Smith to Washington"
According to Frank Capra himself, one day in the first half of the 30s, he was sick when a bald man with thick glasses came to his hospital bedside.
Instead of coming to visit, he blamed Capra for not devoting his talents more to the service of God and humanity as one of Hollywood's most brilliant directors. Since then, Capra has devoted himself to creating grand idealistic American paintings, never letting the protagonist in his film lose his last hope, and God will lend a helping hand when he loses hope, as in "How Beautiful Life Is".
Finding hope in despair is the theme of "Mr. Smith to Washington", the source of hope for the American people between the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II, and finally crossed the cultural boundaries and became a common comfort for the world.
In a U.S. state in the 1930s, a senator suddenly died, and Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), a boy scout leader beloved by children, who believed in "love your neighbors", was unexpectedly pushed to the front of the stage.
He used his childish but decent little humor to express his awe of the duties he had shouldered in his speech before leaving for Washington, with a warm heart, but he was completely unaware of the impact he would face.
The collision of two very different groups of people is the usual entry angle used in Capra films, and this collision was used to concoct jokes in crazy comedies in the early days, and from the mid-1930s onwards, such techniques have resulted in picture books in which small towns and cities, commoners, middle classes and oligarchs are fiercely opposed.
In "Mr. Smith goes to Washington," Smith, a naïve young man and Scout leader in the town, finds himself at odds with much of the world in the city.
He was just a puppet in the hands of a state politician manipulated by entrepreneur Willie Taylor, and the only reason he was chosen was childish and controlling. He admired the glorious history and traditions of the United States, and as soon as he arrived in Washington, he could not wait to visit the "Holy Land" and pay homage to washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, the founding fathers and sages.
However, after taking office, he found that the rules of the game in Washington were not at all as bright and upright as expected. The cynical female secretary Sanders (Jane Arthur) makes him bad, the blood-smelling reporters lure him into scandal, and he unknowingly becomes a stumbling block for Taylor's fake public welfare, and senator Paine, who has great respect, wants to get rid of him quickly.
Capra was always considered overly optimistic, and some even thought that his idealism seemed false, but he repeatedly showed his sober understanding of reality in "Mr. Smith to Washington", "Floating Dreams", "John Doey", and "How Beautiful Life is".
Smith's trip to the "Grand View Garden" is full of his dark emotions about the corruption of the upper class and the degeneration of the media. How would a sincere and transparent Scout leader, a purely good man, be treated at the political center of the country? Distorted reporting, framed, and not thrown dirty water for running for governor, as in Mark Twain's Campaign for Governor, but trapped in the trap of being hurt if you are in the system.
And Capra occasionally reveals an imperceptible ambiguity about the American system, especially in this film, on the one hand, he attacks the upper echelons for playing politics, on the other hand, he invisibly praises the system to allow and ultimately protect "uninvited guests" such as Smith, and perhaps it is precisely because of the existence of such people, no matter how dark, the system still has its greatness.
The beauty of the town has been blurred like Capra's previous "Mr. Dietz Goes to Town" and become a symbolic pastoral symbol, where everything is on the opposite side of the quaint city – with one exception, the children.
Whether it is the children at the table of local politicians, the children who fight against the giant crocodiles as Scouts, or the children who are apprentices in parliament, they are innocent and transparent, representing a puritanical thinking that transcends class and is not mixed with impurities, and also represents a kind of expectation of Capra's future, such as Smith's hoarse voice-
"See what these kids can do. It's not too late at all, because this country is bigger than Taylor, bigger than you, bigger than me, bigger than anything. Great principles are not lost when they meet light. It's here and you'll see it here again! ”
Although there is also a class confrontation of "demolition and demolition" in "Floating Dreams", the crowd in "John Doy", the eldest child Smith has only bare hands in the face of these difficulties, but his supporters, the little children, are determined from beginning to end, whether they are in the hometown where public opinion is manipulated, or the Capitol building where the fierce tongue war is fought.
The arc of love also comes from differences in beliefs— although Smith's relationship with Sanders is not the main axis of the film. Like in "One Night Wind" and "Mr. Dietz Goes to Town", "Silly White Sweet" once again encounters the old and sophisticated people who are destined to be born.
Sanders did not agree with Smith at first, and in her opinion Smith was full of false mouths, no different from the slippery politicians who superficially set it behind one set. Yet Capra's pastoral once again has a magical effect, and while we have to admit that two idealistic people in their bones should be attracted to each other, the love in "Mr. Smith to Washington" is more like a "functional" love that serves political ideals:
An overly innocent patriot will be ruined to the point of ruin, and he must be the "King of the Inner Saints and the Outer King", with smith's sincerity and Sanders's wrist, enough to inspire him to regain his morale from the Lincoln statue to the pickled battlefield, enough to support him to use lengthy speeches to delay the motion and seize a glimmer of life to fight back against his framing. When Don Quixote puts on real armament, there is a great defeat to be celebrated.
"Failed case", yes, anyone who has seen the end of this film can realize that even if the miraculous reversal under the gods is still the eternal Capra-like light and warmth, in essence, Smith's dozens of hours of struggle is still a "failed case".
The term was the credo of Senator Paine, who had been close friends and the same kind as Smith's father, believing that only "failed cases are worth fighting", smith's father was assassinated for helping the miners fight a lawsuit, and the idealist Paine lawyer died on the same day.
When Paine fought Smith fiercely with the arguments he had used to challenge authority, and dealt Smith a heavy blow with the final "victory" of the public opinion war, it was Capra who was tearing the idealists to us with unhealed wounds and bloodshed.
"You all think I've been defeated. But I wasn't beaten! I'm going to stand here and continue to fight for failure, even if this room is full of lies like this... Someone will listen to me. Smith's words before he fainted in exhaustion were spoken when he saw hundreds of thousands of telegrams denouncing him.
James Stewart, on the other hand, began to become the "conscience of America" from the performance of the film, and his life, as he himself put it, "did everything a man can do."
Discovering the scars of society and healing them in the most sincere and sincere way is Capra's lifelong format of American storytelling. And behind this tearful forgiveness lies the tragedy that Capra has always been reluctant to reveal: in the face of the huge windmill, the idealists have nothing but shouts and do not wander.