Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

In 1939, there hadn’t been any outright bashes made to the United States government in film. That changed when Frank Capra came out with his masterpiece Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It shows conspiracy, corruption, and chaos in the members of the Senate and how they will do anything to get what they want. This movie was almost “shelved” when it first came out. Frank Capra was offered more than the movie was worth to not release the movie. However, Capra knew that this was a very important movie and went ahead with production. The movie became a great hit and in 1989, the Library of Congress added Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to the United States National Film Registry, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

This masterpiece is about a small-town politician named Jefferson “Jeff” Smith (James Stewart) who is loved by many of the young kids, especially by the children of the governor who hires him for their state’s second senator with the aged Senator Paine. He is a very naïve and idealistic young man who when brought to Washington D.C. finds himself mysteriously drawn to a tour bus that goes to all the famous landmarks. He is in love with the history and is in awe of the Lincoln memorial and the power of his words. Later as he struggles to find his niche in the senate, he is encouraged to write up his own bill. Smith has a passion to help boys all across America, so he writes a bill proposing to buy a piece of land in his home state for a boys camp similar to the “boy scouts”. The land would be paid with donations from the boys: “a couple pennies, but never more than a nickel”. Immediately, donations from boys come flying in to support Smith. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know that that there is already a plan by some of the other senators to build a dam on that same plot of land that Smith has proposed. Senator Paine is one of these corrupted men who won’t stop at anything to take Smith down. They produce false evidence saying that Smith already owned the land that he was proposing, and was therefore attempting to steal the money from all the little boys. In order to defend himself, Smith must take the floor of the Senate, and hold it no matter how long it takes.

This film was shocking for its time and was released in 1939 with many other amazing movies such as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and Babes in Arms. It was the greatest year for Hollywood, and so it took awhile for this film to make its mark and gain respect. It’s now number 26 on the AFI’s Top 100 list even though it missed the Oscar for Best Picture to Gone with the Wind. It’s brilliantly acted by Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, and Harry Carey. There are amazingly memorable lines that make the movie like “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, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too”. This is one of my favorite movies and shows the power that one man can have on the world. Sounds kind of like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life doesn’t it?