AFI #26: Mr Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on September 18, 2020.

This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas are closed and I have to review something.

(G) ★★★

Director: Frank Capra.

Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, H. B. Warner, Harry Carey, Astrid Allwyn.

"Won't anyone read my Fast & Furious fan fiction?"

No other film is as still-relevant and yet sadly out-of-date as Mr Smith Goes To Washington. 

It's central plot of a media magnate controlling politicians and spinning the news to favour their own ends has never been more timely. Indeed, the Machiavellian manoeuvrings of tycoon Jim Taylor (Arnold) pale into significance compared to what one particular multimedia mogul has wrought across the US, UK and Australia. Building dams is nothing compared to having the world crafted to suit your purposes, and there is a sad level of prescience in a finale where water cannons are turned on protesters who are merely demanding justice for the little guy.

Political corruption may be forever, but doe-eyed patriotism is not. The film is "Capra's hymn of praise to the American system of government" (according to 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die's R. Barton Palmer), and more than 80 years on from its release, it's hard to find anything praiseworthy in such a broken machine. Through no fault of Capra, the issues he saw growing in Washington have metastasised and have become incurable, no matter how pure a Jefferson Smith you find.

As a result it's hard to stomach the notions of fealty Smith (Stewart) espouses in regards to his nation due to the way his own patriotism has been misappropriated and bastardised since. Watching a starry-eyed Smith wander Washington's political landmarks in a flag-waving montage of propaganda is maddening and saddening because it now bears an uncanny resemblance to an election campaign ad, rather than a true-hearted display of respect for America. And seeing him raging against the machine is equally frustrating because good people get crunched and broken in the gears and cogs these days, right before they get steamrolled into the mud.

To today's eyes, Smith and the film are naïve to the point of being twee. All films are the product of their era, but the passage of time has rendered much of Mr Smith... as subtle as a bag of sledgehammers while also rendering its idealism sadly dead, its version of politics and patriotism unrecognisable.

Mr Smith Goes To Washington is both great and frustrating for all these reasons. At its heart is another great Stewart performance, Rains is his usual level of wonderful, while the character of Saunders is amazing, and feels almost revolutionary despite her inability to resist melting at Senator Smith's "aw shucks" integrity. A long take of Saunders drunk at lunch is a showcase of the brilliance of the under-revered Jean Arthur, as well as yet another reminder of perpetual sideman Thomas Mitchell's talents (seriously, Mitchell is in four films in the top 30 of this list).

The film is also funny and cynical, and has a couple of key messages at its core - 1) the system is broken and 2) never trust a politician. But even if we ignore its used-by politics, there is some average film-making here. Capra - an Oscar-winning director for It Happened One Night - uses awkward edits through the first half of the film that are jarring now (and surely were then). Meanwhile, a dinner table scene involving a group of kids has a too-short depth of field so the speakers at the table are regularly out of focus. There's also a single long take involving a hat that beats the gag out of itself. None of these directorial choices speak to the talent of Capra; in fact, they demonstrate the opposite.

Capra was a migrant who saw the US as the oft-promised land of opportunity. Mr Smith... was his Hail Mary of hope - a longshot from way-down-town that declared honesty could overcome corruption. Within a couple of years, Capra would be making WW2 propaganda films for the US, once again pushing his barrow of Hope. He believed in America, and that's clear in Mr Smith... - part of the film's beauty is that it highlights the flaws but sees a way to fix them. And that solution is in the American people. Just as he showed in It's A Wonderful Life, Capra values the virtues of humanity. But in Mr Smith..., he seeks them inside a soulless institution, one which can be brought down by a callow scout leader and a hard-nosed secretary. It's a tough pill to swallow in 2020.

Its ambition and influence on educating the US populace about its own political system is admirable. Its themes are just. Its performances are excellent - Stewart's filibuster hits almost every colour in the palette, and the aforementioned Arthur is one out of the box. The smirking president of the senate (played by the great Harry Carey) is also a highlight.

But Mr Smith Goes To Washington is pure fantasy now - a fantasy that's impossible to believe in. It's a dark depressing fable because the truth is Smith would never win in 2020. He couldn't. And that's the thorn in the side of contemporary viewings - the knowledge that the Smiths of the world don't stand a chance against the Jim Taylors. The problem lies not in the film, but the world in which we watch it. Or maybe the problem is with me. I look at Trump's America (from the outside, I might add), and see a once-great country eating itself as it spirals toward Civil War. It is every horrible part of Mr Smith... come to life, and watching the film is a reminder of what was, what could have been, and what has come to pass. As it stands, Mr Smith... is a too-naïve version of the past that doesn't register any more.