One of the reviews said: This is Frank Capra at his worst: moralising, simplistic, sentimental.
My question (and this is asked in no disrespect to the author) is when did morals and simplicity and sentimentality become a bad thing?
I, for one, think that is what gives this (and all Capra movies) that distinct charm.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?
1938's YCTIWY descends in part from Metropolis--corporate greed and exploitation countered by the heroic American ideal of live and let live but don't let the almighty dollar sap your humanism. This is a great movie that beat out several other 1938 classics for the big O and it's easy to see why. When the financier caves and Grandpa and he start jamming on their harmonicas, tell me that isn't one of the great movie scenes. I'm annoyed though that humanism is portrayed through the prism of communism--Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, Deng Ping et al murdered and imprisoned millions, many just like the artistic and outspoken Sycamores. Art and expression thrive under the rubric of freedom, not oppression.
Skrappy, I'm sorry you're annoyed with Frank Capra's portrayal of "...humanism...through the prism of communism..." because if you truly feel that to be an issue, then you may just as well critcize Lincoln for not speaking out against steroid abuse in the NFL. Capra was simply reflecting, with his patented form of directorial genius, the welling frustrations of a society that had (and still was at the time of the movie) been badly assaulted by the worst aspects of capitalistic greed.
Yes, the story is simplistic. Geez, nobody would ever believe this could be anything other than a lot of fun and well short of reality but it was what the folks in the people's palaces went for, namely, a chance to stick it to the bosses who wanted to rule the lives of everyone on the planet...yadda, yadda.
Every American conservative should spend a few hours with Capra's films and then try to appreciate that for most of us, the America that I think you refer to in your final sentence is a place that should be free of economic as well as class and political oppression. Not spending one's life in the pursuit of wealth at the expense of your fellow countrymen is not un-American. I'm not trying to preach to you, Skrappy, because I believe we're on the same page but I do understand at least one of the reasons Republicans hate Hollywood so much. It once tried to educate people using the only forum many Americans could avail themselves of and conservatives have never gotten over that.
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