I'm sorry but what I saw in this film was a pandering to a sickly patriotic ideal. The storyline was diabolical, I found it horribly acted and generally a horrificly sugar coated idea of politics. "Wag the Dog" presents a much more insightful funny and disturbing look at what politics is really like, be it America or on my side of the pond, Britain.
shareYou sir, are, of course, entitled to your opinion, and yes the film is a bit sentimental. Most of Capra's films were. But there remains a glimmer of hope in the telling.
I believe that a lot of people have become too jaded to believe in much that is positive, and that is a shame.
You can guarantee to have your heart tugged in a Capra film. Thank goodness for Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Jean Arthur, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyk and the Capra "ensemble".
If you want to be reminded of American ideals - stick with Capra.
If you want reality, check out the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
Well, I liked sentimentalist garbage. I told my husband it was getting too too real when reports came in of death threats to witnesses, women leaving the country because they had testimony against his royal lowness Hitler about P+*^Y grabbing and the 13 year old child he raped was too afraid to proceed. And rather than stop him-you voted for him. I hope you realize the MAJORITY voted for Hillary and there was voting fraud.You cancelled the Voting Freedom of Access laws that unjustly punish minorities. 136 polling places reduced to 1??? Is that a good decision? No open polling on weekends when workers have off? Right.That's fair.
share"a bit"
shareYeah, the film is a bit corny, but Stewart's performance makes the movie. His filibuster is an all-time moment in film.
shareImagine my shock when it is revealed at the end of your post that you are british. You are certainly entitled not to like the film but to complain about its acting is bordering on ludicrous. You can complain about the oscars all you want, and many do, but I dont think many reasonable people would think that a film which garnered three acting nominations would be a poorly acted film.
shareSo what you're saying is that personal opinion should be based not on gut feeling but rather on what the Oscar jury thinks? That's possibly the dumbest thing I've every heard.
My voting history: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21703251
By a "sickly patriotic ideal", you are, of course meaning the story of a lone, good man fighting against evil ones? It might surprise you to know that not all of us find that circumstance to be "diabolical"; nor do we have any need for it to be depicted as "funny" and "disturbing."
What is more tiresome than the career cynic?
By "sickly patriotic ideal" I believe bits like the American flag imposed behind the monuments of Washington etc, its just horrific.
share""I belive the bits like the American flag supremposed behind the monuments of Washington, etc., is just horrific."
Um..well, the flag *is there* with the monuments...
I'll bet that flag looked far less "horrific" to your kinsmen from around December, 1941 to May, 1945.
Really, your extreme take on 'MSGTW' seems rather inexplicable to me. But to be trite as all get out, there's no accounting for taste...
Its not the flag on the monuments rather it is the the image of an American flag flying behind it.
And please don't drag up WW2 - we're in enough trouble and have lost enough ment running round the world in "your" wars...
whats wrong with associating the american flag with george washington? am i missing something here?
share"I'll bet that flag looked far less "horrific" to your kinsmen from around December, 1941 to May, 1945."
We damn near fought alone while you sat on your asses and hopped on in when it suited you, all the while Europeans were being massacred - true heroes, to be sure. I mean, honestly; what a ridiculously disrespectful thing to say.
HOWEVER, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a great film. So what if it's corny? I'm quietly confident Frank Capra knew fine well what he was doing. I wonder if the OP has seen It's a Wonderful Life? I wonder if the OP would rather every single film end like Requiem for a Dream?
We damn near fought alone while you sat on your asses and hopped on in when it suited you, all the while Europeans were being massacred - true heroes, to be sure.
"You" (Britain and the Allies) received crucial trade and support from the Americans during TWO world wars PRIOR TO the US's eventual entry in those wars; why do you think Pearl Harbor even happened?
During the infancy of the nation "across the pond" WESTWARD from you, George Washington, in his Farewell Address, advised the nation to refrain from "foreign entanglements." He didn't, and couldn't, envision a 20th Century in which it would become practically impossible for his country to avoid "foreign entanglements" in Europe. While I admit to having more than a little trouble reconciling current and prolonged American military involvement and force in places like Iraq and Afghanistan (among other theatres of war in the past 20 years--the former Yugoslavia, for one) with the just cause of making a stand against the forces of the Axis Powers during WWII, perhaps our European critics of today need to be reminded (or informed for the first time!) that it took many generations for Americans to go against the grain of the isolation policy enjoined by our first POTUS.
My country is certainly not without its glaring faults, but neither is YOURS nor any European power whose global imperialistic practices, indeed, led to the very formation of a nation seeking to escape the long reach of the unwanted authority of countries like 18th and 19th Century England and France.
"We damn near fought alone while you sat on your asses and hopped on in when it suited you ..."
Odd, but it seems to me that that's what sovereign nations are SUPPOSED to do -- "hop in" when it suits THEM - not other sovereign nations. Oh well, given the result, perhaps it's safe to say, "better late than never" (noting the alternative).
I agree with your statement about "true heroes", however, it booves us to remember that the "Europeans who were being massacred" were being massacred BY Europeans until the "ass-sitting" Americans "hopped in" permitting themselves to be massacred so as to prevent "more" Europeans from massacring still "more" Europeans. . . You're welcome.
Corny?
Yet another instance of people failing to recognize that, when you're discussing something from the past, all the things that followed that made the concept "corny" hadn't been made yet.
Just because a bunch of other movies copied the old black and white films doesn't make the black and white films corny/cliche/whatever. It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington weren't cliche at the time.
We damn near fought alone while you sat on your asses and hopped on in when it suited you, all the while Europeans were being massacred
Then don't look.
shareYou are an idiot.
Wow..also being a Premier Drummer, I'm proud to play my Union Jack hand-painted drum kit! I don't see how attacking our flag based on yours proves your point! Count one thick-headed ego-maniac in the UK...You!
shareIt may look that way to our cynical 21st century eyes, something that's a little sad in itself, but this movie came out in 1939.
A heart can be broken, but it still keeps a-beatin' just the same.
Arguably one of the great American films but definitely the most nauseatingly sentimental I have ever seen.
shareDid you really just compare two films that were released 60 years apart? I guess absolutely nothing happened during those 60 years to fracture American idealism.
It's sad that this film did not resonate with the Original Poster.
For my tired eyes, this film feels fresh and reminds us that we should not stand idly by while corruption and scandals occur in democratic politics. It reaffirms the very democratic beliefs we cherish and tells us that we should fight for what's right no matter how much of a lost cause that something may be.
Cynacism is what allows lobbying / ear marked bills / insert political gripe to continue. We should not turn a blind eye to the evils of the world. We should fight until we can no longer stand.
Is the film sentimental? Perhaps.
Rubbish? No.
Be we American or British we are brothers who have a great deal in common. Let us not argue about past wars and about who owes what to whom. Why not better spend our energy thinking, 'How can I make this world a better place to live?'
It may be a lost cause but that is the only sort of cause worth fighting for.
Wow. Okay, well, you're entitled to your opinion, but I can't even fathom from what source such an opinion might spring. Okay, yes, the film is somewhat sentimental, and does have a (GASP!) partiotic idealism about it. But:
1.) I found the acting generally adequate, with Stewart in particular giving one of the most riveting performances of his career.
2.) Sugar-coated? Really? Despite it's positive outcome, it actually presents a pretty cynical view of American politics.
3.) In my opinion, "Wag the Dog", while an admittedly insightful and disturbing film, is also far less impactful than "Mr. Smith...". Or, it was to me.
And at a general level, I, as an American, think this nation, and the world for that matter, could use more people like Jefferson Smith.
I have to agree with OP here. I went in watching this movie with an open mind, but it was just sappy, sentimental nonsense. I won't even go into details. Everything in this movie was ridiculously simplistic and intellectually lazy.
share