Everyone is remarking about how great this movie is, but I just can't see it. I couldn't root for Jimmie Stewart because I found him incredibly annoying, and I just kept begging for the movie to end.
What is it I'm missing?
To the OP
I'm in the 'great movie' camp. For me MSGtW has always been about the battle of opposites - the cynical vs. the idealist, corruption vs. purity, experience vs. inexperience. Jimmy Stewart is the beginner, the pilgrim, who believes to his core in the ideals of the state. Claude Rains is the realist, the cynic, who mouths the ideals to achieve his goals. Jean Arthur begins as a cynic who is slowly swept off her feet by the sheer force of Stewart's idealism. Is it a curse to go through life wised up like you and me? Arthur asked the equally cynical Thomas Mitchell in the film, and that's the question the movie is most interested in.
Washington is portrayed as a cesspit of corruption, and it's hard to buy into someone as naive as Stewart is in this movie. He always struck me as a little over the top in that regard, but it's a character the movie needs.
Hyperbole much?
shareYou are missing a damn heart.
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