Some thoughts after rewatching the film

So I picked up Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on Blu-Ray a few days ago and decided to give it a re-watch.

The obvious takeaway for the modern viewer is obviously that corruption in Washington has existed for as long as Washington has existed. While I think we all know this--see the Teapot Dome Scandal--I also think that many of us tend to think of Washington as a bit more cleaned-up in the old days. If nothing else, it seems that the corruption was hidden better then, and when corruption was rooted out and exposed the consequences were greater. Today, the politicians are blatant about it and they have lost their fear of The People.

In addition to tackling the corruption of the politicians, the film also delves into the corruption of the press. The scene where the papers take photos of Smith and completely mischaracterize them remind us that "fake news" is nothing new. I even remember being told as a kid, "You can't believe everything you read in the papers." But the sheer blatant disregard for the truth that the reporters in the film display is still shocking. They know they can make or break a person with what they write, and they're willing to publish lies when it suits them.

With Smith's arrival, you have the arrival in Washington of an actual principled man rather than someone who is simply trying to gain power and wealth. I love the irony of Paine's line, "A young patriot, who recites Lincoln and Jefferson, turned loose in our nation's capital. . ." In an ideal world, of course ALL politicians would be patriots who recite their idealized predecessors, but even in 1939 such a man was a very rare--if not unknown--species in Washington, DC. As Saunders says to Smith, "This is no place for you, you're halfway decent." And as we see, once Jefferson Smith arrives to be such a man, efforts are quickly made to destroy him.

In fact, the film actually raises another question in my mind that I've been asking myself for years: Is politics inherently corrupting? Do all the men who arrive in Washington already arrive corrupted? Or do some show up like modern-day Jefferson Smith's, only to be either pushed out quickly or transformed into the typical DC swamp creature?

At the end of the film, we see a showdown at play: Jefferson Smith vs the Washington establishment in the Capitol building, and the corporate machine vs the grassroots movement of the scrappy Boy Rangers on the streets. One thing we will note is that, ultimately, it was not really the might of Smith's oratory that won the day, or the efforts of the boys (they were in fact overcome), but the cracking of the conscience of Senator Paine. And that tells us something about Paine -- he was a man caught somewhere in the middle between being a good man (the sort of good man brought to life in the film by Smith) and a man who had fully embraced the corruption of politics (embodied by boss Jim Taylor).

I think the cast of the film is excellent. Jimmy Stewart had a real knack for playing the "gee whiz, aww shucks" everyman, and I think he may have even gotten typecast a bit in that sort of role. I believe I read somewhere that Stewart found it a relief when he started working with Alfred Hitchcock, because Hitchcock gave him parts that had a certain edge and darkness to them. Jean Arthur as Saunders is also excellent, with her spunky personality and good looks. Claude Raines as Paine also stood out to me, as he did a great job of portraying the man walking the tight rope over the abyss, a man who is compromised but who is nevertheless still holding onto some fundamental decency. And lastly I'll mention Tom Mitchell as the reporter and would-be suitor for Saunders, Diz Moore, who threw out some great one-liners, such as, "I gotta go out and drink this over."

And on a final note, I will agree with you that the ending is abrupt. It is my one complaint. A lot of older movies do that--they just end with no denoument--but I do think that this was a mistake here. Capra should've taken the steps to wrap up the story properly.

Overall I think it's a great movie. This is probably the third time I've watched it, if not the fourth, and I enjoy it and find it insightful every time I go through it. Certainly it makes me think of our own modern-day situation in Washington and whether or not there's anything we can do about it. I really need to go watch more Frank Capra movies. I have in fact only seen two.