Review of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) by Alejandro R — 24 Sep 2016

Finally got to watch this classic. Stewart did an amazing job of playing the young naive idealist, who is representative of something nonexistent in Washington, D.C. Great performances all around and I thoroughly enjoyed how this film tackled themes we still struggle with today-private interests influencing government, lack of journalistic integrity, no real freedom of the press, popular resignation and cynicism regarding the system, etc.

In December 2014 it's very interesting to watch a film from 1940 about politics on Capital Hill only to realize how the influence of industry in government hasn't really changed. That back then just as today those with great wealth are the ones who assert their will through the current practice of our political economy. For me this film demonstrates how historically this sanctioned (and sometimes not so sanctioned) corruption has been the common practice in government for such a long time now. And when something is common, it is often confused for what is normal. When the thing that's common and seen as normal is not a healthy situation and many people know it, but worse accept it, then it leads to resignation and cynicism.

It's very easy for the cynical to view this film as somethings being an expression of cornball idealism under the weight of business as usual that has been the business for so long. I prefer to see those ideals as something still worth fighting for, because they are human ideals of a functional society that were intended to be a code of honor for government. They were supposed to be a values system for our views and behaviors toward one another in our communities so that government had something vital to protect and serve. Those were the original intentions. Cornball idealism? To the easily accepting cynic-of course. After all, how could we possibly end business as usual and truly move toward practicing those ideals? A question that the resigned very easily have an answer for-we can't.