Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

There is a phrase that has been bandied about for a while now that comes to mind when thinking about Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Cess Pool on the Potomac. We hear every four years about the need to drain the swamp or impose term limits as if this will change the system somehow and make our governing bodies in Washington suddenly run clear and clean. George Carlin put it more clearly when he said: “Garbage in, garbage out,” in reference to why there are no good-minded people we can elect into these offices. The idea of the idealistic man being put into the senate and exposing corruption plays well on paper and makes for entertaining escapism, but it also brings with it the depressing reality that this is all just a fiction and such a thing isn’t likely to ever actually happen. This dour outlook has only further festered in the last couple of decades as our political climate has only gotten more contentious and bitter.

This film began as an unpublished story by Lewis R. Foster, variously called The Gentleman from Montana and The Gentleman from Wyoming, the idea being this junior senator would be from the middle of nowhere where people have different ideals and less of the pessimistic attitude that comes from urban existence. For the film, any reference to a specific state our protagonist comes from has been scrubbed out. This feels like an attempt to avoid offending any specific states by making them seem like callow rubes. It also prevents them from being associated with the likes of the film’s villains. The door swings both ways, and this film dodges it on both sides.

The film opens on the central inciting incident: the sudden death of a senator. To fill the vacancy, Governor Hubert “Happy” Hopper (Guy Kibbee), acting on advice from his young family, appoints Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) as the replacement senator. Smith is held in high regard with the local youth for his dedication and leadership over the Boy Rangers, a stand-in for the Boy Scouts of America. Corrupt political boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) is displeased as he wanted his hand-picked stooge for the position but accepts it as Smith is seen as naïve about politics and is expected to be easy to manipulate. 

Smith is taken under the wing of Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), a long-term member of the Senate who is publicly esteemed but secretly in the pocket of Jim Taylor; Smith looks up to Paine because his father and Paine were long-time friends. It doesn’t take long, though, before the Washington press takes advantage of Smith and runs a series of stories that tarnish his reputation and make him unpopular amongst his fellow senators. 

Soon, Senator Smith stirs up even more trouble when he attempts to introduce a bill into the Senate that will authorize the government to buy up some land in his home state to be designated as a national boys’ camp, paid back by donations from the boys. This land has been earmarked for a dam by Jim Taylor, a scheme that will put a lot of money into the pockets of Taylor and Paine. Donations pour in immediately for this boys’ camp but Taylor and Paine set in motion a plan to break Smith by forging documents making it look like he bought the land ahead of the bill and intends to profit off of it by lining his own pockets with the donations. Broken and frustrated, Smith is almost ready to throw in the towel until a way to combat these accusations is shown him from an unlikely source. 

There are not a whole lot of actors who can pull off the character of Jefferson Smith without it coming across as a caricature. James Stewart has a way about it, though, in his mannerisms and voice that makes it work. His character is meant to be naïve but not stupid. Smith shows up in Washington and is so overcome with awe for the country’s monuments, buildings, and what they all represent that he gets swept away into a sightseeing tour and is late arriving at his new office. This could easily be seen as mocking his character, yet instead, we, too, are swept up in the meaning behind all of these places. The statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in his chair in front of the Lincoln Memorial is particularly moving, as is the engraving of his words on the wall. There is something powerful in that visage that represents the best this nation has to offer. 

But behind all of this outward imagery is a level of corruption that is appalling. Jim Taylor is the face of that, but those of us who have lived long enough know plenty of real-world examples of corruption in the ranks. Where this film falters is in just how over-the-top that corruption is presented. We get glimpses of it throughout, but late in the film when Smith is in the middle of the famous filibuster scene, there are cutaways of young boys trying to get the news out that he is innocent through print and stages demonstrations. In these moments, Jim Taylor has sent out a lot of goons to silence the press, and we see shots of kids being assaulted, attacked, run off the road in cars, and more. This is so over-the-top that it becomes almost cartoonish in its mustache-twirling villainy. Likewise, Paine is so overcome with guilt for his part in the whole affair that he attempts to take his life right outside the Senate chambers. Frank Capra is a great director, but there are times when he paints with too broad of brushstrokes, and this is one of those times. 

The best part of this movie is the inclusion of Saunders (Jean Arthur), Smith’s jaded secretary who is weary of the whole political scene. When we are introduced to her, she is upset with Smith for showing up late for his first day on the job because he was too busy sightseeing Washington. Her character is the only one who has a visible character arc over the course of the film as she is slowly won over by the optimistic new senator. When he first tries to draft a bill, the one to designate land for the boys’ camp, she gives him bad, but realistic, advice about how difficult it is to get a bill in front of the voting group, let alone passed. She does so to discourage him and to keep him away from learning about the plans for the dam. Smith’s honesty and determination eventually win her over, though, and she ends up being the one most in his corner and guiding him through the trappings laid out before him when he takes the floor in his defense, refusing to yield the floor lest he lose his pedestal. 

The famous climax of this movie is perhaps one of the weaker moments of this film. Smith forces the Senate into a twenty-four-plus-hour filibuster meant to wear them down and stall for time. Yet what we mostly see is him quoting the Constitution and other famous speeches without breaking down what any of it means in context to his situation. It’s well acted, and his physical exhaustion is palpable, but there needed to be better use of the famous writings to add heft to what he is saying. As it stands, it feels like a lot of filler just to stall for time. A few added lines to strike home the relevancy would have gone a long way and added a great deal of power to his words.

This film was highly controversial at the time. Many career politicians spoke negatively about it both on a realism angle and on a political one. It was deemed harmful to the world’s view of American politics and to our own citizens, whom it was assumed looked on our career politicians with reverence. It also was viewed as an over-simplification of the problems festering in the then-current political scene, painting in blacks-and-whites as if the issue was just a few bad apples in an otherwise great system. Naturally, the way this is presented in the film rubbed those in these political positions the wrong way, and they were not shy about speaking out against it. 

The film was also banned in Hitler’s Germany, Italy, and Spain while also being altered to change the message in several other European countries, realigning it to conform with official ideology. This film is considered to be amongst Capra’s best works, but it is also a shift in his ideologies, shifting from his previous optimistic view to one far more pessimistic. Before, in films such as You Can’t Take it With You, there was a firm showing of the common decency of man. Here, in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, we see the view that man, left unchecked and in power, will stoop to anything to maintain that power. By showing us the assaults on young boys and the absolute maniacalness of Jim Taylor’s attacks on Freedom of Speech and the press, we see a different, more stark world view than what is typical of a Capra film. 

The world is so much darker and depressing now, at least on the political scheme. Those facing the rise of Nazism and the beginnings of World War II might disagree with that assessment, and they aren’t wrong. But on the political scene in America, things have only gotten worse over the decades. We hear “Drain the Swamp” every four years, and every four years, nothing really happens to make things better. It makes a film like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington feel as naive as the title character. That being said, it doesn’t prevent us from being emotionally invested in Mr. Smith as he spends hour after hour holding the Senate hostage with his filibustering. And, even though it ends abruptly, we are still celebrating right alongside him when he finally gets through to Senator Joseph Paine and reminds him of why he got into politics in the first place. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Outstanding Production: Frank Capra

Best Director: Frank Capra

Best Actor: James Stewart

Best Writing, Screenplay: Sidney Buchman

Best Writing, Original Story: Lewis R. Foster (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Harry Carey

Best Supporting Actor: Claude Rains

Best Art Direction: Lionel Banks

Best Film Editing: Gene Havlick and Al Clark

Best Music, Scoring: Dimitri Tiomkin

Best Sound Recording: John P. Livadary

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Release Date: October 17, 1939

Running Time: 130 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi

Directed By: Frank Capra