Film Analysis: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; a film by Frank Capra, this is a film about a man who has never served or been in political office in his life, comes to Washington D.C. to serve out the term for a Senator, who died. However; the men who appointed him, wanted someone they could have control over, and have him vote for their interests. Jefferson Smith is a man who very idealistic about what the government should stand for and do for its people. He also has his secretary Ms. Saunders to learn about how the process of how a bill gets voted on. While, serving in Congress; he doesn’t become corrupt and keeps the qualities that he had beforehand that endeared people to him. He, however, gets framed as making money from the bill he’s proposing that the Congress votes on.
This film …show more content…
The point of it was that the everyday man could go and change a corrupt system to make it better. This movie has a very David and Goliath storyline worked in featuring Mr. Smith as David, while the corrupted members of Congress are the Goliath. Mr. Smith can be replace with any induvial character in the history of America, who fought, won or lost the battle for the issue they cared deeply about. What this movie suggests about recent U.S. history is that the Congress, Senate is still filled with money influencing, buying the lawmakers’ and how they vote on certain bills. The behavior of Congress a lot since this movie was made, and gotten worse over time. The problem with lawmakers, are still getting influenced by the money they are getting from the lobbyists from corporations. There are people like Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others who are trying (like Mr. Smith in a sense) to making government less corrupted i.e. with campaign finance laws. The process of getting a bill be voted on is similar, but it seems longer today to get the bill voted on while in