Expecting trumpets and flags and general up-with-people Yankee Doodleisms, I was surprised to find a rather downbeat, world weary slice of hyper-realism with a ludicrous tacked-on happy ending. Jimmy Stewart’s wide eyed everyman routine must still have been fresh in 1939, the shock of seeing that blithe smile wiped relentlessly off his face by a parade of political charlatans and chicanery all the more upsetting. The film depicts the downward spiral of a true believer, his descent into cynicism, and offers little in the way of recompense, and certainly no useful answers. Stewart’s celebrated filibuster, supposedly the last stand of a brave man, looks like a lot of effort for precious little reward, at least until Claude Rains’ miraculous and unconvincing change of heart. The word Capraesque as we currently understand it seems less and less appropriate- this, like It’s A Wonderful Life, is a slice of abject weltschmertz with a thin sugar coating- the best we can hope for in life is to get to the end without admitting defeat.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
11 Apr 2006 4:58 PM | Submit Comment