One fact I kept coming across when I was researching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is that in addition to being condemned by Senators and other American figures for its portrayal of a corrupt Senate and supposed Communist morals, Fascist nations in Europe banned the film because they were worried their people would be drawn in by its Democratic message. Powerful people all over the world tried to silence Capra’s message in the same way the Taylor machine and the press tried to silence and twist Jefferson Smith’s story, yet today, it is considered one of the best films of all time. I’m very curious as to how a movie with such good intentions could be viewed by so many people as a threat, and what has changed. My first instinct is to assume that it was a result of the same paranoia and tension that caused the Red Scare in the US. But if that’s true, are things really that different now? Isn’t there just as much paranoia about situations in the Middle East and Mexico, and isn’t America just as tense about addressing these issues? I suppose one would have to have lived through it to truly understand what the political environment was like at the time, but I can’t help but wonder what changed to alter the public’s perception of this film.
Tags: communism, controversy, democracy, fascism, Frank Capra, free speech, World War II
