We Need Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Now More than Ever.

When I first watched Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Frank Capra’s seminal classic, (it now dawns on me) I was biased against it from the outset. I had heard about this film , about its sentimentality, its optimism, and moral fortitude and I wanted to laugh considering what I knew not only about the time it was made in, but about Stewart's political leanings, and of the the slave holding, sometimes rapist creators of the documents the movie so lovingly upholds, and beholds. I barely made it through my first viewing, in fact it could barely be called a viewing as it was more like a court hearing where one side has already clearly made up its mind. I rolled my eyes at the statements about Lincoln, and audibly guffawed at wide eyed ridiculousness of the final scene. My cynicism, my embattled realism and infatuation with realism wouldn't allow me to appreciate any part of this fantasy, a particularly white one at that. I don't know if it was age, the softening that can happen over multiple viewings, or the age in which we live in, (my belief right now is all of the above, but especially the latter ) but this last viewing rocked me. I didn't lose any of the frustration or contempt for the pancake batter whiteness of its aesthetics, from the marble of Washington to the privileged obliviousness and superficiality of some of its claims, I just gained appreciation for its characterization of what Dr Cornel West calls "Prophetic fire" in Jeffrey Smith, and for its imagination. Its willingness to engage in the fantasy of things never before seen. Strategies which have no basis in precedent or known reality. In a lecture available on YouTube titled "How does Change Happen" Angela Davis articulates the connection between imagination and grand social movements, and combats the idea that because things in essence have not changed over the years, that resistance and the work done was futile. That one should find themselves discouraged and disenchanted by the seeing futility..

From radical rebel to university professor, Angela Davis has dedicated her life to social activism. In this talk, Angela Davis reflects on her successes and shares her insights on the strategies for change that have made -- and will make -- history.

This time I made the connection, this is the very heart of Mr Smith. It is not merely wide eyed naivety, and white liberal sentimentality, but it is fantasy, the best kind. The kind the conjures and kindles in the audience a fire , an angry fire that given the right amount of open minded air, can consume the entirety of the viewing experience with the want to go out and yell, to fight, to act. It's as much a fantasy as the idea of America set apart from the reality. The importance of Mr. Smith goes to Washington In any era and especially in this time and space we exist in is its message that the fantasy is as important as the actuality. That America is both the ideas that formed it, and continue to elude it, and the reality that made it what it is. Jeffrey Smith's idea of America is a fantasy, and he is an idealistic bull in a China shop that runs head long into the reality of a wall of Pragmatic cynics and thugs that almost break him in two as they promised they would.

Re-watching the movie this time around, I arrived at the scene where Jefferson watches his beloved mentor, his shining knight, Joseph Paine betray him, and I’m reminded of Angela’s warning against the idea of change as purely the result of any one individual, especially as a leader . Stewart conjures up a man so understandably heart broken I feel almost ashamed I was so blinded by my own version of cynicism I missed the poetic beauty, and furious vigor of this performance. By the time he arrived at the Lincoln memorial head so low he almost resembles a man half into a somersault, face in hands, sitting on the baggage he brought with him crying, I was a mess myself. I don't know if it was age, the softening that can happen over multiple viewings, or the age in which we live in, (my belief right now is the latter ) but this last viewing rocked me. I thought about President Obama's promise, and the audacity of hope, and also of all the ways he fell short, and then of the crushing finality of the night we found out Trump had won, and Jefferson Smith was no longer the silly bright eyed, bushy tailed white idealist who should've known better , he was all of us who hadn't completely given ourselves over to cynicism, avarice, hyper individualism, and apathy. Especially those who had given themselves over the cotton candy optimism of Obama's presidency. Maybe many of the rest of us wanted to weep, but instead quickly fought back our tears, stiffened up our necks , and signed ourselves over to the devils of pride, cynicism, and pragmatism. We looked down at those bewildered, unmoved, and told them frankly "This was always America", as if there was nothing else to believe but that, and only that. We in many ways were right, and righteous even, but we weren’t anymore whole than they, and we weren’t seeing the whole picture. We were right just like Jean Arthur’s Clarissa Saunders was right when warned Jefferson Smith to go back home, that he would be broken by these men, and she didn't want to watch it, but like Clarissa we just wanted to protect ourselves from the same. After all that's what cynicism, and sarcasm are best at..protecting us from vulnerability. The shame of feeling fooled, the pain of being hurt, but what we forgot as Clarissa had somewhere along the way, and as Jefferson had for a moment, (until he was reminded of it by Clarissa who was reminded of it by him) is that there is nothing wrong the audacity of hope, the primacy of optimism over skepticism and cynicism. That just because we find out Obama, our black Claude Rains was actually a weathered practitioner of pragmatic ideologies that sustain the status quo, doesn't mean we need toss out his hope with the dirty bath water of neoliberal politics. It doesn't mean that every time somebody brings up the greatest, and most high flying of American ideals to say or remind us what America isn't supposed to be about , that we must shoot them down with the mortar shells of what America is, or always was, because it's only a half truth. America is both, always has been. The ideal, the fantasy of America is every bit as important as the reality because if we never had the former, and the collective Jefferson Smith's who had faith in the promise of America despite the continued deference of the dream, and despite evidence to the contrary we wouldn’t have made near any of the progress we have. We have to stop insisting people who are willing to fight, wear the exact same armor as us. Jefferson Smith is no soft peddling coddler of injustice or even unfairness merely because he believes in the dream. He's out there punching out journalists for their mockery of the profession, and literally standing up to corporate bullies like Taylor, literally, the difference is what's underneath it all...”A little bit of plain ordinary kindness, and a little looking out for the other guy too”....

Lost causes

Ultimately when I found in this revisitation of Frank Capra’s beloved classic is the same love many others had found before me . I found three of the greatest performances in American film history. James Stewart as a dandelion beautiful and fragile, but susceptible to a the violent winds of indifference crashing against his extremities, and then as a whirlwind himself of frustration, righteous anger, and indignation. When he yells out "I will not yield!" I shook with relatability rather than a callous sarcasm that snapped back "about damn time". It’s a no holds barred, all encompassing impassioned performance that embodies the physical, and mental, as well as the spiritual. I seen Jean Arthur right there with him, dealing out searing, rattling téte-a-téte sarcasm with multiple beats that hung in the unspooled spaces of my mind well after they were said before being crashed into by the next. I saw her transforming to a woman bustling with fervent renewed, revitalized energy rooted in pure hope, so that when she was praying that Jefferson would be able to make it through the final hurrah, it was embedded in a sincerity so rare I forgot she was acting. And finally I saw Claude Rains as Senator Paine serving up one of the most complex villains (If he could be called such ) I've ever seen. He reminded me of cinematic folk like Jack Vincennes from LA Confidential, or even Aaron Eckhart from the Dark Knight , charming, noble, with vicious undercurrents. Men who lost their nobility running into the same walls of futility as the Jeffersons of the world, all the more engraving in my mind the importance of Jefferson Smiths, and more importantly of hope. I found Hope, incorrigible, and defiant, I found optimism in its most sincere form, righteous anger, great camera shots, and the ethos of what it could be to be an american if we dream big enough, without feeling the least bit corny or dated...

Jimmy Stewart's moving speech at the end of Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington".

Men and Women and all other Identifiable folk who go to bat for the lost causes should be the last to give up on kindness, or as Dr. Cornel West said sweetness in the struggle, nor imagination, or fantasy, not only on art but in our everyday lives. Capra and Lewis R. Foster before him imagined a scenario where someone would stand up to the machine, in the belly and seat of its power, and win and win big, and we need to see that, we need to be reminded of it, because as Angela Davis said, many movements started as just that a fantasy, a dream. Because after all the lost causes aren't only the people, but the ideas that in truth helped to shape this country. The native American as much as the bill of rights. The African, Asian, and Latin American, the gay, lesbian, queer, and Bi, as much as the constitution. Mr. Smith is a reminder of the best of us, the highest of our goals, which may never be attained, but should always be reached and fought for with passion anger and of course kindness. It's okay to want that, it's okay to believe in that, and it's damn sure okay to fight for that. I don't know that TCM added this to their programming because it felt so apropos of the moment, the age of Trump, but I do know that I like so many others know to forge on for those that are the least of us.. what I hope I learned, and continue to carry with me is to continue to fight and feel invigorated by the ideals that represent the most within us. I don't know if it was age, the softening that can happen over multiple viewings, or the age in which we live in, (my belief right now is all of the above, but especially the latter ) but this last viewing of Mr Smith Goes to Washington rocked me, because I needed it now more than ever.