“Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music.” – Frank Capra
I feel safe in saying that much of what I know about being an American, I learned from an Italian.
Almost of Capra’s films seem to harness the spirit of the American dream. That through honest hard work, liberty and freedom anything is attainable, but along with the “dream” Capra also weaves in a nightmare. Mr. Smith is a man of ideas and sentimentality propelled by forces outside of him into a dark world of political corruption. Gary Cooper, who is cast as a retired baseball player, is championed as a populist hero but is a man who is used for political gain and cast aside.
During World War II Capra went on to produce US propaganda films which he would later refer to as his most important works. His eight part series “Why We Fight” was a masterpiece and went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary in 1942.
Perhaps this is testament to who Capra was; the everyman. He started as an impoverished American/Italian immigrant and proceeded to become a cultivator of American ideology. He created America, an America that we would all hope to believe in but an idea that, perhaps Capra knew all to well, was just an idea.
This idea, like all ideas, takes believing to happen.
Indeed, the realization of the “American dream” nearly killed Capra shortly after his first brush with it. After his first true commercial and critical successes as a director in 1934 he was crippled by bouts of depression and nervous breakdowns, ultimately requiring hospitalization. Capra’s own humanity is most present in his masterpiece “It’s A Wonderful Life,” which pulls from both the power of corruption and the power of redemption, and I would argue, his own story.
“It’s A Wonderful Life” was Capra’s first post war film and was a box office disappointment, only much later (1970’s) was it to be regarded as his best work. Because of the amount of involvement he put into the “Why We Fight” series Capra was required to spend hours and hours pouring over war footage. I think it was theses experiences that Capra pulls from in the character of George Bailey. The film is set in the heart of America and it is in this “safety” that George Bailey is twisted and strained by a blindly capitalistic force that compels him to feel he has no other choice but suicide.
This is the first Capra film where the “Mr.” cannot under his own power pull himself out of that abyss of despair.
It is only through an act of God that George is able to find meaning and purpose. George Bailey is someone we know so well because he is Capra, but in fact, there is a bit of George Bailey in all of us. Capra is the master storyteller because he acknowledges that he is also a main character in his own story. Only by living the role of the hopeless are he and George able to find the hope they seek.
Sometimes the dream that is America isn’t always what we hope, but if I learned anything from George Bailey it’s that one man can still make a difference.
“Attaboy, Clarence.”
