The governor's kids are all horrible child actors, and they squawk at their dad, encouraging him to appoint a "Boy Ranger" leader (like Boy Scout, but fake), Jefferson Smith, as the new senator. Jeff Smith just saved a bunch of kittens from a fire or something and he's a local hero. They say he's the most American man in the whole wide world, and he knows everything about American trivia and history. The governor thinks that his constituents will eat that up, and the naive Smith will still vote how the others want him to.
So Mr. Smith gets the job and goes to...wait for it...Washington. He's super naive and gosh-shucky and he tells Sen. Paine that his father used to work for him and he knows he's a super great guy and totally not corrupt and stuff. Then some staffers pick him up at the train station in DC and tell him to go to his office, but Smith is so in awe of DC that he goes on a tour of the Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, etc and shows up five hours late. What a dick.
So he meets his staff; some guy and also a pretty lady named Claudette Saunders. Saunders is none-too impressed with Smith's golly-gee attitude and says she didn't come to DC to "carry bibs for an infant with little flags in his fists". Heh. Good one, Saunders.
So then Mr. Smith goes to Congress and walks into the floor of the Senate and is totally blown away by how awesome it all is. Yeah, it would be pretty awesome, I must admit.
The press surround him and ask him what he plans to do as Senator, what changes would he like in his state. Smith stutters for a bit in that imitable Jimmy Stewart way, then says he'd like to build a national park for his Boy Rangers. And how much would that cost? Nothing! We'd just borrow the money from the government and the boys would pay it back week after week, with a dime here and a nickel there.
Then red, white, and blue syrup begins oozing from Smith's every pore and the ghost of George Washington starts frenching him and the press applauds.
Okay, not really. But that's still a more likely scenario than the Boy Rangers paying back the government with nickels and dimes.
So the press gets him to pose for silly photos and then misquotes him and embarrasses him and basically point out that he's a minnow in a sea of sharks. So when the papers come out the next morning, Smith goes running around town punching out reporters. Which was...totally acceptable for a Senator to do in the 30's?
(BTW, I don't know when "senator" is supposed to be capitalized and when it's not. Please forgive me).
Smith goes to his gal Saunders and says he'd like help in drafting a bill to loan the money to the Boy Rangers. He says he wants to skip dinner and get it done tonight. Saunders patronizingly asks Smith if he knows what goes into making a bill a law. He doesn't.
So she tells him to imagine that she's a bill. Yes, only a bill. And she's sitting there on Capitol Hill.
She explains about committees and subcommittees and that the House and Senate need to reconcile the bills and have them voted on again and by the time she's done, he's completely demoralized. She thinks she's talked him out of it, but instead he's like, so we skip dinner then, right?
And just like that, she's smitten.
So the first draft of the bill is done, and Smith presents it on the floor of the Senate and the land he wants to build on is right next to...Willow Creek! Paine says that they're already building a dam there, but Smith says he's confused. He's been there, and there's no need for a dam, so Paine and a couple other corrupt senators have a private meeting with Smith and Taylor where Taylor basically tells him to do what he says and he'll have a long, prosperous life in the Senate, but if he disobeys, Taylor will "break him". Smith is heartbroken to learn that Paine is bought and paid for.
The next day in the Senate, Paine stands up and says that unfortunately, he's discovered evidence that Smith owns Willow Creek, and he was trying to get the government to buy it and give it to the Boy Rangers so he could make a profit! Smith's flabbergasted. Paine unloads a pile of evidence, including contracts signed by Smith when he supposedly bought the land and when Smith denies the signatures are his, Paine produces signature experts that claim otherwise. All the while, Taylor smokes his cigars and goes bwa ha ha in the background and Paine starts to feel conflicted.
Meanwhile, Smith is disillusioned and heart broken and Saunders comforts him with her womanly sympathy.
About a week later, the Senate reconvenes to vote to expel Smith. But Smith is rejuvenated by Saunders' faith in him, and vows to fight back. He's given the chance to speak in his own defense before his expulsion vote and he begs the Senate to give him a week to find evidence to prove his innocence. The President of the Senate (aka the Vice President of the U.S.) denies him, and so Smith decides to refuse to yield the floor. As long as he's got the floor, no vote can take place. Yes, it's a filibuster. Smith accuses Paine and others of being in Taylor's back pocket and exposes the dam building scheme, and from up in the galley, pretty Saunders cheers him on. Paine affects great outrage and says he refuses to stand for this and walks out. Soon, all the rest of the senators follow him. Then Saunders signals Smith to look at rule no 53 in his Being a Senator for Dummies handbook, and Rule 53 states that if senators walk out, those remaining can vote to compel the others to return. Since Smith is the only one remaining, it's an easy vote. The others are compelled to return.
The media goes wild, but since Taylor/Murdoch owns the media in his state, they're all instructed to paint the story as if Smith is a guilty man desperately trying to stay out of trouble, and none of his accusations about Taylor are being reported. They also explain the filibuster rules: The speaker can't sit. The speaker can't stop talking. The senators compelled to stay can't leave the room. Man, I'd love to see this shit now in real life. Could you imagine?! So much fun! Saunders encourages Smith to read aloud from the Constitution, which he does. Saunders finds out that no one is Smith's state is getting the real news, so she dispatches the Boy Rangers to print their own flyers and start passing them around all over the state. This state must be Rhode Island or Delaware, because otherwise this doesn't seem like a feasible plan. At Pro-Paine rallies, the Boy Rangers try to rush the stage and speak the truth, but are dragged out by Taylor's goons. A bunch of Boy Rangers in a go cart are throwing flyers out into the wind in town, and are forcibly run off the road by a carload of Taylor guys! Yeesh.
Meanwhile, Smith keeps talking. This goes on for 27 hours. Smith's voice his raw and almost gone. He speaks about truth, justice and the something something something. The other senators are actually listening, now. Some of them wonder why he's fighting so hard if he's guilty. Paine says either they believe this new guy or him! They fall in line, but seem to do so reluctantly.
Finally, Paine interrupts Smith to bring in what he says are 50,000 telegrams from the people of "my state" (sigh. Just name the fucking state already. What is this, The Simpsons?) urging Smith to give up. Smith reads a couple and his face crumples in defeat. But then he sees Saunders smiling at him from up in the galley, and he straightens up, and points his finger at a guilty-looking Paine and correctly guesses that the people in "my state" are not getting the full story. And he'll press on no matter what, until they do.
Then he passes out.
Several senators rush to his aide while Saunders screams and Paine backs out of the room. A senator says he's all right, he's just passed out, but then a gunshot goes off. Everyone runs towards it to discover Paine with a gun fighting of a page who's struggling with him. They wrestle the gun from Paine's hands and he staggers out into the Senate floor and screams that Smith is innocent confesses to everything.
And then we cut to black.
Review: No, really. We cut to black right there. No joyful triumphant reunion between Smith and Saunders, no Taylor getting arrested, nothing. We don't even see Smith regain consciousness. Super strange, but I liked it. In fact, working backwards, the whole last half hour or so, with the filibuster standoff was pretty damn great. Suspenseful and without too much sentiment and really fun to watch and imagine what a real-life scenario like that would be like. I'm quite the political junkie myself, so love political thrillers where everyone is scheming and duplicitous, in real life and in the movies. It's always like heroin to me. I just want more and more! And this version delivered at the end, but we took a long time getting there. The build up is slow, and Smith's naivete was at times too ridiculous to be believed. It was also a bit inconsistent. He's spoken of as a political buff who knows American history inside and out and yet he has no idea how a bill becomes a law. It was also annoying that the words "democrat" or "republican" never passed anyone's lips, which creates an artificial tone to the whole thing, kind of like with the made-up football teams in Any Given Sunday. I get that the movie didn't want to be partisan, but they could've resolved that by making the "bad" senators belong to both parties. And don't get me started on them refusing to name the state Smith is from. Why? What possible reason did they have for that? Is was just clunky and dumb.
Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur (Saunders) were both very good in their roles, as was the guy playing Paine, but many of the supporting characters where still doing the Olden Times acting shtick, with the funny voices and the stylized mannerisms. Not sure why Capra would let them get away with that.
In short, there's a lot to bitch about, but man, that last half hour was dynamite. This is my second Capra film, but already I can see he's a master manipulator of emotion just like Spielberg. And I mean that as a total compliment.
Stars: Three and a half out of five.
Next, is racism good or bad? Find out, with "To Kill a Mockingbird", and then speaking of blatant manipulation, it's "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial". I hope I manage not to cry this time.
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