Mr Smith Goes To Washington Essay

In the United States, politics is always present in our daily lives. Politics is important because it shapes the way we live our lives. We live in a society where there is order and stability but also liberty and freedom of speech and it is because of the well-structured constitution written by The Framers at the Philadelphia Convention of 1789. Watching the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington made me learn about concepts of American politics in a way that was entertaining and not at all boring. It is a fascinating film with an excellent script and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to have fun while also learning about politics.

The beginning of the movie starts when a senator from an unnamed state dies and the governor, named Hubert

Hopper, has the task of finding a replacement for the deceased senator. The governor belongs to and follows orders from a wealthy person named Jim Taylor, who also has other senators and government officials under his order. The governor is in limbo because he does not know who to choose as a senator. Jim Taylor wants the governor to choose a person who is unpopular with the people and media, while the people and media want the governor to choose a more popular candidate who fights for people’s rights. In the end, the governor goes with his children’s suggestion of Jefferson Smith as senator after he flips a coin to decide on which to choose of two candidates. The coin lands standing up on a newspaper that talks about Jefferson Smith and that makes the governor decide for Smith. Smith moves to Washington DC to represent his state as a senator and is mentored by the other senator from his state, Joe Payne. Joe Payne was a friend of Smith’s late father and is also secretly a corrupt official working under Jim Taylor. While he’s at Washington, Jim Taylor’s corrupt political associates, along with Joe Paine, try to distract Smith so that he will not interfere with their plans. Joe Paine suggests to Jefferson Smith that he should write a bill and Smith decides to write a bill that says that all children should explore and live in a campsite during the summer. Although his secretary, Ms. Saunders, does not like Smith, she ends up liking him and helps him write the bill. Smith introduces the bill to the senate and although many like his proposition, the corrupted officials are against him because his chosen campsite for the project is part of another proposition that includes building a dam in that area. In order to distract Smith from learning about the other bill, he is set up on a date with Joe Paine’s daughter, whom he likes a lot, on the day that the senate talk about the bill.
Afterwards, a drunk Ms. Saunders tells Smith the truth on why he was set up on a date with Paine’s daughter. When Smith finds out the truth, he asks Joe Paine if it’s true. After Smith finds out, the corrupt people in the senate, along with Jim Taylor, want to stop him from ruining their plan. Even though Joe Paine does not want to harm Smith, he stays with Jim Taylor because Jim reminded Joe that most of his power comes from his association with him. After Jim Taylor advises Smith to not get in his way and Smith declines, Jim decides to make Smith look like a liar in an attempt to ruin his senate career. This is accomplished by accusing Smith of trying to gain profit of his own bill. Joe Paine demands that the senator should be recalled because of this new found “evidence”. After this incident, Smith becomes depressed and decides to move back to his state but is stopped by Ms. Saunders, who tells him not quit and to fight to show his innocence. With her help, Smith sets up a filibuster in the senate in order to prove his innocence and to stop the dam building bill to be passed. In order to stop Smith from achieving his goal, Jim Taylor uses all of his media influences, through multiple newspapers and radios, to stop them from displaying Smith from reporting what he is saying and even accusing him by distorting what he is actually saying. Even though the Boy Rangers try to help Smith by spreading their newspaper around the state, they are stopped and harmed by Jim Taylor’s goons. After speaking for almost 24 hours, the senators start paying attention to Smith but he is stopped when Paine brings in baskets of letters stating what the people from his state think of Smith. Smith collapses from exhaustion and Paine attempts a failed suicide after feeling guilty. After his attempted suicide, Paine tells the senate that he should be the one to be recalled and not Smith because he is the one who is corrupt. Paine’s confession demonstrated to the senate that Smith was indeed innocent.
In the movie, there are a lot of political and governmental concepts that we have covered in class but the two biggest concepts that the movies explains is the concept of a filibuster and the usage of mass media.

According to the Oxford dictionary, a filibuster is “an action, such as a prolonged speech, that obstructs progress in a legislative assembly while not technically contravening the required procedures”. In politics, a filibuster is usually used so that one can obstruct the progress of a bill, or to convince the senate to work on another bill. In the film Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Jefferson Smith does a filibuster to prove his innocence and to obstruct the progress of the dam building bill. Smith achieves this by speaking nonstop for 24 hours without sitting down, in an attempt to make the people in the senate and the people of his state understand that he is innocent. Performing a filibuster in the senate requires the speaker “to not yield,” which means that a speaker must not sit down while speaking so that he can continue on with a filibuster. Another concept that the film portrays perfectly is the usage of mass media. Mass media according to our notes is defined as a “linkage mechanism, such as television, radio, newspaper, magazines, and the internet, capable of rapidly communicating information to large numbers of people over large distances.” Since the film’s setting is the 1930’s, the media that was used in order to rapidly communicate information were newspapers, radio, and magazines. In the film, the radio and newspaper are used to spread information in different ways. At the start of the film, the newspaper is used in a big way to make fun of Smith by calling him dumb when he is interviewed by journalists shortly after he arrived in Washington DC. Later in the film, when Smith is performing a filibuster, the majority of the newspapers and radio stations speak negatively of Smith and are do not even mention his filibuster due to Jim Taylor’s

wealth and ownership of many of the biggest media outlets. In these scenes, you can see how differently news media outlets can present news with bias, depending on the owner’s ideals. Local newspapers are also shown in the film when the Boy Rangers try to spread newspapers declaring the innocence of Smith. The usage of mass media in the film as a way to present political news shows how news plays an important role in politics because they can present the news to the people in both a biased and non-biased way.
Overall, I believe the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was an excellent film and I enjoyed watching it. The quality of the acting was really good and made you feel all the emotions. Due the quality of the acting and the quality of the script, the film made you laugh and made you feel raw emotion. The acting of every actor was excellent, but in my opinion, the best acting came from the three main actors; which were James Stewart (Jefferson Smith), Jeans Arthur (Clarissa Saunders) and Claude Rains (Joe Paine). James Stewart’s acting was top notch, in that he made you feel invested in the movie by making you feel what he is feeling throughout the film. Claude Rains performance as Senator Joe Paine was also magnificent as he played the role of a man who had been corrupt for so long but deep inside had feelings that stopped him from being a complete villain. Jeans Arthur was one of the best actresses in the film and her cynicism made the film a pleasure to watch because her cynicism and views made for funny scenes in the film. The quality of the script was good in the sense that it was well structured and had no plot holes. Every scene in the movie flowed smoothly from one scene to the next and it was partly due to the excellent script written by the screenwriters and directors. The soundtrack was excellent in portraying the different moods as well: accurately portraying when a scene was sad, funny, curious, etc. The film was pleasure to watch. I would certainly watch it again and recommend it to other people.
I believe the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington would be a good choice to show in a Political Science 1 class like ours to advance the students’ understanding of the U.S. political system. This movie would be a good choice because it would teach students about the many governmental and political terms and concepts. Some terms and concepts that students would be able to learn from this movie would be a filibuster, the political definition of a compromise, the making of a bill, steering committee, senate elections back in the early 1900’s, and how media makes an important role in politics. They would also learn a little about the history of politics in the early 1900’s. Even though this movie was made a long time ago, it still depicts many accurate details on how the senate house runs, along with how media plays an important role in politics. This major motion picture would be an excellent choice in helping beginning students in political science to understand how the political system in the United State works.
The film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a marvelous film and everybody should watch it, if they want to learn politics in an entertaining manner. It is a good film to learn about politics because it is about Jefferson Smith, who gets picked as a Senator for his state thinking that he would be easily manipulated but ultimately proving the corrupt political members wrong. Throughout the film, you learn a variety of political and governmental concepts but the two best concepts that are portrayed in the film is a filibuster and the usage of mass media in politics and government. Due to the movie’s magnificent script and acting, the film is easy to watch while also learning about political concepts. Because the film was so well made, it should be shown in introductory political science classes such as POLSC 1, due to how significant the film’s plot is in the U.S. history of politics. The film is great and could always be watched just for entertainment.