Mr Smith goes to Washington (1939) - Film directed by Frank Capra, staring James Stewart.

* * * *

An interesting political comedy/drama which deals with corruption within the US senate. Stewart plays a naive, small-town man who is brought into the senate by powerful men who believed they could control him for their corrupt gains. Obviously Stewart's character isn't as manipulatable as they believed and everything some differences of opinions ensue ending in a climatic filibuster. 

For a film that has such a dark view of the US government there are a lot of comical moments and characters, which is pleasant surprise. There were genuinely funny moments that caused laughter but also the characters weren't just there for gags and were quite endearing. Stewart's in particular was delightfully awkward and relatable because he was a little fish in the ocean. There were a diversity of  characters, women and men (although considerably more men) and although it did seem to pit everyone against each other a lot there were also nice relationships formed between characters.

A David vs Goliath plot which is quite a familiar trope in Hollywood but in the 1930s this was quite a controversial film. As a Brit I saw the film as incredibly patriotic towards America, because the hero seemed to stand for everything America likes to project to the world, however at the time there was a lot of back-lash because they showed the senate as a corrupt place. For a modern audience it is an almost daily that we are reminded of the corruption of government and big-business but it is interesting to watch this film and remember that it wasn't simply following normal customs of the day.

Despite the film being made over 70 years ago it doesn't really feel dated. Stewart gives a performance that is matchable to today's style of acting rather than the stiffer style I'm used to seeing in older films. Modern audiences probably watch this and take away very different messages from the film than they did 70 years ago but it is still thoroughly enjoyable. Political dramas are difficult to manage and make interesting but the use of comedy was well worked in and made this a really good film.