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Mr Smith Goes To Washington Analysis

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I recently got to watch the classic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, though this was not my first choice of movie I still sat down to watch it. This film directed by Frank Capra, set in the late 1930s and stars James Stewart as the male lead, Jefferson Smith. In the beginning of this motion picture, one of the senators in Jeff’s state passes away, the governor chooses Jeff Smith to represent that state in Washington. One of the first things he does there is write up a bill for an all boys camp. The bill automatically gets stopped by Taylor, the man behind the political machine in Washington. The film takes us on a journey of Jeff Smith’s fight to take down this machine on his own. Judging based on appearance, this is a nice black and white movie, a classic look for a classic film. I like the fact that this was not reshot in color because, since it was black and white there was not any distraction that the audience could focus on. …show more content…

Narrative helped tell the story of Jeff and how he tries to beat Washington. If there was no narrative then there wouldn’t have been an a actual story to tell. Narrative is what bring the theme to life. Through storytelling the themes of political machines and how one person can make a huge difference. Smith was the only one that wanted to fight this machine, that everyone kept quiet about. Smith, alone, could possibly make a big change in Washington. Another element used in this film is mise en scene, specifically the lighting. The lighting helped the audience indicate which character was good and which one were bad. The darker the character was hidden in a shadow, the more evil they were. This also helped to establish the theme of good versus evil. Smith was the good guy, and taylor and the machine were the evil guys. This movie showed that one person can make absolute difference in society for standing up for what they believe

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