Mr Smith Goes to Washington Movie Questions

The main plot of the movie, Mr. Smith goes to Washington is a conflict between Jeff Smith, Senator Paine, and Jim Taylor. A senator of a state passed away causing a new senator needing to be appointed. Jim Taylor a local publicist who had pull around the Senate, pressured the governor to select Jefferson Smith. He was appointed as the new Senator of the State, because everyone thought that he was incompetent, naive, and would not get in their way. However when Smith passed a clever bill that got in the way of Jim Taylor’s scandal, Jim and Senator Paine tried to do whatever they could to get Jeffrey expelled from the Senate.

The film, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” presents the Senate in a little different fashion than that of the Senate today in real life. The first obvious difference is that the Senate in the movie is still elected by the state legislature, basically the Governor, meaning that the setting of the film would have to be sometime before 1911 and the passage of the 17th amendment Senate] The difference is that today Senators are directly elected by the popular vote of the people.

4. Jefferson acknowledged the audience, Congress, in his inaugural speech. He also referred to George Washington ("our first and greatest revolutionary character"). Did he mention his predecessor, John Adams? Did he refer to Adams's policies? What do you make of this?

“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” Mr. Smith was too naive to survive as a senator during the time the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” took place. Mr. Smith’s naiveté was most evident in his ambitious proposal to start a national boys camp. However, when false allegations regarding Mr. Smith’s motives for starting the camp surfaced, Smith was too idealistic to defend himself from the political machine that accused him of acting in self-interest. Making matters worse, Senator Smith was a genuinely honest and simple-minded man, making it difficult for him to survive among his scheming colleagues.

Summary: In Chapter 1, Hudson addresses the distorted views of democracy from modern-day Americans. He explains how separation of power within the government lessens the power of American citizens and ultimately alters the ideology behind a true democracy into what we have today.

What does Truman feel about the assertion that there is an inclusive national or public interest?

The film Swing Vote is an American political culture film that relies heavily on film subtext to depict the negative attitude many Americans have towards voting, corruption inside a political election, and the spectacle of media frenzy. While the film gives a light hearted impression of a rare political snafu it is still consistent with the main themes of other political films of manipulation, money lust, and power hungry political heads that will stop at nothing for their own personal gain. We also see the political candidates merely as puppets while their campaign managers are the ones truly calling the shots. Swing Vote is a unique political culture film because due to the ordeal in the film’s plot, the politicians are at a disadvantage when they are usually the ones in power. With the tables turned we see how they construct their corrupt schemes and the direct effect it has on the character representing the American perspective. The strong symbols that convey the cultural norms in America’s political system are in need of a deeper analysis.

It is an exemplary piece of work that truly portrays why American is no longer the greatest country in the world anymore. This movie has many hidden metaphors that portray the directors’ cynicism of the American system. When Bulworth drinks alcohol in front of the media, he instantly captures the attention of the nation. This is a metaphor of how both Republicans and Democrats, along with big business manage to exploit the media and systemically hypnotize the American people. “Everyone knows that big business dominates the two principal parties and the mass media, that things are wretched for masses of people, that race is a diversion, that social inequality is the central issue in American life?” (Walsh:

The danger of politics lead to the principal factor of checks and balances, within the government and Founding Fathers, throughout the “most crucial and consequential [decade] in American history” (27). Politics were also what lead to the quarrel between John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

Internal conflict revolves around fear that one can obtain as Winston Smith had to face the party. He wanted to maintain his values, which is his freedom of thought, trust, expression, along with the truth, as he faces conflict with the party, fighting against it to keep what he believes. Winston believes Julia is someone else, but is the exact opposite of what he believes.

Government, all the way from Capitol Hill down to the small cities across the nation, is filled with the elected officials who represent the citizens of that city and state. When people think about who represents them, who comes to mind first? The Senator? The Representative? The mayor? Despite being categorized at different levels of the government, state and federal, each of these officials are tasked with representing their state and hometowns, and each of their jobs is just as important as the other. Their job, in short, is to represent the interests of the people who elected them into office. In this essay, I will identify the individuals who represent me and evaluate the extent to which I feel represented.

In the current political climate, anything said against the government is deemed unpatriotic by certain areas of the culture. Patriotism is bandied about as a necessity by some, and derided completely by others. But what is true patriotism, and how necessary is it? The film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, made in 1939, was originally condemned for being unpatriotic as it showed the ugly side of American democratic politics at a time where democracies were falling all over Europe. However, the film presents a different view of patriotism that supports the most important part of democracy; the people. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington clearly demonstrates the failures and problems in American democracy, but paints protagonist Jefferson Smith as extremely patriotic, illustrating that patriotism is not a blind stubborn belief that a country is right all of the time, but a wholehearted passion for making said country a better place. This view of patriotism may have seemed critical in 1939, but the movie effectively shows how the citizens really are the most important part of a democracy, and how they can rail against political corruption to truly create a better country.

Imagine yourself in the shoes of Henry Clay, a man who wanted to be president, but never did become president. The closest he got to president was being the Speaker for the House of Representatives. But who was this man? Why was he important? I will answer tese questions in this one single essay!

Despite the rise of oppression and authoritarianism in societies, historically free will always prevails over determinism. Both Steven Spielberg and Arthur Miller in Minority Report and The Crucible, respectively, establish settings ravaged by authoritarianism as a means to embody fundamental concepts regarding the conflict between free will and determinism. Both authors use extensive imagery of religion, symbolism of characters and contrasting images of social responsibility and personal desire to draw attention to their idea that an individual always has choice and the capacity for free will despite the presence of determinism and authoritarianism in society. Spielberg and Miller use this idea as a foundation to establish universal messages connecting conflicting free will and determinism to oppression, suggesting that true freedom exists only when societies stand up to deterministic views designed to bring profit to only a select few.

Essay Question: In what ways does this movie demonstrate the “Iron Triangle” and its powerful influence in the manner that our government functions?