Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

71Worth an evening.

He's naive, the film knows it, and I still ended up on his side of the fight.

The review

People call him simple, and the film already knows he is naive. A boy-scout leader is handed a Senate seat because the machine thinks he will not notice. He notices. There is a filibuster. Jean Arthur and James Stewart. It sides with him anyway. The cynics are the obstacle. I believed that part. The room is full of men who wanted a clean face and a quiet vote.

The bills he reads are the work of that room. A house can watch it. It was a large gross and not the biggest of its year, which changes nothing about the argument. He risks the seat they gave him as a toy. If the children think government is only the people who already know the trick, leave this on. Let them watch somebody read.

Journal

Keep Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 71. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household is the thin one.

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

It's a Wonderful Life

85 instead of 71

It's a Wonderful Life is still a drama film, and it scores 85 instead of 71. What you gain is household: Marriage, children, a drafty house.

The eight

8
Industry
The work of the room is the bills a new senator actually reads.
3
Household
He is a scout leader, not a spouse or a parent whose life is the plot.
8
Piety
He notices what the machine hoped he would miss, and will not play along.
8
Courage
The filibuster risks the seat they gave him because they thought him safe.
9
Republic
A machine appoints a senator, and he treats the chamber as a debt.
6
Temperance
The easy prize is the machine's favor, and he will not take it.
8
Truth
They appointed him on a bet he would not see, and the bet fails.
7
Stewardship
He leaves a filibuster, and bills somebody in that room had to read.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Mr. Smith Goes to Washington · 71IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Walt Disney · 2018

Pass it on

Black Panther

71Worth an evening.

A nation owes the people it hid from. A king still has to keep the nation.

The review

Killmonger is not a twist. He is what happens when a nation saves itself and leaves a child in the other place. T'Challa's answer is not to hand him the weapons. It is to stop pretending the border was innocent, and still not to burn the country down to pay for it.

Watch the argument, not only the suit. A house can ask the same question at a smaller size: whom did we leave outside, and what will we open without giving the place away.