Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

2000 • 130 minutes

About this movie

Jean Arthur, James Stewart and Claude Rains star in Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, the award-winning 1939 classic about an idealistic, small town senator who heads to Washington and suddenly finds himself single-handedly battling ruthless politicians out to destroy him. When Frank Capra decided to film the novel "The Gentleman From Montana", he ran into an obstacle Director Rouben Mamoulian owned the rights to the story. Unwilling to sell, Mamoulian eventually traded the material to Columbia on the condition that he be allowed to direct Golden Boy. As Capra began working on the film, now called MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, it was suggested that Gary Copper, the star of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, take the lead. Capra selected Jimmy Stewart instead and the film solidified Stewart's movie career, garnering him his first Academy Award® nomination. Receiving a total of eleven 1939 Oscar® nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director), and winning one (Best Motion Picture Story), MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is considered one of Capra's, Stewart's and Columbia's finest films. It also marked the end of an era. It was Capra's final film for the studio. © 1939, renewed 1967 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ratings and reviews

The only reason i wpuld ever run for congress. Jimmy stewart plays a man who embodies the american expectations of what the government is supposed to do. He is the equivilent to a den leader in boy scouts, who bought land for the organization ajd put it in their name. Jimmy is elected at the begest of the people and instead of being able to go immediately to work for his constituents, he is accused of stealing the boy scout donations to pay for the land to put in his own pocket. An innocent jimmy performs a passionate filibuster repeatedly declaring his innocence until it nearly kills him. Ladies and gents, our congress should be more like jimmy stewart.

Great movie and idea overall, but it should have been longer. They didn't tie up the loose ends! A fourth grader could have written this for a conclusion - "and then he fainted, and the other guy admitted he lied, and everybody cheered. The End."

Every American needs to see this film, and not just once. Whenever we lose faith in the lofty principles that our government might not live up to, we should be reminded that those ideals will never die, so long as we can still cheer for Mr. Jefferson Smith.