Does Mr. Smith ever go to Washington?

I’m not sure I would have seen this amazing movie if I had not gone to film school.  Back then, there were days I would see four movies a day and there are only a few I can still remember.  But there is one movie from my American Film course that has been on my mind a lot lately: Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

If you have not seen that movie, let me take you to Wikipedia to introduce its impact: “When it was first released – the film premiered in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., on October 17, 1939, sponsored by the National Press Club, an event to which 4000 guests were invited, including 45 senators – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was attacked by the Washington press, and politicians in the U.S. Congress, as anti-American and pro-Communist for its portrayal of corruption in the American government.” 

It gets worse: “It is known that Alben W. Barkley, the Senate Majority Leader, called the film “silly and stupid,’ and said it “makes the Senate look like a bunch of crooks.”  He also remarked that the film was “a grotesque distortion” of the Senate, “as grotesque as anything ever seen! Imagine the Vice President of the United States winking at a pretty girl in the gallery in order to encourage a filibuster!” Barkley thought the film “…showed the Senate as the biggest aggregation of nincompoops on record!”

“The film was banned in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Russia and Falangist Spain. According to Capra, the film was altered in certain European countries to make it conform with official ideology.”

“When a ban on American films was imposed in German-occupied France in 1942, some theaters chose to show Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as the last movie before the ban went into effect. One theater owner in Paris reportedly screened the film nonstop for 30 days after the ban was announced.” 

What I remember and love about the film is its affirmation of decency, (even) in politics, way back when Mr. Smith was the embodiment of his constituents’ interests and needs.  Politics back then may not have been as civilized as portrayed by Mr. Smith, but decency mattered. I watched last White House Correspondents Dinner on the C-SPAN website and a few things registered high on my PR Richter scale.  Was it really necessary to make all those ad hominem attacks from Mother’s Day to kidney failure?

Now, you must be wondering what this has to do with executive communications.  The same thing as in politics: decency matters.