Frank Capra Political Comentator and Propagandist

Frank Capra was born in Sicily on May 18, 1897. In 1903 his family immigrated to the U.S. and moved to Los Angeles. During the First World War Capra served stateside and soon after the war became a naturalized citizen, in 1920. Capra started out his film career slowly in the 1920s eventually acting in the early 1930s and finally directing from the mid 30s on. Frank Capra is best known for " It's a wonderful Life" "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and the "Why We Fight Series". Capra stopped making films in the 1960s and eventually passed away on September 3, 1991.

Frank Capra has the unusual distinction of being a successful political director. While many filmmakers stay as far away from politics as possible, siting that it's box office suicide, Capra takes on political issues in many of his movies; even overtly so in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Donald Willis, who wrote a book on Capra said " Depending on one's Political point of view and on what Capra film or films or parts of Capra films one is talking about, Frank Capra is an advocate of communism, fascism, marxism, populism, conservatism, mccarthyism, new-dealism, anti-hooverism, jingoism, socialism, capitalism, middle-of-the-road-ism, democracy, or individualism." as this quote so ellequently points out, with subject matter such as politics, whether overt or hidden, people will have strong opinions. That being said Capra cleaned his movies well of any detail that would directly criticize any real individual. This can be seen in Mr. Smith as we never know exactly what state he is from or who the governor is. He did such a good job of this that academic debate still goes on today over exactly what ideologies Capra held.

Frank Capra holds another unusual distinction. Frank Capra helped the Allies win the Second World War by directing the "Why We Fight" series for the department of the Army. This series was Capra's response to Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" a Nazi Propaganda Film; in fact Capra often used footage from Riefenstahl twisting it and putting it in a context advantageous to the U.S. propaganda goals. Capra was given the task of convincing an isolationist nation to go to war on the other side of the world. These films were propaganda and not merely documentaries; whether or not propaganda is acceptable is a debate for a different class, however there is no doubting the series effectiveness in convincing hundreds of thousands of drafted military personel of and the American public of their purpose.

Works cited

Hopwood, John C. "Frank Capra." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 24 May 2011. http://www.imdb.com/

Phelps, Glenn A. "Frank Capra and the Political Hero: A new Reading of "Meet John Doe,." Film cirticism 5.2 (1980): 49-57. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 May 2011.

Willis, Donald C. The Films of Frank Capra,. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1974. Print.