Capra

People who don't know Capra's film often write them off to sappy, sentimentality only. There is more to his films than just that. That is the Capra cliche and it rings true but it is also superficial. There is more and has influenced the best directors for decades including ,my all time favorite, John Cassavetes. IAWL contains aspects to it's characters not wholly seen in movies of that time. It has a happy ending? It ends with the George character adopting a different perspective on life as he is surrounded by friends and family who love him and help out. The next day George is still at the Baily Bros. Building and Loan, still has a wife and four mouths to feed and has always had that network of friends and family whether he knows it or not so what exactly has changed? Our perspective as well.

In another of Capra's films, and another favorite, Hole in the Head, shows an America in the 50s that was not all easy street and tract housing and social conformity. Not everyone had a home, a wife, a mother or a job. It shows economic dependence on family at a time when it was believed the self made man was the absolute and only accepted way to live. The main character is a loser because he wants to be one, there is no oppressive situation offered as an excuse. It doesn't end with the main character striking it rich or even shaping up but an acceptance of this flawed individual by his family who will support him indefinitely.

John Cassavetes on Ray Carney's American Vision :

"It is such a pleasure to see energy flow in a positive direction. I share [Ray Carney's] love for Capra...in my estimation the greatest of all American directors, a man who was so beautiful, so forgiving, so democratic, so damned talented, so full of life and energy that his films patrol the imagination of America today. He represents a country that perhaps never was. We see his heavies and they are the mighty, the unbeatable, no longer caring until they are made to care by the innocent persistence of the heroes. The villains continue to be greedy until Capra's people make them realize that there's joy to living.... He is the American dream."

Ironically, Cassavetes' true hero among directors was a filmmaker one would hesitate to associate with his raw domestic dramas--Frank Capra, director of such classics as Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and It's a Wonderful Life. "Those films showed the beauty of people having some kind of hope and dignity no matter on what strata of society they moved," said Cassavetes. "That quality has been lost in filmmaking--sentimentality, lots of ideals, but that's part of what America is all about. Frank Capra was and still is, in my opinion, the greatest filmmaker that ever lived. Capra created a feeling of belief in a free country and in goodness in bad people, that everyone reaches a limit where they would stop and be sane again, because what they really wanted was to have compassion for other people and live in a spirit of friendliness and brotherhood. Idealism is not sentimental. It validates a hope for the future. Capra gave me hope and in turn I wish to extend a sense of hope to my audiences."