James Stewart.

I watched this today. It's about a guy who gets appointed to be senator and without any political experience and tries to get a bill passed. Other senators get in the way and Mr. Smith tries to take them down. A more detailed description can be found, so I won't go any farther.

Overall it was pretty good. There were a few scenes that I felt weren't necessary and sort of slowed down the movie. The ending is really dramatic, but I felt it was a little chopped off. I would've liked it to go on a little farther. Some things are left hanging and I think that ruins it.

I give this an 80/100.

Damn! You beat me to it. This is my movie for tonight. Review will be up later...like 9 hours or so from now.

LOL. I just wanted to say that rebel thing which of course is a line ripped off from (where else?) The Simpsons.

"He's a rebel I tell ya! A rebel without a cause ...just like the boy in that popular movie we saw"

That line is rather similar to his line "It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone"

Okay, here comes the review!

As is probably pretty obvious, this film is about a guy, Mr. Jefferson Smith, who goes to Washington, D.C. He is appointed Senator and his job is to follow along and do what he's told. That's not what happens and the rest goes into more detail than is necessary so that's enough of that.

As for the plot, it starts a little slow. The way Smith was chosen to be appointed was almost comical, but that's okay - you knew he was going to be picked so it didn't really matter how they did it. Smith's arrival in Washington is a little dull to watch, but it shows his ideals which are important throughout the film so these scenes are, in retrospect, necessary. Once everything was finally established the plot got pretty good. Without giving away too much plot information, I thought the ending felt a little rushed. It pretty much told the viewer what they needed to know, so I guess it was okay but I'd have liked to see the movie be another ten minutes long or so. Also, while Stewart's filibuster scene was probably the most memorable one in the film there is a slight problem - in 1917 Woodrow Wilson adopted a way to end a filibuster. The senate could invoke cloture and if a super majority (60% of the Senators) was in agreement they could have forced Mr. Smith to stop talking. Then again, it could be argued that most of the Senators didn't really care about any of this and would have no reason to stop him - only a few of them were corrupt.

This film stars Jean Arthur and James Stewart. Once again, James Stewart does a terrific job. While I tend to like his performance in Vertigo better than this, it was still pretty good - especially during his filibuster in the United States Senate. Arthur also does a pretty good job. She's known mostly for her roles in screwball comedies and that shows a little here. Here character is at times reasonably comical which doesn't appear to be a complete necessity. Despite that, she is still pretty good and these comedic moments don't really distract from the film in any significant ways.

In addition to its entertainment value, this film has an important message - one man can make a difference. Whether or not the viewer believes this may have some sort of effect on their view of the film, but probably not to all that great of an extent - this man did make a difference. Also, this film is at least somewhat useful in teaching the viewer how government works. While it's debatable as to whether government is corrupt like in this film, the basic principles on what a filibuster is, how a bill is passed, etc. are applicable. Because of this, just about every high school political science class will watch at least part of this film when learning about how the Senate works.

Overall, this film is pretty good. It has a few faults as noted earlier, but it is able to more than make up for those. This is one of the most well-received films of all-time and I think it lives up to its billing.

85/100
B

UP NEXT: Why not something that'll almost certainly be terrible - The Sunshine Boys.

Loved this one -- 90/100

And I thought I was a high scorer...

Wow an 85/100...I'm

I think I would give this about an 92/100.

For those of you that are fans of this movie and The Simpsons you should check out the episode "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" which is an outstanding episode and references this movie quite heavily.

If you're really a fan perhaps check out "Beyond Blunderdome" which guest stars Mel Gibson who stars in a remake of this movie. This episode is pretty bad though so be careful.

10/100 for this movie

just didnt enjoy it as much
watched it along time ago

That last post got me to thinking. I haven't explicitly said this is any of my reviews but this should be said in every film that gets a good review (especially if it was made prior to 1960).

For the love of God DO NOT remake this film. There are people on IMDb.com suggesting this film should be remade and offering their casting opinions. Remaking a film can never accomplish anything meaningful unless it was a terrible film to begin with. I mean why not repaint the Mona Lisa but larger? Any remade classic will lose 25 points during the opening credits and be further penalized from there.

The following two films are supposedly going to be remade in the next year or two:
The Birds
East of Eden
Who in their right mind would think that is a good idea? Nobody, and I mean nobody, is Alfred Hitchcock. While I wasn't particularly fond of The Birds there is absolutely no reason to remake it. At least in Hitchcock's version all those birds were real, live birds. A new one will be noting but CGI crap.

Then there's East of Eden. I haven't seen that yet but how can you remake that? Who are you going to get to play James Dean's character? Dean isn't the greatest actor ever but you can't get anyone like him. It has often been said that dying was a great career move for Dean. Whoever plays him would need to die tragically in their early- to mid-twenties as well and good luck finding someone to volunteer for that.

EDIT: Well, that's two very long posts that have nothing to do with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington