Today's cynicism would sink Capra's movies on American ideals

The other day, by accident, I picked up an old, fat book engagingly called “The Name Above the Title.” It was an autobiography of Frank Capra. Who?, you may ask, if you’re under 80?

Mr. Capra was one of the most successful directors ever to make pictures in the olden, golden, Hollywood. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." "It Happened One Night." Perhaps, most famously, "It’s a Wonderful Life," which many of us see again around Christmas. Dozens of others.

You may also be asking what Frank Capra has to do with the First Amendment. "Mr. Smith," prerelease, was lauded lavishly by the reviewers and the press, and somebody got the bright idea to have a gala opening night in Washington with congressmen, senators, the Washington press corps and many more glitterati in attendance. "Mr. Smith," unfortunately, did not put the assembled multitude in a good light, being all about a Montana rube who comes to Washington and heroically exposes all the humbug.

People walked out of the preview in droves. Then, afterward, there were not-so-veiled threats made against the movie industry for putting out such a movie. Not, thanks to the First Amendment, that Congress could directly censor movies or tell the industry what to make — it’s just that Congress could legislate with respect to issues of antitrust, distributorship methods and such to make its displeasure known. A word to the wise.

That was 1939. Trashing political humbug disappeared from the silver screen for a long time, although it’s far too juicy a topic to stay gone forever.

Flash forward 80-some years and we have an aborted attempt by the Department of Homeland Security to set up an official truth panel, headed by someone who specialized in lies. Takes one to know one, I guess. Anyway, an official governmental censorship and propaganda bureau was just too much to swallow, so now we are back to “a word to the wise” method of letting Facebook, Twitter and others know what the official line is on issues of importance. No one is officially going to tell them what they can do. That would violate the First Amendment. No —  a word to the wise will be more than sufficient, especially since these entities are foursquare in line with the official government wokeness.

After Mr. Capra was warned, Pearl Harbor happened. The powers that be knew how good he was at doing movies which moved (intended) audiences, so they brought him in as Maj. Capra (later colonel), in charge of a classic set of eight short documentaries, “Why We Fight.” Capra movies usually upheld traditional American ideas and ideals. The little guy can make a difference. Decency will win out over evil. America is all about happy endings, even if things look glum at the start. After all, Capra himself rose from penniless Sicilian immigrant to fame and riches. That’s the American dream, and his movies were not shy about saying so.

The federal government had been big in propaganda in World War I and wasn’t shy about doing the same this time, with Capra working his magic again: avoiding crudity, being as honest as possible and always optimistic. Capra made an emphasis on getting Axis films and using their own words against them. Look these up on YouTube.

Lifting up America is now totally passe. A Frank Capra today wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hades for getting his films done. All is now cynicism: the triumph of the oppressors over the oppressed. Endemic, systematic racism everywhere. Victims without number (contrast Capra’s World War II "The Negro Soldier.") The helpless individual, at the mercy of dark forces, were it not for the benevolence of a paternalistic and all-powerful government riding to the rescue.

Anyone taking a Capra-esque point of view will find himself with very limited outlets. The First Amendment may guarantee your right to free speech, but issues no guarantee of a platform from which to speak.

If you feel like an injection of feel good, try a “Capra-corn'' film tonight.

Charles Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Charles Milliken: Today's cynicism would sink Capra's movies