Please do NOT add Frank Capra!!! It’s bad enough they have Michael Bay, do we really need another over sentimental hack mentioned among the greats?
Really, Frank Capra as bad as Michael Bay?
But regarding the OP’s point, yes I agree. I’m surprised they didn’t have any listed already though.
All I can say is that I agree with not having Capra on the site. Capra is one of the most enigmatic and essential filmmakers in the medium’s history and I see no reason for him to not have his own page on this excellent site.
To me Capra’s movies are Americana, and many, CapraCorn. They are so American.
All I will say is that if you see any link at all between Capra and Bay’s films you should have your examined.
Banal: Definitely. The fact is, the man was good at making the kind of films he did. :)
Frank Capra’s influence on filmmakers and American society as a whole is more than enough reason for him and his filmography to be added to the auteurs database. I can understand why some people dislike his style, being sentimental and corny at times but his influence on cinema today (which is probably mostly indirect) is undeniable. How many of us have never seen It’s a Wonderful Life?
I think the common criticism of Capra that his movies are sentimental (or corny) is pretty ridiculous. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a great example. Yes, Mr. Smith is personally full of sentimentality and naive ideas about America, but the whole point is the extent to which his ideas are at odds with reality. The movie is unrelenting in its portrayal of the american government as thoroughly corrupt (conspiring with the wealthy and with the news media to swindle the public). Actually I can’t think of too many movies either from the time or since that paint a more unpleasant picture of American government (e.g. the Senate majority leader of the time noted that it “makes the Senate look like a bunch of crooks”). And while it has a happy ending, it’s not like the system ends up working in the end—-things only end well because Mr. Smith at the last minute finally gets lucky and manages to appeal to the conscience of one of the conspirators (not exactly a celebration of the resiliency of American democracy).
Anyway, the guy made It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, It’s a Wonderful Life and a few other all-time great movies. He’s a truly great director.
Mathias: The interesting, and sad, thing is that after It’s a Wonderful Life he seemed to sort of ‘fizzle out’ like alot of other ‘studio’ directors as time went on. After IaWL, you don’t really think of any other ‘great’ Capra films.
I agree with you Mathias. If you watch the guy’s movies he never relents in showing the dark side. In It’s A Wonderful Life, George is on the edge of suicide. Same as Meet John Doe. Sure, in the end he believes the human spirit will triumph. Does that make him dishonest? Because he’s not cynical? I don’t think so. He sees the good and the bad in people, but deep down believes in goodness more. Sure, there’s a cheesy line every now and then, but his movies were also made in the 30s and 40s. Nobody really makes movies the way he does anymore and to me that’s a damn shame.
I don’t particularly like Capra’s movies. The man never met an idea so gritty he couldn’t back off from it at the last minute. But he does deserve his page.
“Please do NOT add Frank Capra!!! It’s bad enough they have Michael Bay, do we really need another over sentimental hack mentioned among the greats?”
?????!
My God.
Harry Long, I’m not sure what you mean by “The man never met an idea so gritty he couldn’t back off from it at the last minute.” Do you just mean that his movies generally have happy endings?
Frank Capra?
LOLOLOLOL
Really, you’re all so mad that I compared Capra to Bay. I suppose it would it be more appropriate to compare him to Leo McCarey or Stanley Donen, both of which I personally find over-rated, uninspired and to be blunt, not very good. I compared Capra to Bay because much like Bay, he attempts to be sentimental yet falls terribly short, and don’t give me the Mr. Smith Goes to Washington argument, even awful director’s receive a flash of brilliance. To put Capra next to the likes of Fassbinder, Truffautt, Kurosawa or Ozu is insulting to their memory.
So, once again, please do NOT add Capra!!
>> Do you just mean that his movies generally have happy endings?<,
I mean that his movies tend to have tacked-on happy endings that feel like they dropped in from another universe from the rest of the movie.I can admire JOHN DOE and WONDERFUL LIFE until about ten minutes before their endings.
Even Claude Rains & the screenwriter for MR. SMITH thought the old senator’s sudden “Oh my god, I’m a shit!” turnaround and attempted suicide was unbelievable, but Capra insisted.
I’m not against happy endings, but Capra’s feel imposed on the material rather than the logical conclusions to it.
That’s partly why, the other reason is that his work is stylistically indiscernible from the other “studio” director’s of the time. I subscribe to the auteur theory of the french new wave and therefore find Capra’s work unimaginative, uninspired, etc, etc…
Justin said: “Nobody really makes movies the way he does anymore and to me that’s a damn shame.”
I say: Amen to that.
Capra is essential, and It’s a Wonderful Life contains the most heartbreaking and satisfying ending in American cinema, not to mention Stewart’s performance, which is one the finest you’ll ever see.
Frank Capra was a great director of actors and, his films looked great and had such breakneck pace. He was obviously talented. What got him screwed up was his thinking, his polemics. I am not a fan of Mr Deeds or Mr Smith but I can recognize Capra’s extraordinary skill. He cannot be dismissed. What is the point in having only people you love in your Pantheon. Don’t you want to question everything so that you can figure out why you feel the way you feel.
“I subscribe to the auteur theory of the french new wave and therefore find Capra’s work unimaginative, uninspired, etc, etc…”
Cancel your subscription to this theory, you don’t understand it. The theorists of the new wave looked more closely at a director’s work than you are. Capra had a very distinct style, as did McCarey and even Donen. Much like the folks the new wave gang were trying to persuade, you’re only seeing the things you don’t like. Watch his films again, perhaps 4 in a row, and report back. Thanks.
You tell ’em, Mike.
>>his work is stylistically indiscernible from the other “studio” director’s of the time<<
Well that’s just plain wrong.
I may be constantly frustrated by his inability to face the darker aspects he invokes & then goes skittering away from, but I’m not going to go that far.
Make the same statement about Victor Fleming & I’ll have your back, but Capra is not a hack.
Yeah, Harry, I get your issue. I actually have similar concerns with directors like Hitchcock in the way that, except for Vertigo and maybe a couple of others, everything works out and we get too much closure at the end. These issues aren’t as much of a problem for me with Hitch, or Capra as they are for you, but I understand.
Mike: For Hitch, do you think that’s more a result of the studios or his preferences? Maybe even both to some extent?
" I subscribe to the auteur theory of the french new wave and therefore find Capra’s work unimaginative, uninspired, etc, etc…"
You should read, then, François Truffaut’s “Frank Capra, the Healer,” in which the writer reaches conclusions rather different than those you seem to have reached.
>>These issues aren’t as much of a problem for me with Hitch, or Capra as they are for you<<
Well, they’re rarely an issue for me with Hitch; the resolutions are rarely as jarring as they are with Capra – except maybe with SUSPICION (and I have my … er … supicions about that one being Hitch deliberately clumsy with the ending).
I have no problem with happy endings, honest. Do I want to see John Doe jump off the building? Do I want to see Mr. Smith drummed out of the Senate in disgrace? Do I want to see george Bailey dragged off to jail for embezzlement? No! But the sudden reversals in each case just ring false to me.
This is especially true in WONDERFUL LIFE where Jimmy Stewart comes home after finding out about the missing money & the imminent arrival of the bank examiner & screams at the kids & (if I’m remembering correctly) almost hits his wife. Then the car ride & the who moment of him poised on the edge of the bridge… gad, this is bleak, bleak stuff. And Stewart’s acting is so naked it’s almost emabarassing to watch – like seeing your own dad have a crying jag.
Given that shortly thereafter an angel arrives, I suppose I should cut the ending some more slack, but it’s a deu ex machina without the deus. Li’l brother suddenly shows up with a pile of money from the townsfolk (when the hell did he have time to collect it?). If Clarence was even intimated to have caused the money to show up, I’d buy it more … but no, it just happens.
My jaw was on the floor reading the comments in this thread. Capra is a genius. As with Capra’s films, however, there is a plus side to it: people are self-selecting into the “I don’t know a damn thing about capra or film in general” category with the hopelessly negative comments. Look at the guy pretending he knows something about what it means to be an auteur. For shame. I imagine these people drooling over nihilistic garbage foretelling the end of humanity. I mean, you clearly can’t see the darkness in Capra’s films, which he overcomes, and despise his genuine faith in and love for man. What kind of a person are you?
Justin Marble
I know the staff has been adding a lot of films and directors over the past few months, but the most egregious director/film pages I find missing are Frank Capra and films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, You Can’t Take it With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe, and others. Is there a reason he hasn’t been added yet? I know in the strictest definition he isn’t an auteur, in that he didn’t write many of his films, but you can’t deny there are “Capra-esque” qualities to his films. Anyone else agree? And thanks to the staff for maintaining such a great site!