liberal or conservative?
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raw5300 — 13 years ago(August 16, 2012 12:30 AM)
It's also well-known, as many of the postings here indicate, that the political parties have changed so much over the years that the terms Republican and Democrat are almost useless. To get a different view of Capra, read "Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success," a revisionist look at Capra's life that does much to dispel the myths that Capra himself spread about himself. (Personally, I love Capra and his films, but it's undeniable that he never let the facts get in the way of a good story.)
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raw5300 — 11 years ago(December 25, 2014 01:36 AM)
And ''HomerParrish' is wrong. Period.
If "Homer' had actually taken the trouble to read all the entries in this thread, he'd realize that Capra's politics were all over the map. Edward Bernds, who worked with Capra in many of his early films, had numerous political discussions with Capra during the FDR era and concluded that Capra was "voting his pocketbook." Coming from a poverty-stricken background, helike most Republicanshated paying high taxes, as was noted earlier in this thread. But the statement "Frank Capra campaigned AGAINST Franklin D. Roosevelt" is false. He never "campaigned" against anyone.It's true that Capra never voted for FDR (Capra: "I even voted against FDR right along, not because I didn't agree with all his ideas, but because I thought he was getting too big for the country's good.") However, he also wrote upon meeting FDR, that the president's charm "almost converted me into becoming a Democrat." When Capra's wife Lu was asked if she always agreed with her husband's politics, she responded, "How can I? I never know from one day to the next whether we're Republicans or Democrats." I would advise 'Homer' to read not just Capra's fascinating but not-too-truthful autobiography "The Name Above the Title," but also Joseph McBride's superbly researched book "Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success" to gain a fuller understanding of Capra's mixed, sometimes schizophrenic political philosophy.