liberal or conservative?
-
raw5300 — 19 years ago(February 17, 2007 01:55 AM)
I had the pleasure of spending a fair amount of time with Mr. Capra in the later years of his life. We both lived in the California Sierras (he at June Lake, I in Nevada City) and I brought him to my town twice for screenings of several of his films. We discussed a wide variety of topics, including politics. Capra, for the better part of his life at least, was a creature that does not really exist todaya liberal Republican. (It's good to remember that the Republican Party of 70 years ago bears almost NO resemblance to the Republican Party of today.) For example, the wholesale carnage of WWII appalled him and transformed him into a pacifist. He told me that, when asked by the government during the Nixon years if he would consider making a WHY WE FIGHT documentary for the Vietnam War, he responded that he would do so only if he could name it WHY WE SHOULD NOT FIGHT. He was a Republican primarily because he wanted to keep his personal income taxes (which were VERY high during the New Deal) as low as possible. But on social and cultural issues, he was an unabashed liberal and surrounded himself with liberals both in his social life and in the production of his films. Screenwriters Robert Riskin and Sidney Buchman, both ardent leftists, are the most obvious examples. This is why Capra was "gray-listed" during the McCarthy eraeven though he had no Communist connections whatsoever (and was in fact a staunch anti-Communist), many of his friends did and that was enough for the McCarthyites. Capra hated violence, hated bigotry of any kind and hated the kind of rampant greed that allowed people to starve while others grew fat and corrupt. These themes are repeated over and over in his films, regardless of who wrote them. So, yes, he was definitely a liberal, but of a most distinctive kind.
-
meyerpa@ohsu.edu — 18 years ago(February 02, 2008 07:46 PM)
Thanks raw5300 - That's quite a definitive answer! I'm sure everyone appreciates it!
-
jjman1 — 18 years ago(February 11, 2008 07:36 PM)
He represented a good America that didnt dwell on special interests like gays and lesbians, environmental freaks and corrupt unions, wasnt afraid to love their country and the military defending it, didnt think rap was an acceptable music genre and was certainly not into the liberal mantra of high taxation, big government, welfare entitlements and a country soft on crime, big on criminal rights, standing up for child molestors and weirdos desecreating the churches.no he wasnt for any of this..
So that makes him conservative to you beep liberals and common sense to most real Americans -
SpaceCowboyGangstaOfLove — 17 years ago(June 05, 2008 01:00 AM)
What fantasy world do you live in, sir?
Best Horror News, Reviews and Message Board forum on the net
www.HorrorMovieFans.com
HorrorMovieFans.com Radio Every Sunday Night 10pm EST
www.blogtalkradio.com/HMFradio -
raw5300 — 16 years ago(August 30, 2009 04:42 AM)
Malarkey! (1) Capra's films always celebrated the "little guys" scorned by the rich, pompous and powerful conservative millionaires in his movies. If he were around today, he would DEFINITELY be supporting gay and lesbian rights, especially from crazed bigots like jjman1. (2) Capra was an ardent naturalist (I personally visited his cabin in the pines of the High Sierras) and loved nature, a motif that runs through all his films (Jefferson Smith is a scout leader who opposes a dam project proposed for his beloved Willard Creek, George Bailey wants to climb up to Mount Bedford in the middle of the night and then go swimming in 238the lake with Violet Bick, young Tony Kirby in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU is determined to find out how plants extract power from sunlight (solar power)all these are environmental preoccupations loathed by jjman1 and his ilk. (3) Capra's love of country included sharp criticism of it when it was in the wrong (see especially SMITH and JOHN DOE) and thought that military spending was way out of controla sentiment vividly expressed by Lionel Barrymore in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, whom jjman1 would no doubt consider a traitorous liberal. (4) Rap did not exist b68in Capra's daya fact which jjman1 seems blissfully ignorant of. (5) Capra's films consistently come down on corporate crime and corruption (especially in SMITH), which year after year costs Americans much, much much more than so-called blue-collar crimeof course, white-collar crime is largely committed by wealthy, white conservatives, at whose shrine jjman1 worships. Too bad he so misunderstands Capra's films and has none of the celebrated "common sense" he supposedly values.
-
MisterGumby — 15 years ago(January 11, 2011 07:10 PM)
Let's not jump to conclusions or make several red herrings. Those screenplays were written by people other than Capra, and it may have been those people who held the leftist philosophies (liberal writers in 1930's America? Hmmmmmmmmmm.) Evidence straight from the source is better than simply affixing someone's films to their actual philosophy. One woul assume that John Ford was a conservative, given the company he5b4 kept and the stories he told (John Wayne, The Searchers, etc.) The opposite is true.
-
flowwalker — 9 years ago(November 29, 2016 10:21 AM)
Raw5300 I don't know if you're still following this thread after so many years (it's now 2016), but I wanted to make one small comment. I read several of your posts on this thread, and thought they were great. They sounded right on to me. But there's one contention in your post of Aug 30, 2009 that didn't ring true to me. Just to confirm my memory, I looked up rap music on Wikipedia, and as I had thought, rap music rose up quite some time ago (the 1970s in America). That was long after the height of Mr. Capra's wonderful work in the film world, but he was still very much alive.
-
Nomad184 — 17 years ago(December 06, 2008 07:59 PM)
i think its funny how many liberals label themselves as hating violence, bigotry, and rampant greed. Just hating violence, being accepting of all races/religions/etc., and not being greedy does not make a person a liberal.
Are any other conservatives here tired of being sterotyped into corrupt Mr. Potter-like characters? -
shawnvanbriesen — 15 years ago(October 05, 2010 08:59 AM)
I just finished Capra's autobiography Name Above the Title. Your description of his politics and just his general approach to his fellows sounds spot on.
He described the political climate after WW II as being when the parties really split into their current lines.
Thanks for sharing this. -
Gus-69 — 11 years ago(November 21, 2014 05:36 AM)
Nice post, very informative. Thanks!