The Role of Argument in Mr Smith goes to Washington

One of the most intriguing and interesting films about politics made in Hollywood during the 1930s is Mr Smith goes to Washington. I don't want to write a full review of it here- I'm saving that up- but rewatching the film for the umpteenth time last night, something struck me that I think gets to the heart of a very important political principle. Mr Smith goes to Washington is ultimately a film about language and the way that ideas are transmitted between people- the film's idealism is not merely an idealism about how politics should work but also an idealism about how conversation should work.

The film is about the confrontation between honesty and dishonesty. At the beggining of the film the odds are stacked for the dishonest and against the honest. The way that the honest Mr Smith acheives his objectives is not through any particular political skill- his friends try and publicise for him in his own state but that effort is easily stopped by the local party bosses- what he succeeds in doing though is just speaking honestly and openly to the senate and he convinces them, he even convinces his own worst opponent to back down. The power of conversation, of oratory is displayed throughout the film- ideals are encapsulated in wonderful language and the rhetoric, the art, the sculpture is their protection. So Mr Smith gestures towards the statue on the top of the Capitol building and asks the senators to adhere to its ideals- he himself is made more idealistic by a child murmuring the Gettysburg address. He is able to convince using the art and biblical references that surround him- a master of words he is able to fillibuster effectively, not merely delaying but also convincing his opponents. The final moment when he turns to his father's friend and now his opponent and quotes back his father's words about lost causes being the best ones to fight for is in this sense the culmination of something that goes throughout the entire film. Typically for a man whose first name is the last name of a founder, Smith continually calls his listeners back to the ideals that they once subscribed to, that they've sworn to or that their friends swore to.

Jefferson Smith's success illustrates something about the way that politics works, the way that convincing people works. He convinces through showing how his actions lie within the current of the convictions expressed by everyone else- language becomes a weapon because he shows how concepts that everyone shares back his line of action- that is why in Mr Smith conversation wins the day, because ultimately the political culture within that senate is shared and Smith manages just through words to convince them that he is right and his opponents are interested in graft.