In this season of It’s A Wonderful Life reruns, allow me to recommend Meet John Doe, Frank Capra’s o
In this season of It’s A Wonderful Life reruns, allow me to recommend Meet John Doe, Frank Capra’s other (and much, much darker) Christmas movie. The brutal capitalism that’s personified by Mr. Potter in IAWL appears here not as a single, selfish businessman, but as a gruesome machine, hand in hand with the media. Prescient much? Barbara Stanwyck (WHOM I ADORE) is a journalist working to support her mother and younger siblings. She’s so great. Have I mentioned I love her? She gets fired, and in revenge, as her last assignment, turns in an incendiary indictment of income inequality. Have I mentioned I love her?!?Gary Cooper is hired by the newspaper to personify the underdog and everyman (John Doe) to prove that the newspapers aren’t so bad, that willing men can get jobs, etc. And he does it because he needs the job. Barbara Stanwyck writes copy for the long-running publicity program because she needs her job.So, it’s a bleak commentary on how systematic inequality enables the crushing and warping of individuals. But it’s also a really charming rom-com in places? Also Gary Cooper is the self-appointed guardian of his friend who’s a mentally ill, emotionally intelligent war veteran. There’s a truly grand Old Hollywood crescendo of righteous wrath (Stanwyck’s and Cooper’s) at the end. The ending is less bleak than Capra originally wanted (!!) but is still, to my mind, pleasingly ambiguous. It holds out hope for the salvage of individual happiness, but only at the cost of continued, relentless fighting against a merciless system. -- source link
#old hollywood#barbara stanwyck#gary cooper#frank capra#christmas festivity#sort of#seasonally appropriate