Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? (Movie Review)

I was invited to a screening last Friday of the documentary film "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" which was showing at the AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland. The invitation came courtesy of fellow DUer GumboYaYa, who was instrumental helping get the film made, and even had a few cameo appearances in it.

The movie was not at all what I expected, which is a good thing. When I first heard the title I took it a little too literally, and feared they might actually use Jimmy Stewart to represent some kind of perfect candidate. In my head, I imagined an annoying 90-minute laundry list of all the Powerful Entrenched InterestsTM who are making it impossible for poor Jimmy Stewart to come to Washington anymore. It's been years since I saw "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," but if my memory serves it was almost as awful as "It's a Wonderful Life." (I know, It's blasphemous for me to even suggest such a thing.) Fortunately for me -- and for this movie -- there was only one reference to Jimmy Stewart in the entire thing. With this in mind, I can hereby declare "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" safe for general viewing.

In fact, it's not just safe for viewing; It's actually really good.

"Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" tells the story of Jeff Smith, a 29-year-old progressive idealist with no political experience who decides to run in the 2004 Democratic primary for the Missouri congressional seat vacated by Dick Gephardt. Among the large field of Democratic contenders, Smith is such an unknown that he shows up as an asterisk in early polls. What's worse, among those opponents is one Russ Carnahan, son of (you guessed it) former Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and former Senator Jean Carnahan, who is seen by almost everyone in the Missouri and Washington Political/Media Establishment as a virtual shoo-in. Russ appears to be (in this movie, at least) an uninspiring and unimpressive candidate whose high name recognition and front-runner status seem to be based entirely on his family name (not unlike a certain current occupant of the White House). In stark contrast, Jeff Smith comes off as intelligent, idealistic, hard-working, and likable (as is befitting the hero of our movie), despite the fact that he is short, speaks with a lisp, and has zero political experience.

While Carnahan seems to skate by on his name and family connections (and presumably on the easy money that they make possible), former-asterisk-guy Jeff Smith succeeds in making the race competitive by just plain out-hustling the other guy. He puts on a virtual clinic on grassroots campaigning: Door knocking, face-to-face contact, lawn signs, coffees. Any candidate running for local office would do well to watch this film.

This is a classic campaign documentary, which reminded me of other campaign documentaries like "The War Room" or "A Perfect Candidate," albeit on a much smaller scale. While those other documentaries give you an insider view of a high-level, national campaign run by seasoned professionals, "Mr. Smith" gives you a very different insider view of what it's like on a small-time dark-horse local campaign that's got more heart than cash. Watching this movie made me nostalgic for the old days when I used to make a living on political campaigns, putting in 18 hour days for candidates I actually cared about, fueled by youthful idealism and day-old pizza. The inexperienced, naive kids running Jeff Smith's campaign reminded me of so many of the people with whom I spent my early-to-mid-twenties.

It was extremely frustrating to watch as almost all the jaded establishment types in our party and in the media threw their support behind the safe choice, rather than take a chance on the talented newcomer. That this ended up being a close race, despite their non-support, is a testament to how hard Jeff Smith and the folks on his campaign worked. That, and the fact that they simply refused to believe it when people told them that they had no chance. While this film shows how unfair politics can be, I actually came away feeling pretty hopeful. Even though the challenges facing candidates like Jeff Smith are formidable, they are not impossible to overcome. "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" shows that idealistic, independent, grassroots candidates can be competitive if they run smart, aggressive campaigns that play to their own strengths.


Currently, this film does not yet have a deal for nationwide distribution. They have lined up a few viewings at small indie theaters and film festivals, so you may have a chance to see it in your hometown if you keep your eyes open. At the Silverdocs festival, they won the Audience Award, which means it got the highest score based on audience voting. If you would like to learn more about Jeff Smith, I encourage you to visit his 2006 campaign website. (Spoiler warning: If you visit Jeff's website, you'll probably be able to figure out how the movie ends.) http://www.jeffsmith2006.com

our party... We need the worthy candidates who will do the job.. Not these paint by numbers candidates who will tow the line....

is that in the end Mr. Smith is absolutely destroyed and ruined, but at the last second he is saved by the guilty conscience of the bad guy, who confesses on the Senate floor.

So yes, I believe that a wonderful, honest person can still run for office and win and go to Washington. Where he will quickly be ruined and humiliated. That business about the bad guy confessing, though, is pure Capra bunk.

...he was appointed. So I would question whether an honnest man (who btw spends all his time with little boys) could even win a seat, back then or today.

I agree with your overall point, though.

I thought he just collapsed at the end of his filibuster. Humiliation is a matter of perspective. Was McGovern humiliated? Was Daschle? Are you saying that none of the people in Congress or State Legislatures right now are "wonderful, honest people"? Or is it just Washington?

"Mr. Smith" was humiliated, he was being removed by the Senate, his voting constituents were calling for his head, and his ownly supporters- a rascally gang of little orphans in a truck, was ran off the road by a freeper.

As for wonderful, honest people actually holding office, I can't think of any.

It was a pleasure meeting you at the opening.

It was good to meet you too. I hope the film is a big success.

...and I was there. My GOD, that man could work.

All the money and all the power in the MN DFL Party was elsewhere, Paul was the outsider, the "unelectable one," the guaranteed loser.

I went to the announcement of his candidacy... oh, hell, who am I kidding, I was DRAGGED to the announcement of his candidacy by a fellow-DFLer who insisted that I 'had to hear this guy.' Why? I wanted to know. Why? When he has NO chance of even making it through to the State Convention, for petesqueaks. Just come along. There'll be cookies. People you know will be there. It's the hip place to be.

Okay, whatever. I'll go.

And a few hours later, I'm on my feet, with tears streaming down my cheeks, yelling and screaming and applauding and DETERMINED to make sure that THIS GUY gets to Washington.

heheh. Bite me, insiders.

nostalgically,
Bright

We talked about that several times.

He was a great believer in getting regular folks into the political process. He never omitted to tell people --in groups or one-on-one-- "You're the one who makes the real difference, you know!"

And he listened. He was really interested in people and their lives and what made them happy and what bothered them and he'd spend gobs of time not 'talking politics' at all, just asking them about themselves and listening to what they had to say with real interest.

Used to drive his staff nuts, they finally got into the habit of building a lot of extra time into his schedule because there was just no way he was going to do the typical politician 'Oh, well, that's just great, isn't it, well, nice meeting you, bye now don't forget to vote' thing. But that was the key to his success.

Have you contacted anyone in Santa Fe's huge indie film community about getting a showing of your movie? There's a big film school here and a bunch of venues that book indie stuff. If you get a showing, please let me know, I'd enjoy to go and see it!

encouragingly,
Bright

have not booked dates in Santa Fe. If you have any contact ino for anyone I should get to, please PM me and we will take a stab at it.

Paul and Jeff are very much alike. Jeff is late for everything. We had to stay all over him to make sure he gotto the movie on time.

I really love Paul's TV commercial from that campaign. It is one of the best political ads ever.

...as we know it in MN. Probably elsewhere, too.

People "got" the ad. GOPpie strategists, unfortunately, took a different message from it: "We can't run Good Old Boys anymore, they're not mean enough." Boschwitz wasn't actually a bad guy, he'd be considered a flaming lib by today's GOPpie standards, he was just plugged into the corporate power structure and not really in touch with real people.

Ever since then, the dickheads in the MN IR haven't run a single candidate who couldn't stare down your average junkyard dog for sheer viciousness.

I'm not hep to the movers and shakers in the local film community but this is the website for the film school's theater management, I think:

http://thescreen.csf.edu/n_showing.html

There's other indy venues here, too. We have cinematistes out the wazzoo, it's like the third biggest sector of the local economy. Just struck me that it might be an opportunity to get an audience, SF is a VERY blue little enclave in a reddish-purple state. The Wal-Mart flick (among others) did gangbusters here.

Me, I just go and watch 'em, they're mostly better than the latest SPFX pap.

observantly,
Bright

reference that (without attribution to Wellstone's campaign). His campaign for Senate is still the ultimate model grassroots campaign. It is a shame no one had a camera on him.

As it happens i watched this movie this morning. It was on the channel that shows all the old black & white movies, and it got my attention.

The one thing you left out and i had forgotten about the movie Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, was the fact that Mr. Smith was appointed to his senate seat so he didn't have to mount a campaign.

That being said most politicians these days are groomed for political office, this happens more in the RNC then DNC but it happens just the same.

I remember hearing that Kkkarl Rove made the statement when he meet GW Bu$h, the statement went something like this. I think i can make him "Bush" President, well he succeeded much to the determent to our country.

Politicians shouldn't be groomed they should be called to serve there country, but it's big business these days gone are the days of statesmen/women.

that someone sent me. We have been very pleased with the initial reactions. I only hope we can get this film to a much larger audience before the upcoming election.

http://agnesvarnum.com/2006/06/09/can-mr-smith-get-to-washington-anymore/

they don't have it on their list yet. :(

Please let us know when you get a distribution deal! :)

Thank you for your interest.

3-on-3 b-ball -- it was posted June 10th -- so can we conclude the primary was sometime between the 10th and today and Smith did not win so the site has not been updated?

PM me if you don't want to reveal all on the thread or just post a link to a story about the primary results....

The documentary was about his 2004 campaign. I have edited my post to make that more clear.

Thanks for the headsup! I hope this gets picked up.

K&R!!

it sounds like something to keep an eye out for .

If I was living in MO, he'd so have my vote! :D

:)

getting a chance to see it. Your review was done quite well and I must admit it has me really wanting to see this film.

Is there a website promoting this film that would update when and where it may be shown?

Thanks for your review Skinner, and I'm going to go check out his website. :)

There is a temporary page up now announcing our New York premiere on June 28th.

Here is the link: www.mrsmithmovie.com

Hopefully we will get to play in enough cities where more peope can see the movie. We think it has a very important message that America needs to hear before the next election.

...that I generally will not support children of politicians if they decide to run. They are usually lightweights riding on daddy's coattails. This probably goes back to high school memories of rich daddies' and mommies' boys/girls who had their own flashy convertibles at 16, went on to inherit the businesses their fathers or grandfathers built, acted like they made it on their own, and often proceeded to either weaken the business, or run it into the ground altogether.

My respect is reserved for adults who make it on their own without being propped up by parents. I was very disappointed that our Iowa Dem gubernatorial candidate appears (to me) to be a lightweight - he's the son of a good ex-senator with connections to money and influence. I'll be forced to vote for the guy because the repuke is pond-scum, but we could have done so much better. Evan Bayh also comes to mind, as well as Carnahan. And the granddaddy of them all... GW Shrub. The list goes on...

Nepotism is very bad for society. Furthermore, it fits quite well with the repuke view of the world, so we Dems need to return to our roots and respect hard-working, up-by-the-bootstraps types above all others. When a second or third generation "name" with connections presumes to represent us, our knee-jerk, instinctual reaction ought to be skeptical - and we should place the burden on the "name" to convince us that getting a free ride hasn't made him/her a lightweight.

speaker at the festival. He was smart, charming and very at ease. Other than a few notable exceptions, you are exactly right.

...more so since losing in 2000 than before. He strikes me as a guy who has decided to be his own man and do the right thing - wherever it leads. As one who probably had various "handlers" since a fairly young age, I can imagine that could lead to a sense of freedom he may not have experienced in some time - and he wears it well. He'd be one I could enthusiastically get behind if he can hold on to whatever it is that changed his public persona.

Jeff Smith in the primaries when he ran. I would do so again but he's running for state rep now and he is not in my district. He is awesome and what is needed in DC and Jefferson City.

Not everyone in Missouri holds the Carnahans in high esteem. Russ' mom voted for the PATRIOT Act as well as the Iraq War Resolution (two votes she still does not regret, I know because I've asked her). They are pure DLC conservative Dems, which might explain why Jean Carnahan lost her election to the real Republican, James (no)Talent.

It is scheduled for eight days, but may run longer if we have enough interest in the film. I hope ytou come and see it. Tickets went on sale yesterday and can be purchased at the Tivoli box office. I will post a link to buy tiockets online later today.

Jeff is the most dynamic person I have ever met. His grasp of policy is matched only by his genuine committment to help the least fortunate in our society. We need more people like him in government if we plan on correcting the mistakes of the past 8 years.

mine.

http://www.movietickets.com/house_detail.asp?house_id=661&rdate=7%2F27%2F2006

I think you can also cal the Tivoli box office.

Campaigning with no experience and no money and little support from the big guys. Helping run my husband's campaign for the Florida Legislature was one of the most fascinating times in my life, while being one of the most crushing times, too.

I would love to see the movie, although I doubt, even four years later, my husband could bring himself to watch it.

a handful of people can try to change the world. Working on a grassroots campaign that is values driven and not money driven is a rush that can be addictive.

what you were up to! This is so awesome. I know that there is not a place to show this film in my town but if you have not checked yet I would consider Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas. I could get you the info for them if you need it and have not contacted them already. I think it would play well there.

I worked on one of those values driven campaigns, it almost killed me but I never felt more alive, especially after we won.

You are once again my hero!

We are trying to figure out how to get the movie to a larger audience.

You are too kind to me. I hope all is well with your sons and their music.