MEET JOHN DOE (1941) *** Classic and wonderful Frank Capra moralization and socio-political statement. Of a magnitude that it would only smile and slowly bats its eye at charges of "hokey sentimentalism." You got a big statement, you gotta charge it with a bigger crime, my friend, or you just end up looking like nattering nabob gnat. I think it's ok to be on all kinds of sides of this: it moves crankily enough between phases like a train with too many cars going around the bend. Heavy load. Not in a bad way, Capra knew how to pull the strings like no one else, to bathe grey in shades of black and white, and to pull the soul out of a crowd and display it without commercial intent. ("Apparent commercial intent," mutters Mr. Cynic, and let him, he's at least literally correct) For all that homespun sermonizin' it would be easy to miss that Capra nails the dark side of the American/capitalist political dynamic head on, if he didn't keep gleefully and righteously smackin' ya over the head with it. The only proper response is to nod, or learn somethin'. And it's not bubblegum pop of any stripe, the film is permeated with a very real sense that everything's not going to go right at the end (no matter how it ends up feeling, it's difficult to look at it that way, too), which Capra felt too: he shot five different endings..you can kind of guess the spectrum. It doesn't really hurt much that Gary Cooper is never particularly credible in the title role, he's an ideal rather than an individual anyway, and a phoney at that, and he looks like it should look. Far more important is that Barbara Stanwyck overruns everything in every scene that she's in-like a wonderful child or puppydog from heaven-wantonly forcing it all into the formation of teleological entropy. Just like Capra wanted, and look at those perfectly cast players he has in what should be peripheral roles; Ann Doran & Regis Toomey, Irving Bacon. Lots of philosophy and lots of love, lots of mixed-emotions and misunderstandings, which is I guess why we need the philosophy. It's a beautiful film.
back to Brilliant Observations on 2120 Films page, or Index
go back home, or send me email
Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!
Internet Movie Database