A fine documentary about Director Frank Capra, born to a Sicilian peasant family in Palermo, and raised as a boy in America. He went on to champion the American dream and way of life in his films – which he called “A thank you to America.”

His films were often socially conscious. Even his rom-com ‘It happened One Night’, which laid the structure for the modern rom-com, had something to say about poverty and wealth, and won five Oscars. The Great Depression was an underlying theme in his movies, as was the little guy fighting against the big guy. Capra liked to imbue his films with optimism and humour, as he was a dab hand at visual comedy – starting out as a comedy writer for vaudeville. But it was stories with character and meaning that inspired him to make such classics as Mr Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life. The latter went on to be a Christmas favourite, but ironically it’s the film which brought his glittering career to a standstill, not doing great at the box office.

After that Capra sold his film company, which he co-founded with some friends, and went to work for bigger studios on more generic projects. Post-war America had a different psychology from the old style glamour and small town American values of Capra’s world. He was part of a golden age which was giving way to the films of the 1960s and beyond.

This film is told using a mixture of archive footage, clips of Capra’s films and interviews with contributors, and was made by debut feature filmmaker Matthew Wells, but, despite this, it has special access to one of the major studio bosses. One of the other contributors, however, judged Capra harshly by modern standards, criticising him for focusing on white America. This observation could, of course, be levelled at most of Hollywood of that era. America at that time considered itself a majority white country, albeit with an important black minority, and so it’s cultural output reflected that. It wasn’t until immigration laws changed in the 1960s to drop priority given to European immigrants, that America started to become what it is today.

When asked which of his films was his favourite, Capra said It’s a Wonderful Life, and the reason he gave was that this film said what he had been trying to say in most of his previous films, and said it the best.

Glasgow Film Festival 2024 was the Frank Capra: Mr America ‘s UK Premiere.

Ailie Hunter
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