FRANK CAPRA and his body of work before

This week, you took a look at Frank Capra and his body of work before, during, and after the war.

For this week’s discussion, I want you to address his work before and after the war during this first discussion post assignment. You should have been taking notes on the films to help you complete this assignment, as well as your other pieces of work ahead.

Please focus on the following questions in your responses, and I will follow up with some feedback as we move along:

• If you had to describe Frank Capra based on his film from before the war, what would you say? What do you see in this film that makes you say that?
• Now consider It’s a Wonderful Life, and explain to me how you might describe Capra following the war? What within the film makes you say this?
• Finally, how do you believe the war affected Capra, as a filmmaker? Compare and Contrast the two films to help make your case.

Once you completed your thorough responses to each question, be sure and engage four peers in the class by commenting on their posts.

We begin this week’s class with a brief discussion about the power of film as a tool for public influence, as well as a thorough look at our first filmmaker in the service: Frank Capra.

Capra was an Italian immigrant who began with nothing and worked his way up through silent film to reach the pinnacle of directing in film in the 1930s, winning three Academy Awards for Best Director from six nominations, along with three other Oscar wins from nine nominations in other categories. Among his leading films were It Happened One Night (1934), You Can’t Take It with You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). The last of which reflecting his political perspective, which was evolving from staunch isolationism to standing against the growth of fascism in western Europe.

Capra’s belief in the war effort led him to be among the first to serve in Hollywood, and he did so in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and produced propaganda films, such as the Why We Fight series.

Capra’s career suffered after his service, as his position in Hollywood declined as his later films, such as It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), performed poorly when they were first released.^[3] In ensuing decades, however, It’s a Wonderful Life and other Capra films were revisited favorably by critics. Outside of directing, Capra was active in the film industry, engaging in various political and social activities. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Writers Guild of America, and was head of the Directors Guild of America.

When Capra returned from the war, he and many of his peers got together and formed their own independent production company, which was a break from Hollywood’s tradition of the studio systems in Liberty Pictures. Ultimately, the company folded, but they started a revolution that supported and set into motion the growth and development independent production companies and filmmaking that enabled more authentic storytelling in film.

Capra’s example really leads us to some themes you should attend to this week as you review the film(s) and supplemental material you are to review and compare:

An Immigrant’s Perspective on America and Sense of Patriotism

Capra is the first among several filmmakers you will encounter who were either first generation or second generation immigrants to the United States. In his case, he left Sicily to find better opportunities in America with his family as a boy. Building from nothing, he rose in the ranks in Hollywood, and did so at a time where being Italian bore many of the same insults and slurs any other ethnicity did in America.

Yet, when war loomed, Capra felt a deep sense of commitment and pride to his adopted nation, and he went in whole heartedly in his work for the fight. His love of country and belief in America comes through in his work before the war, and was central to his approach to in developing the propaganda that helped drive recruiting, war bond drives, and sustain public morale in America.

It’s an interesting thing to consider historically, immigrants often have a deep role in some of our biggest challenges, and Capra set aside his career at its peak to make this commitment. Part of your job this week is to identify how patriotism is articulated throughout his work, and how Capra wrestles with articulating his love of America and its ways of life.

“Get the shot” vs. “Get it Right”

This is a theme that will come back throughout our next few weeks together. Capra was among the first filmmakers to wrestle with the fight between pure authenticity vs. compelling visuals and a favorable narrative that is purely intended to drive morale.

For Capra, the need for a driving narrative was essential, and so he often erred on the side of telling a story rather than showing viewers the war and its consequences as they were. One element each of you will have to consider is how each filmmaker confronts this issue in their creative work during and after the war. You’ll see this in his work during the war.

A Person’s Value to Society

One of Capra’s deeply personal experiences was returning home to a Hollywood that barely recognized him and his career successes after 6 years away. As a means of talking about this experience, Capra penned and directed “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a film about a man feeling lost and at the end of his rope who wondered what his value was to the world. Much in the same way many men came home and wondered why they gave up years of their life for this, or if what they did in civilian life mattered, he told a story about why we all matter.

At the time, the film was a box office and critical failure, and ultimately ruined Liberty Pictures. Over time, however, critics and scholars extolled the brilliance of the work and its value in expressing the struggle many of us feel in finding purpose. Sadly, this led Capra to ultimately wind down his creative work and leave the industry entirely by 1961.

In time, however, it became the annual tradition most of us indulge at Christmas time, and celebrates a man who let his personal experiences in war inform his artwork.

You’re going to see each of our filmmaker’s work after the war, and see how the war shaped their work in time. This week, you have the task of articulating how his wartime experience informed his creative development of this particular film.

To get the work done, please attend to the following tasks:

• Watch “It Happened One Night” and note the kind of film Capra was making before the war was a reality in 1935.
• Watch “Prelude to War,” and “The Negro Soldier” on Netflix, and note the differences in how Capra chooses to tell the story of why the war was important. The second piece will come with some substantial backstory explaining how the fight for authenticity around the experience of African-American troops among filmmakers ultimately led Capra to lean harder into the truth and bringing in some help to tell the authentic story in African-American script writer Carlton Moss. You’ll be writing about the second theme in your essay assignment this week.
• Watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” and take note of how Capra wrestles with life after the war. This will be the focus of our weekly discussion. Be sure and comment on four peers’ posts after you finish your own.
• Begin to review the term paper assignment, and feel free to reach out with questions for me, as we have five weeks to complete the analysis and essays.

Notes

As noted in the module introduction, a major theme of this week’s conversations is the role that creating a compelling visual or letting reality speak for itself in film, and how that drove the tension within and among filmmakers as they developed content to support the war effort.

For Capra, early in the war, the pressure to create a compelling visual to drive support for the war oftentimes won out. This is likely due to his response to the work of Riefenstahl in Triumph of the Will, a major piece of propaganda work from a talented filmmaker in Germany that painted a vivid, powerful picture of the Reich, intended to garner full support of the people. This was the inspiration for the Why We Fight series, which includes the two films you reviewed of his during the war, as well as those you’ll see from other filmmakers later on this term.

By the time the second film was made, it has been wrought with controversy among the filmmakers in the Signal Corps, as William Wyler had quit the project citing the implicit racism driving the early creative process. In time, Capra brought in African-American script writer Carlton Moss, who became the kind of advocate necessary to reframe the piece into something that was ultimately critically and commercially successful.

For the sake of your weekly essay, you are to compare and contrast the two pieces, and to address the following questions, using what you observe in the films to make your case:

• If you had to describe the first film, how might you do so in thinking about the themes Capra attempts to convey? Be sure and offer some clear examples in the process.
• How can we see the influence of Carlton Moss in the second film? What elements do you see, using examples from the film, to explain key differences in filmmaking that made the second piece more popular with the public than the first.
• It is commonly argued that representation matters in films and creative works about minority groups. How could one argue that Moss worked well to serve this perspective in his contributions to “The Negro Soldier”?