Mr. Smith Goes To Washington Can Be Overly Heavy-Handed But It Can Also Be Quite Stirring

In the nearly 80 years since Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes To Washington was released, the landscape of American politics has drastically been overhauled, to the point that the overall political stances of the countries two primary political parties, the Republicans the Democrats, have now got completely opposite political aspirations compared to where they were in 1939. But one thing was true then as it is today, the general public does not like politicians, they seem them as crude, conniving and not to be trusted. Some things never change and the core ideas of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, namely standing firm to your morals in the face of corruption, still very much ring true to this day.

Get Up On This Stagecoach Partner!

A lot of times when you go back to the earliest piece of work from a legendary actor, it's bound to be some small-scale role without much in the way of glamor, an amusing contrast to the massive presence they would cultivate in the years to follow. Do you think anyone watching Grizzly II: The Concert back in 1983 would have thought that fella playing the bit character of Ron would end up becoming George Clooney, one of the biggest leading men of all-time? How about the fella who played Detective Fartman in Lenny The Wonder Dog who would end up becoming one of the great dramatic actors of this decade and one of the leading members of the newest Star Wars trilogy?

Gone With The Wind Looks Nice But It Really Blows It When It Comes To Being Substantive In Any Way

We all know Gone With The Wind. Even if you haven't seen it, it's sheer level of pop culture presence is so widespread and ubiquitous that it's become something you know lines of dialogue and visuals from even if you haven't taken the plunge and watched the entire four-hour long movie. When you have a movie that's so incredibly popular and influential, the subject question inevitably comes up on whether or not it's actually any good. Was it an all-time classic or just a flash in the pan type deal that was only popular because of outside circumstances that boosted up an otherwise lackluster motion picture (see Twilight and American Sniper as examples of the latter day phenomenon).

The Rules Got Broken With Jean Renoir's 1939 Film The Rules Of The Game

The best Wikipedia articles strike me as akin to reading an engrossing book, one that makes you want to keep on scrolling down and reading more about the subject at hand. To that end, reading the expansive Wikipedia page for Jean Renoir's 1939 motion picture The Rules Of The Game fits those requirements like a glove, as it's quite interesting to read about the background of the film and the political climate of Europe in the late 1930's that greatly informed its story. Apparently, the movie generated a great deal of anger-driven controversy by depicting rich individuals with great amounts of influence in society as easily duped fools with selfish goals. Daring to mock the rich and powerful as self-absorbed just didn't sit well, even if the entire first week of Donald Trump as President of the United States seems to suggest the film's message about the upper-crust rings as true as ever.

Rudolph's Quality Endures To This Day

Welcome to 25 Days Of Christmas Pop Culture! From now until Christmas Eve, I'll be tackling one piece of Christmas pop culture! It could be a book, movie, TV special, song....so long as it's festive for this time of the year, it'll be checked out in this daily column!

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer had existed since 1939 as a book, and then became a Christmas Carol in 1949, but it wasn't until 1964 arrived that this holiday critter achieved true fame. Ya see, that was the year the Rankin-Bass Christmas special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer arrived. The special started a tradition of massively successful specials for Rankin-Bass, as well as cementing a monumental part of any holiday season.