Philosopher Jay
25th September 2011, 03:23
I watched Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon," last night. It was quite extraordinary for the insight it brings to Capra and 1930's Hollywood. Robert Riskin was the screenwriter, although some scenes were written by Sidney Buckman, who was blacklisted for communist activities in the 1950's. (Sarah Palin named Capra/Buckman's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" as her favorite film, apparently not aware that a communist wrote it)
The film begins with Europeans escaping from a Chinese revolution in 1935. Their plane is hijacked to a utopian socialist city near Tibet called Shangri-La. The portrayal of the free and classless city of Shangri-La is quite sympathetic.
It seems to me that all of Capra's movies to a degree are about trying to find a way out of capitalism and towards a humane socialist society through individual human courage instead of socialist revolution. "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Meet John Doe" all suggest this.
They reflect a pre-World War One socialist optimism mixed with the immigrant's dream of financial success in America. Capra, himself, was a poor immigrant.
The original cut of the film by Capra was 6 hours. He wanted it released in two parts. When the studio refused, he was forced to cut it to 3 hours, then Columbia Pictures took it away from him and cut it to 2 hours and 12 minutes for its March 1937 premiere. More cuts to it for general release and re-release weakened its pro-socialist (albeit, Utopian) ideology. By 1952, the only widely released print of the film for television had it down to just 92 minutes. It had been recut by the United States Army for presentation to its troops. A 25 year restoration project that started at UCLA in 1974 restored most of the 132 minute premiere cut and some of the utopian socialist ideology.
After the butchering of his masterpiece in 1937, Capra went to the Soviet Union and said this:
Above all I am astonished by the enthusiasm which I see not only in Soviet Cinema, but literally in all persons whom I have met in the U.S.S.R. Your country is young and talented. It seems to me that the future of cinema art undoubtedly lies with you, and not in America, where the bosses of cinema think only of profits and not of art.
Most bourgeois film criticism dismisses Capra as popularist and silly. I think "Lost Horizon" is the key to seeing that Capra and his films had/have serious political content and were seriously influenced by the socialist ideals of the time. Socialists need to re-evaluate and learn from his films.
The film begins with Europeans escaping from a Chinese revolution in 1935. Their plane is hijacked to a utopian socialist city near Tibet called Shangri-La. The portrayal of the free and classless city of Shangri-La is quite sympathetic.
It seems to me that all of Capra's movies to a degree are about trying to find a way out of capitalism and towards a humane socialist society through individual human courage instead of socialist revolution. "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Meet John Doe" all suggest this.
They reflect a pre-World War One socialist optimism mixed with the immigrant's dream of financial success in America. Capra, himself, was a poor immigrant.
The original cut of the film by Capra was 6 hours. He wanted it released in two parts. When the studio refused, he was forced to cut it to 3 hours, then Columbia Pictures took it away from him and cut it to 2 hours and 12 minutes for its March 1937 premiere. More cuts to it for general release and re-release weakened its pro-socialist (albeit, Utopian) ideology. By 1952, the only widely released print of the film for television had it down to just 92 minutes. It had been recut by the United States Army for presentation to its troops. A 25 year restoration project that started at UCLA in 1974 restored most of the 132 minute premiere cut and some of the utopian socialist ideology.
After the butchering of his masterpiece in 1937, Capra went to the Soviet Union and said this:
Above all I am astonished by the enthusiasm which I see not only in Soviet Cinema, but literally in all persons whom I have met in the U.S.S.R. Your country is young and talented. It seems to me that the future of cinema art undoubtedly lies with you, and not in America, where the bosses of cinema think only of profits and not of art.
Most bourgeois film criticism dismisses Capra as popularist and silly. I think "Lost Horizon" is the key to seeing that Capra and his films had/have serious political content and were seriously influenced by the socialist ideals of the time. Socialists need to re-evaluate and learn from his films.