I caught an old movie tonight that is well worth sharing my thoughts on. The movie is “Meet John Doe” made in 1941 and directed by Frank Capra. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033891/
This is a classic movie showcasing the talents of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Barbara plays Ann Mitchell a reporter that just lost her job. She cooks up a letter to the editor that causes quite a calamity. She creates a figure called John Doe that is down on his luck, out of work and ready to jump off city hall. All the politicians are up in arms as they are being bombarded with calls from people worrying about John Doe. She works a deal with her old boss and he hires her back. They decide to find some dope to play the part of John Doe so they can milk this story for all it’s worth.
In walks Gary Cooper who is Long John Willoughby a used up pitcher for some ball team. Ann thinks he’s the perfect man to play John Doe because he has his all American good looks and he’s a ball player to boot! Ann coaches him and he protests the lack of decency in the way people are treating each other. As all this goes on the circulation for the newspapers grows and grows. Ann approaches D.B. Norton, the rich new owner of the paper and an oil tycoon to push this John Doe idea even more and get him on the radio. D.B. Norton and Ann cook up a plan together. She wants money and he wants something much bigger which he doesn’t exactly let Ann know about.
On the radio Ann has John say some things laced with hope and based on the advice of her mother, not gloom and doom. She reaches into the diary of her dead father which is full of wisdom and things her mother says people need to hear today. This is a quote from the speech, “The character of a country is the sum total of the character of its little punks!” John asks people to step up and help each other. He wants them to create a tidal wave of good will. He tells every John Doe, you know all the little guys, to wake up because they are the hope of the world!
After being on the radio, John is getting a bit antsy and wants to get back to playing ball. He’s all set to go when a group of people approach him and they tell him how wonderful he is because they have all reached out to their neighbors. Times are tough and people are out of work but these people have pulled together to help each other and they have formed a club of sorts called the John Doe Club! John Doe is a man created to give up his life for a principle. The John Doe Clubs don’t allow politicians to belong to them because as they say “You know how politicians are.”
John Doe turns into a full fledged movement that spans the whole country. Finally it culminates into a big convention where John is going to give a big speech. He never reads them ahead of time and he has really come to believe the things he’s been saying. Just before the convention he discovers the real purpose for all of this. It was to create a movement such as a third party and use John to nominate D. B. Norton for the presidency of the United States. I’m not going to tell you quite everything that happens in this story but boy did I love the politics of the people mixed up with the politics of the wealthy.
Throughout this movie you get that feeling that everyone is being used by the wealthy D.B. Norton. He runs the show and he even runs the police. He controls the press as well and isn’t it interesting when we have other rich people controlling the press today. So much of this John Doe movement reminded me of Fox News and the strange connection with the Tea Party movement. It also reminded me of the John Edwards movement and even Barack Obama’s “change” movement.
When I was part of the John Edwards movement the people that posted online were all about the little people and poverty and doing something constructive to help. Even after John quit the race a group still stayed formed called the “John Edwards Movement Continues”. We didn’t want to stop the principles of the movement. Of course the messenger was flawed and the movement died but there are still people out there that believe in the principles of what Edward’s was saying. These movements do tend to start with the little guy that is looking for something good to happen in the world. What I learned is politicians are flawed and little guys do get used.
Right now many are feeling let down by the Obama presidency. I wrote a post awhile ago called, “Throw Them a Bone Once in Awhile.” In that piece I referred to the “talk” about Hillary trading places with Biden. To me it is obvious that President Obama has just thrown out that proverbial bone. With the current legislation we are all supposed to be dancing in the streets. He gave the wealthy the lion’s share but he threw the rest of us a bone. That’s supposed to keep us quiet for awhile. The press is busy telling us how great Obama is right now, working hard to build his numbers. Chief among them is Chris Matthews who still has some kind of strange fetish for all things Obama! I’ll hold out on the dancing until after March 4th when we see what they are going to do with the budget. I think something has to give and since it isn’t going to come from the wealthy, then it’s going to have to come from everyone else, you know the “John Doe” people. Once again the wealthy control the little guys just like D. B. Norton had his finger in every pie to control John Doe and that movement.
I personally wouldn’t mind if we all started a John Doe movement but of course we’d have to not let any politicians get their hands on the movement. I see many people would like a third party that could really go somewhere, so we wouldn’t feel like we are throwing a vote away voting for someone other than a Democrat or a Republican. I’d love to see that happen and I’d love some kind of real movement by the people and I don’t mean the Tea Party crowd that seems to be funded by some rich, conservative benefactors. If anything real is going to get done in this country, I personally think it has to develop form the people and we cannot put our hopes on any one person because people are flawed.
If you have the time, watch this movie. I loved it! You can watch the black and white version here. I caught a colorized version on TV but watched it again here.