Richard Rannabargar
In the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington a man with no particular political background
is elected to hold a seat in the senate to replace a senator who passes away. This man, Mr. Smith,
is expected to simply decorate a chair in the senate but he eventually rises to bring to light
Taylor’s giant political machine and all the corruption therein. A major theme in this film is of
Mr. Smith’s loss of innocents as he learns of the corruption surrounding him and the reality of
how things have come to be in the senate. In this essay, I claim that the use of mise-en-scene in
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington suggests that Mr. Smith is experiencing a loss of innocence in his
image of the senate.
