Meet John Doe (1941)

Frank Capra’s “Meet John Doe”

Thematic Elements: 

Frank Capra’s ‘Meet John Doe’ is a film that is incredibly similar to the structure of most of Capra’s popular films. Films like ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” or “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” examine a man who is pushed from the normalcy of the everyday modern American into the grandeur and chaos of a far more politically charged world. This idea seemed to echo of the times that Capra was living in. In the 1930s and the 1940s, small town Americans could not escape the constant newfound news cycle that sensationalized the modern world as well as headed threats of apocalypse and disaster. It is no wonder Capra’s films exhibited this unique structure, as everyday Americans felt as if they were pulled away from their immediate simple way of living and forced into the mindset of global economics and politics, especially after the stock market crash of 1929; an event that took place in the highest economic reaches of society but still its effect was more felt by the everyman than anyone else. With films like ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’ and ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ Capra illustrates the corruption of the higher echelons of society and its manipulation on the public while also illustrating a level of hope that the individual can overcome these massive manipulative and corrupt obstacles to form a better and hopeful way forward. ‘Meet John Doe,’ on the other hand, is a far more cynical viewpoint of this narrative, one in which the individual cannot overcome this state of corruption and manipulation.

The everyman protagonist in the film is John Willoughby, a former baseball player who is down on his luck due to the injury he sustained to his elbow while pitching in the minor leagues. The higher echelon of society he is thrust into is the continuing sensational headlines of a major newspaper, one that calls him John Doe and who’s conjured narrative is that of an everyman who is sick and tired of the way the average American is abused and disregarded by the state. The sensational aspect comes from the notion that John Doe will kill himself as an act of rebelling against the degradation of America and its hardworking people. This narrative was conceived by Ann, who wrote this story after being fired from the paper due to a trimming down of the company for economic reasons. Both John and Ann enter into this sensational storytelling because of their lack of income. Ann cannot afford to lose her job due to her aging mother and her jobless sisters. John needs the money because he is homeless after losing his baseball career due to his injury. The lack of economic security causes these decent people to become corrupt in their values and lie and manipulate the public. 

John Willoughby, now John Doe, becomes the face of a movement. People all over the country cannot get enough of John Doe because he seemingly fights for the everyman and preaches the message of kindness. He claims that the best way to fix our crumbling society is to start treating each other with kindness and love. As he spreads his message, more and more people start to hail him as a representative of the everyman, as they start to create clubs and organizations to rally this message of kindness and togetherness that they believe will strengthen the foundation of America. Whether or not this was Capra’s intention, Capra displays the average American citizen as a gullible idiot who will believe whatever is put in front of them; which strengthens the corruption of the newspapers and media to continue to lie and manipulate the citizens to drain them economically. The society portrayed in the film is one that is desperate for a ‘hero’ – one that will stand up for their beliefs and represent the community as whole, tired of the corruption and manipulation that is forced upon them. This desperation paradoxically is what fuels the continued corruption however, as it makes it easier for those with power to use that desperation for their own greed and control.  

Once John and Ann discover the end game of this national scheme, they realize their participation of the corruption of the people and its corruption on their own personal values. They discover that DB Norton, a William Randolph Heart type figure who owns the newspaper as well as owning immense power over society as a whole, has orchestrated a plan to use the popularity of John Doe and his influence over the modern American to create a third political party – one that will back candidates of his choosing and will guarantee the votes given John Doe’s recommendations to the people. Upon learning this scheme, John plans to use his platform to inform the people of this scheme. However, DB Norton uses his power of the press and influence to turn the people against John, pointing to the notion that John is a liar who actively participated in this corruption for the sake of money. DB Norton sends out press releases claiming John to be a liar and a fraud, he openly calls out John claiming he was duped by him, and even releases fake protesters to scream and throw things at John during his speech. DB turns everyone against John and sets up John as the fraud in this grand scheme. Capra shows us just how powerful the powerful are at manipulating the narrative of society and just how in control they are of every facet of information and of manipulating national perspective. 

At the end, there might be a sliver of hope for the individual, albeit miniscule and perhaps nonexistent altogether. John has reached the point of total abandonment from his fellow man as he plans to commit suicide by jumping off a building. DB Norton has met him there to inform him that any note he leaves on his person will just be thrown away by his funded police force, Ann has arrived to convince the love of her life not to go through with it, and a small group of people who didn’t believe the lies spread about John has arrived to remind him that his message of kindness and solidarity is something that should not be thrown away. Even though John does not go through with it, the ending still seems melancholy. Even though there is the sliver of hope that is present in the small group of Americans who still believe in the message, it still seems incredibly empty. John’s life is saved, but the powerful and still powerful and the public are still gullible sheep. Capra paints an incredibly pessimistic view of America and it’s political, economic, and media structure - run by the powerful elite with the ability to manipulate and sensationalize in order to orchestrate more and more wealth and power. During a time of complete corruption, the hope that can come to a disavowed society through a leader or an inspiring message can be just as corrupt as well. At the end of the movie, there is little hope to be found in escaping this politically tainted world.

Camerawork: 

Montage: Capra utilizes montage at many stages of this film. In all his films, Capra uses montage as an efficient tool to move the story along or to display an understanding about a specific idea or notion. The first use of montage comes in the opening shots of the movie. The opening shows a montage of the American working class: ranchers, factory workers, construction workers, seamstresses, and telephone operators. This montage is utilized to build the foundation of the theme of the movie – the oppressed and manipulated working class everyday American. This set up instills in the audience the notion of who John Doe and his revolution is targeting. Each time the ‘everyman’ or the ‘average American’ is referenced throughout the film, the memory of the opening montage can be called back to instill in the mind of the viewer just who is the target of this manipulation and scheming. 

Capra also uses montage to move the story along. He uses montage of moving through the auditions to become John Doe, as the camera cycles through various faces being interviewed for the position. Capra uses this efficient method of storytelling to instill the understanding of the tedious and meticulous time and energy that goes into the orchestration of the deception in the film. He uses montage to demonstrate the sales of the sensational magazine stories about John Doe by showing a graph of sales going up and up over months and months. He uses montage to convey the scope of John Doe travelling the country preaching his ‘sermons.’ Obviously Capra cannot convey in the short timeframe of the film the entire scope of what goes into the effort of vast public manipulation, but he can utilize montage to convey long periods of time into short pieces of information that suggest such, creating an efficient use of the filmmaking process. 

Close Up: One use of close-up that Capra utilizes in the film comes at the beginning and suggests the important aspect of what is happing in the modern society.  It is a close-up of a construction worker bulldozing the front public sign of the newspaper offices. It is a sign that reads, “a free press for a free people” Capra films a close-up shot of the removal of the words “free press.” – which then cuts to the workers putting up a new sign reading: “The New Bulletin: A Streamlined Press for a Streamlined Era.” The use of his close-up closes in on the importance of what is happing in the scene and how it is affecting the entire story and its themes. Capra could have just shot the scene from a medium view of the removal of the sign, but because he edits to a close-up of these exact words being removed, he is emphasizing the importance of what is happening directly correlating to the sign’s verbiage. It is almost as if he is letting the viewer understand the drastic importance of the crumbling of a free press in it’s exchange with sensational media as this idea is to be held in the viewer’s mind as the important piece of information that relates to every aspect of the film going forward. This single close-up is the ignition for the entire theme of the film and all the events that unfold.

The Dutch Angel Shot: The Dutch Angel shot is used specially and primarily in film noir, which was just starting to explode as a new language of the film media during the time of Meet John Doe’s release in 1941. The shot itself is meant to illustrate a sense of crookedness, either permeating from the story itself or the characters in the story – it is meant to place the view in a state of imbalance, reconciling the viewer with the understanding of confusion or imbalance of what is happening inside the elements of the story. Capra uses this Dutch Angel shot once in this film but makes it one of the most important shots in the film itself.  Just after getting fired from the paper, Ann is in a state of anger and desperation and decides to take one last shot at the paper by writing a false story about an average man who wants to take a stand against the corruption of society. The moment Ann is typing up this story, Capra cuts to a close-up of Ann with a Dutch Angle. This very shot is meant to illustrate the imbalance that Ann is setting into motion with this single decision she has made, one that will set off the entire chain events of the story. Ann’s opening act of deceit is shot with this imbalanced shot, suggesting to the viewer the crooked spiral that will affect the rest of the story and the utter corruption that follows.

Sound: There are two great noticeable uses of sound Capra utilizes in the film. The first great use of sound comes when John Doe realizes that his baseball career is over. Someone points out to him that once it comes out that he is a phony, no one in baseball will ever want to hire him again. Just as he comes to this realization, Capra inserts the brief sound of a fly. As flies in literature and art are meant to symbolize death and decay, Capra here uses the fly for just that. The evocation of death through the fly is meant to imply the complete death of the person that John used to be. He has traded in his individuality for economic security and with this realization, he realizes that he has affectively killed off the person he used to be, the minor league baseball pitcher he always was. 

The second use of sound comes when DB Norton sends his press notices about John’s deceit just before John is about to give his confessional speech. As paper boys enter into the crowd of people handing out papers, one of them is asked by a balloon vendor if he wants a balloon. The boy then pops the balloon. The sound of the popping of the balloon is used by Capra to convey the popping and deflation of John controlling his own narrative. DB has orchestrated a way for his followers to turn on him, thus deflating the very narrative of himself John wishes to take back. The sound of the balloon popping echoes this.

Best Shot: 

The best shot of the film conveys the ultimate cynicism that Capra instills in this film. It is the scene in which John is planning suicide. Snow is falling on the cityscape as he is warned by DB Norton and his comrades that there is no way for his message to maintain itself and reach the people, even through the martyrdom of suicide. Ann ruses up to convince John not to go through with it, for the sake of their love. The shot perfectly encapsulates John’s choice. The snow covering the city and rooftop illustrates a cold world, one John has now come to completely understand. To the left of John is death with no redemption. To his right is the hard truth of the corruption of society and his and everyone else’ inability to escape it. The only thing John has left is in his arms, the love from Ann. Capra shows in this shot that there is no salvation left in this cold world, except through the immediate relationships that is provided by love. With this shot, Capra is saying that there is no choice for John except to accept the love he has as his sole medication in the face of a cold and corrupt world.