If I could choose one movie, more than any other, which was not only brilliant, but highly significant, it would be this one. We live an an age when cynicism about politics is rife, when people who get involved to change things for the better are more often than not dismissed as naive; this is a film which everyone who is cynical towards politics should see. It doesn't hide the fact that there is corruption in politics, but it does say quite clearly that there is a point and a value to standing up to it.
As movie quotes go, Jean Arthur's words to Jeff Smith deserve to be remembered: "Your friend Mr. Lincoln had his Taylors and Paines. So did every other man whoever tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against 'em didn't stop those men. They were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this world came from fools with faith like that." This is a movie which can teach a very valuable lesson, particularly those who despair of modern politics. There is a way forward.
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