While clown comedy is the most traditional of the comic
genres, dating from the beginning of cinema, populism
came to the forefront during the Depression in the
1930s. The exemplar of populism is director Frank
Capra (1897–1991), especially in his pivotal pictures
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), and It’s a
Wonderful Life (1946). This underdog genre embraces
the belief that the superior and majority will of the
common man is forever threatened by the usurping
sophisticated evil few. Consequently, populist films frequently feature politician characters, including James
Stewart’s title character, a senator, in Mr. Smith, Loretta
Young’s congressional candidate in The Farmer’s
Daughter (1947), Kevin Kline as the president (and the
president’s double) in Dave (1993), and Chris Rock’s
presidential candidate in Head of State (2003).
Politics notwithstanding, Capra’s It’s a Wonderful
Life represents the broadest microcosm of populist basics,
from its celebration of family and traditional values to its
embrace of personal sacrifice for the common good.
Capra added a fantasy wrinkle by giving George Bailey
(James Stewart) a guardian angel when he turns suicidal.
The fantasy element is important because it makes the
film’s populist ideology more palatable to the viewers
who otherwise might find the films too sentimental.
Indeed, even when fantastic events do not take place,
most populist interactions are so positive that the genre
has been described as a fantasy of goodwill. Many classic
sports comedies are populist in nature, including The
Natural (1984), Major League (1989), and The Rookie
(2001). Central to these and all populist underdog victories is the notion of a second chance, whether it is George
Bailey getting his life back (and knowing its worth) in It’s
a Wonderful Life, or a man reconnecting with his lost
father in Field of Dreams (1989)—a movie conceived as a
baseball version of the Bailey story. Baseball also allows
the modern populist film to keep alive the genre’s celebration of America’s pastoral roots.
Though Capra and populism owe a great deal to an
American cracker-barrel humor that stretches from Ben
Franklin (1706–1790) to Will Rogers (1879–1935), there
is much about the genre that is international in nature.
At its most fundamental, populism embraces unlikely
victories and revitalized families, and especially the ties
between fathers and children. Also, populists ultimately
do the right thing. Therefore, such recent British comedies
as Billy Elliot (2000) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
may be considered as populist comedies, and even the
offbeat French film Amelie (Le Fabuleux destin d’Ame ´lie
Poulain, 2001), in which the title character (Audrey
Tautou) so inventively assists others that her efforts ultimately lead to her own special rewards, is populist in spirit.