Here’s another film I strive to make room for in my early film history class, especially during midterm and presidential election years: 1939’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which James Stewart and Jean Arthur play the type of people you’d really like to have in Washington, then or now. And when my students see this film for the first time, they’re astounded by how cynically politicians and the media are portrayed in a movie from so, so long ago. They’re also surprised, at the end, by how moved they by the movie’s climax.