The Capra´s cinema and the romantic tradition

Abstract

Frank Capra’s films, mainly the ones produced in the 30’s and 40’s, are more than simple entertainment to the general public; they translated a series of relevant subjects to the American Ideology, as the self made man and the importance of the integration of the individual in contradiction of the collective. Thus, Capra has incorporated a highlighted role face of the political Franklin Delano Roosevelt “New Deal” and his cinema has gained a mission as a tool of political propaganda. Frank Capra managed to interact, although indirectly, to an old American intellectual tradition which has thought of the nation’s problems from the social view and integrated to a romantic vision of the world. Among Capra’s production, the famous “It’s a wonderful life” is one of his works, which offers more comparative possibilities with subjects derived from the transcendentalist tradition and from John Steinbeck’s “poetic” realism.