Speech is undoubtedly an important in narrative cinema both then and now. Brian Gallagher, in his article, has mentioned how this was especially true within Capra films. The Capra hero is characterized as someone who achieved maturity through the journey of finding his voice, the heroic voice of truth.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a very interesting film with this concept. Mr. Smith himself is a child in an adult’s skin, who has reached 30 but was never mature with all of his incapability to deal with “social pressures and sexual promptings” (13). He went through a literal journey to maturity and as an audience, we can see this through the progression of his voice. The word speech is repeated hundreds of times throughout the movie and this