In a lot of the articles I read about this movie, they said that it was Capra’s commentary on Nazism. To quote Capra himself, it was because “little “fuhrers” were springing up in America, to proclaim that freedom was weak, sterile, passé.” (1). But what I don’t understand, is why the movie seems to  support more Nazi ideals and idealizes the power that Nazis had over the media, and is clearly opposing American politics.

John Doe uses the media to bring together the public, and he is sharing his believes through the radio and the papers, and people look up to him. The politicians like BD Norton, were also using the media for their own political gain, but they were doing it behind the editors of the news papers and behind John Doe, so they did not have the same effect and following as John did. But Hitler did use the media in both ways to reach people, he would talk to them, and then manipulate the media, what could be published and hear and more importantly what could not.

John Doe in the movie is against big government, and believes that the people together should come together to support each other. We talked about this in class a little bit, that the American politicians are seen as the bad guys. This idea that John Doe spread does share a few similarities with Nazi ideology. This is more against American Politics than it is supporting Nazi ideology, but back then people believed that if you weren’t with America you were against it.

(1) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA97/halnon/capra/doe.html