Meet John Doe [VHS]

Description

Fifty years after its initial release, Frank Capra's MEET JOHN DOE is still a powerful motion picture with a great cast. Only the story presented a problem. It was so much like the Christ tale that it practically demanded the same ending-John Doe had to give up his life to resurrect his John Doe movement, and "save" his cadre of "little guys" railing against the ills of society. But, the audiences of 1941 wouldn't stand for Gary Cooper committing suicide, and six endings were finally shot before the one seen here was ultimately settled upon. The picture was well received. Even the New York critics like it, giving Capra his first spot on the annual "Top Ten" listing. In MEET JOHN DOE, Capra was warning the complacent democracies of the threat the perceived from facism of both within and without. And, its message of the oneness of humanity and of the need to pull together against a common foe should not be lost on the John Does of today, either. The result of again ignoring this message of hope and love and of the universality of mankind could be too horrible to contemplate.