Pizza & Public Affairs
Join us for an evening of Pizza and Public Affairs with Grant Woods. As Arizona's Attorney General from 1991-1999, he has been a political and community leader for more than 30 years. Grant has been the lead counsel in many important legal battles in Arizona, and can be seen frequently at Diamondbacks, Suns and Cardinals games. Whether in the courtroom or at the ball park, Grant is always working to make the Valley a better place to live.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Political
heavyweights decide that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an obscure
scoutmaster in a small town, would be the
perfect dupe to fill a vacant U.S. Senate chair. Surely this naive
bumpkin can be easily controlled by the senior senator (Claude Rains)
from his state, a respectable and corrupted career politician. Director
Frank Capra fills the movie with Smith's wide-eyed
wonder at the glories of Washington, all of which ring false for his
cynical secretary (Jean Arthur), who doesn't believe for a minute this
rube could be for real. But he is. Capra was repeating the formula of a
previous film, Mr.
Deeds Goes to Town, but this one is even sharper; Stewart and Arthur are brilliant, and the former cowboy star Harry Carey lends
a warm presence to the role of the vice president. Bright, funny, and beautifully paced, Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington is
Capra's ode to the power of innocence--an idea so potent that
present-day audiences may find themselves wishing for a new Mr. Smith in
Congress. The 1939 Congress was none too thrilled about the film's
depiction of their august body, denouncing it as a caricature;
but even today, Capra's jibes about vested interests and political
machines look as accurate as ever.
Please RSVP by October 25, 2011 at: http://spa.asu.edu/rsvp/pizza-public-affairs.
