Frank Capra's American Dream

Frank Capra's American Dream (1997)

**** (out of 4)

Ron Howard hosts this wonderful documentary that covers the life and career of three-time Oscar-winner Frank Capra. The documentary features interviews with two of his sons as well as various famous faces including Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Robert Altman, Andre De Toth, Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Keaton, Amy Heckerling, Arthur Hiller, Angela Lansbury, Garry Marshall, John Milius, Richard Schickel,Edward Zwick and even some who worked with Capra including Jane Wyatt and Fay Wray.

If you're a fan of Capra then you'll certainly enjoy this detailed documentary that does a very good job at talking about the director's early life and how he ended up in Hollywood. From here we basically get a look at all of the films he made and a discussion of their box office success or failures as well as their impact on Capra himself. We get a more detailed look at the bigger titles including IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, MEET JOHN DOE and of course IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

The documentary does an extremely good job at going over the highs and lows of Capra's career as well as his own personal life, although the main focus always remains on the films. Fans of the director will get a lot of great stories told about the films and those new to Capra will get to learn about what made him so special.