You Can Change the World

I find it crazy that we all see the same piece of film and yet we interpret it differently. I didn't see this as an "anti communist" propaganda film. I saw it as a motivational film. Don't sit on your hands, get involved. As far as the cast commenting on the Declaration of Independence not being taught or not being followed then....welcome to today! A lot of teachers & most college professors do not teach. They indoctrinate. That is dangerous. Kids need to be given access to the material and interpret it themselves. As far as people not being involved in their government...I can understand why. Government IS corrupt! Period!! Dems, Repubs... Makes no difference. And the average person cannot stand up to the scrutiny of running for office. We are in a very sad state right now.....far much worse than the 1950's blacklists!

I guess at this time in history, it was necessary for all performers who wished to work or continue working on radio and television in the United States to openly declare themselves anti-communist or to show support for the anti-communist witch-hunt.

I assume the easiest way to fulfill loyalty obligations was to appear in explicitly anti-communist propaganda shows like this. I assume Jack Benny chose this as the most innocuous way to pledge his allegiance and stay on radio and television.

Benny seems annoyed that he has to host and listen to the 20 minute anti-communist sermon given by a rather nervous and witless Catholic Priest. The guest stars, like Loretta Young and William Holden remind one of Prisoners of War who are forced to recite confessions.

It is a sad affair to watch, but an important historical document showing the lunacy of the McCarthy times.

We had just defeated the Nazis... Most of Europe was in ruins. There were two major powers left... The USA & the USSR with quite differing & opposing world views. The specter of nuclear annihilation from the Soviets was quite real & palpable. It was the post war era of the COLD WAR. I grew up with Bert the turtle & duck & cover drills. It was dark time in world history.

Anyone who doesn't think the COLD WAR was deadly serious business, unlike the spy novels of the era, need only look to the Berlin airlift & the space race for confirmation that it was indeed played on the world stage for very REAL objectives!

What you see in this movie may look hokey 57 years later in 2008, one reviewer likened it to "propaganda," but it in fact underscores not only the values which built the USA but those that eventually caused the USSR to collapse and the only major Communist country left, China, to adopt many of the ideas & freedoms of the USA in its own daily practices.

Our founding fathers had it right our freedoms DO flow from Providence & not from man nor any government not set upon those freedoms! As for the Christophers I agree & have for 50+ years. Use your God given talents to make the world a better place - YOU can change the world!

Jack Benny calls various Hollywood personalities and asks them to come to his house. It's not to sell them Amway products, but to meet Father James G. Keller, who wants their help publicizing the Christophers.

The Christophers are a Roman Catholic group urging greater commitment to the world in a G*d-aware but ecumenical fashion. With the beginning of the Cold War, anti-foreign groups were on the rise, and with them, anti-Catholic feelings. The Christophers, with their motto "It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark" had a television song that ran from 1952 through 2012, and still publish a newsletter ten times a year.

"You Can Change the World" features an amazing cast: Paul Douglas, Jack Benny, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Bing Crosby, Irene Dunne, William Holden, Loretta Young AND Bob Hope! To top it off, it's directed by Leo McCarey...one of the top directors of the day. All this for a short film!!

The show begins with Rochester inviting celebrites to come to Jack Benny's house to meet Father Keller....leader of a group called 'the Christophers'. The group has a vague mission to 'change the world'...and listening to Keller didn't do a lot to clarify this other than it seemed founded on Americanism and God.

All in all, despite a great cast, the film comes off as dull and preachy. Sorry...a great cast wasted on a script that is way too didactic and boring. The only real value I saw in this was as a history lesson, as it's a window into the minds of folks back in 1950.