Editing Frank Capra (section)

=== Joining the Army after Pearl Harbor ===
[[File:Frank Capra.JPG|thumb|Capra editing film as a Major during World War II]]
Within four days of the Japanese [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941, Capra quit his successful directing career in Hollywood and received a commission as a [[Major (United States)|major]] in the [[United States Army]]. He also gave up his presidency of the [[Directors Guild of America|Screen Directors Guild]]. Being 44 years of age, he was not asked to enlist, but, notes Friedman, "Capra had an intense desire to prove his patriotism to his adopted land."<ref name=Friedman />

Capra recalls some personal reasons for enlisting:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | I had a guilty conscience. In my films I championed the cause of the gentle, the poor, the downtrodden. Yet I had begun to live like the [[Aga Khan]]. The curse of Hollywood is big money. It comes so fast it breeds and imposes its own mores, not of wealth, but of ostentation and phony status.<ref>Capra 1971, p. 314.</ref>}}