talk about a letdown.
Aniston: The Queen of Triviality
SPOILERS
The religious conversion was no surprise, we were being set up for it, but it might have been more effective if they stopped with his praying and skipped the propaganda march. I say that not because I was raised by an angry right-wing cliche view of the world, but because I was raised on good movies that don't need to hammer you over the head with their message. The film was released in the middle of the depression so the message that San Francisco was rebuilt and we can do it too if we just march together over the hills singing religious songs (and wait until the war turns the economy around) was probably inspirational and not as cringeworthy as it is today.
While i can understand why some would find a similar ending "cringeworthy" today, having historical perspective, knowing the social mood in the Great Depression for what it was, led me to not be the least bit upset about the ending, and in fact the rebuilding of San Francisco was a very appropriate metaphor for what the US faced in the middle of the Depression.
It doesn't hurt that in fact San Francisco was rebuilt, either - it was not just propaganda.