DAILY FILM DOSE: A Daily Film Appreciation and Review Blog: It's a Wonderful Life

Monday 7 November 2011

It's a Wonderful Life


It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) dir. Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

****

by Alan Bacchus

The timeless classic It’s a Wonderful Life is essential viewing for the Christmas season. It follows the life story of humble family man George Bailey, who, throughout his life, gave more than he received. And in his moment of deepest despair he’s allowed to see the effects of his goodwill. Though known as a holiday film, it’s a perfect piece of cinema on its own and legitimately one of the greatest films of all time.

Existentialism courses through the veins of this picture. Capra and his writers give us a full hour and a half of story before revealing the heart of the film. We see George at the benchmark moments in his life when his selflessness has furthered the lives and careers of others. There’s his brother’s sledding accident, during which George saved his life but caused irreparable damage to his own ear. Before going off to college George stays in the town he desperately wants to leave so he can bail out his father’s old Building Savings and Loan business. On the day of his wedding George forgoes his honeymoon so he can stem a potential bank run against the business – and he personally loans $2000 from his own savings to help the community. But most importantly, he sacrifices his hopes and dreams of becoming an engineer in order to help prevent his community from falling under the power of the monopolistic money baron, Mr. Potter.

These events are carefully written and planned out in the screenplay so they will pay off in the famous third act, which most of us are familiar with. The angel we heard talking to us at the beginning of the film comes to Earth like the ghost of Christmas past to help George see the good he has brought his friends and family. The film is existential because despite the divine intervention, it’s George’s direct and indirect actions in his life that ultimately save him from financial ruin. Although the benign angel, Clarence, allows George to see the effect of his goodwill on the community, there is no magic button or pixie dust thrown into the mix. The revelation and resolution are not religious or a miracle, but rather the result of a life’s work of goodness.

In many ways the film is also a direct shot at extreme free-marketing. Bailey’s credit union battles Potter’s evil economic takeover throughout the film. I’m surprised the film wasn’t blacklisted because the allusions to socialism are clear. Frank Capra, though, is such a talented filmmaker that his righteousness and common wholesomeness trump any economic or political agendas.

It’s a Wonderful Life is timeless not because of its Christmas themes but because there’s a bit of George Bailey in every one of us, including his dreams, aspirations, guilt, insecurities and neuroses. And the purpose of the film is not to spread Christmas cheer but to make the audience look inward and rediscover their own personal faith in humanity and the value of the smallest, seemingly insignificant actions in our lives. Such optimism is rare for films today.

It's a Wonderful Life is available on a Special Edition Blu-ray from Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment along with a memento to hang on your Christmas tree.

4 comments :

Mark said...

Last year I watched the colorized version... very surreal but somehow fascinating to see that world in vibrant color.

I wrote about this film and called it the 'clunky classic'. There are some truly bad edits in the movie - medium shots to medium shots. However, I do love the unapologetic and unabashed earnestness of the film.

Alan Bacchus said...

Weird. I've never noticed any bad edits. No more so than any older studio film, which wasn't always as elegant. That said, the movie is so absorbing I could easily miss technical errors.

Mark said...

http://achtenblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/clunky-classic.html

I posted a few that stood out.

Mark said...

The end of 'The Maltese Falcon' also has a terrible cut. It's the scene where The Fat Man is hacking away at the Falcon proclaiming it a fake. There is a terrible cut of him just standing there.

One of my favourite movies anyway!