One Christmas Eve, thirty years ago give or take, I woke up the house because I was watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on late night television (which was the only way to see it at that time) and as George Bailey ran back to the bridge to tell Clarence that he wanted to live...
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One Christmas Eve, thirty years ago give or take, I woke up the house because I was watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on late night television (which was the only way to see it at that time) and as George Bailey ran back to the bridge to tell Clarence that he wanted to live again the station went to a commercial break. As Kenneth Burke said a long time ago, form is the creation of an appetite and the satisfying of that appetite in the mind of an audience. So there I was, getting all ready to start weeping when the snow starts to fall again, and suddenly I am being bombarded with commercials for the sort of projects that are only advertised in the middle of the night. One reason to own your own copy is that not only can you control the breaks, but you can also watch it any time you need a little Christmas.
The general consensus is that "It's a Wonderful Life" is a timeless holiday classic, a black & white movie that NBC is proudly airing tonight on Christmas Eve once again, because of the point that Clarence Oddbody, AS2 makes to George when he tell him, "Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends." The point is underscored as the film's benediction when Clarence writes that reminder in the copy of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and when Harry Bailey proposes a toast to his big brother George as "the richest man in town." The grand irony here is that the only person who does not know these things ends up being George Bailey himself, and the fact that Jimmy Stewart is perfect in the role does not hurt either.
But I would contend that "It's a Wonderful Life" is also a timeless classic for the simple reason that it makes you cry even more the second time around. Once you have seen Frank Capra's 1946 film you cannot help but notice how everything in the nightmare sequence is set up earlier in the movie. Certainly you remember what happened with Mr. Gower and when Harry fell through the ice, but the first time through did you pick when Mary said she married George to keep from being an old maid? Once you know the story the whole opening litany of prayers ("Something's the matter with daddy") can get you chocked up. For me I lose it when young Mary leans over into George's bad ear and says, "George Bailey, I'll love you 'till the day I die" (and not because I am deaf in one ear either, but because I am a hopeless romantic).
Like so many of the director's classic "Capra-corn" films, namely "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," and "Meet John Doe," the story of George Bailey is basically a crucifixion story. Voltaire once said that the crucifix represents the wise man assassinated, and in each of those films there is certainly a point where the hero is symbolically crucified in public: to wit, the impeachment in the Senate, the competency hearing, and the mass rally. But only George Bailey actually descends into Hell as he sees what the world would have been like if he had never been born. Such stories have become a commonplace on television ("Smallville" did it for Lex Luthor earlier this month and I have fond memories of the one "Moonlighting" did), and there are countless movies in which the main character gets a chance to see the road not taken. The genre goes back at least to "A Christmas Carol," but whereas Ebenezer Scrooge is the ancestor of Mr. Potter, George Bailey has always lived a good life. George is so selfless he claims he was the one that lost the money when he goes to Mr. Potter for help. The guy cannot help but do the right thing.
Granted, there are some imperfections in this divine film, just as a Persian carpet always contains a flaw. For me the initial levity of Clarence as a blinking star is a bit too cute after the stage is set up by the people of Bedford Falls on bended knee entreating for divine intervention for George. But once Henry Travers shows up as Clarence in person that is rectified (I like the way he tells George, "You've never been born," as if what was about to happen was the most natural thing in the world. However, the errors I recall now with regards to this film are my own. The first couple of times I saw the film I thought that Mr. Potter showed up at the end to join in the festivities because the magic of Christmas was such that even his heart grew to the right size. For years I was convinced that when they are searching Uncle Billy's hovel for the missing money and it looks like somebody will be going to prison that George not only says "It's not going to be me," but adds "for once in my life it is not going to be me."
The romance between Stewart's George and Donna Reed's Mary stands on its own: you could do a movie that ends with them on their wedding night and have a winner. Still, the reason that the ending is so glorious is that "It's a Wonderful Life" gets really dark before the dawn. The extreme closeup that Capra shoots of Stewart when the enormity of the fall hits George is absolutely harrowing, as is the terror in his face when the spinster Mary collapses and George has totally lost it, because we understand exactly what that means. In the end we come back to Clarenece's message because George's only problem is that he does not know this simple and profound truth (and because Mary and the people of Bedford Falls have taken care of the missing money regardless of Clarence's intervention). That is why this is a wonderful movie.
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