Watching It's a Wonderful Life, one of the nominees for Best Picture of 1946, has become a Christmas tradition. I suppose people find its overall message to be an uplifting one, a sense that we all have a contribution to make to humanity and that we never really know just how great our contributions might be, how influential we truly are. While I respect what director Frank Capra and his cast and crew have done with this film, I have to say that it is a very depressing journey at times to reach that final epiphany. I am usually reluctant to take that trip each year, and it was only this year and for this project that I sat down to watch It's a Wonderful Life again. Now I can cross it off the list and avoid it in the future.
Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a businessman in Bedford Falls who has fallen on hard times. The bank started by his father has failed due to a stupid mistake by George's Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), a mistake for which George has taken credit. Now he's contemplating suicide, only to be stopped by an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) who's hoping to earn his wings by saving George from his own foolish ideas about how little he matters in the world. It's Clarence who shows up in physical form--well, as physical as an angel would be, but that's a philosophical discussion for another time--in order to show George what life in this small town would have been like without him.
We see George in a series of flashbacks, starting with the time when, at age 12, he rescued his brother from a fall into a frozen pond. He saves his brother, but he loses the hearing in his left ear, a small sacrifice to pay for his bravery, I suppose. After that heroic beginning, we see George constantly being thwarted in his plans to better himself. Inspired by National Geographic magazine, he wants to travel and see as much of the world as possible; he wants to have an adventure. He says, "I want to do something big, something important." Instead, all he gets are obligations to take care of his family and friends in Bedford Falls.
Here are a few ways that George's life turns out to be a disappointment. He wants to go to college, but instead, he has to help his father run the savings and loan. His younger brother goes to school instead. He never wanted to get married, but he falls in love with Donna Reed's Mary Hatch, who seems content to live in Bedford Falls. She even wants to buy the old Granville house and raise a family, something George feels would keep him from seeing the world. After his father has a stroke and dies, George is chosen to run the family business, just as he was planning to leave for Europe. When he starts to think Harry might take over the family business after graduation, George learns that Harry has gotten married and is moving to Buffalo to work in his new father-in-law's glass factory. Even on the day he and Mary get married, there's a run on the bank and he has to abandon their honeymoon in order to try to keep people from taking all of their money out of the family business. And just when he's offered a high-paying job that would allow him the luxury of a comfortable existence, Mary reveals that she's pregnant and he has to stay at his current job. It's one terrible event after another for George Bailey.
I know that more conservative people will point out that It's a Wonderful Life touts the principles of living up to your family obligations and community involvement, and certainly, George is well respected by the townspeople for his generosity. And he does love his wife and children. Yet I have the same reaction to this movie as I have always had to the play Our Town. Anyone who doesn't want to stay put and be just like everyone else is forced to submit to the public will (or become the town drunk). There's no escape from places like Bedford Falls, it seems, just mind-numbing conformity. If you want adventure, well, people like you and George don't get it. You can have posters on the windows of the romantic destinations you'll like to visit, but you'll never get to go there on your own. What you'll have to make do with is a stable existence in small town America, and whether you're truly happy or not makes no difference. It can be stifling to live like that when you have other dreams for yourself.
The villain of the piece is, I'm sure you know, Mr. Potter, the wealthiest man in Bedford Falls. He owns everything, and he doesn't seem to be happy unless he's making other people's lives miserable. He's played by Lionel Barrymore, who usually brings a sense of humanity to small roles like this. But Potter is just mean. He seems to have no redeeming characteristics or qualities whatsoever. No one can seem to reach his heart and make him care for his fellow human beings. Naturally, he plays a key role in the collapse of George's fortunes and in the breakdown that George suffers as a result.
Before we get too far away from it, I have to admit that the opening sequence is one of the silliest I've ever seen. It's basically stars talking to each other. They're concerned about George's emotional crisis and have heeded the prayers of various members of the Bedford Falls community who are also worried about George. Presumably, one of those stars is meant to be God or the "head angel" or something like that, and the rest are all angels who come down from Heaven to help out the people on Earth from time to time. Really, though, would it be any sillier to have actors dressed as angels rather than talking stars? Which one of those is the less believable approach?
For me, and I know this will sound a bit odd, the best part of It's a Wonderful Life is when George has his breakdown. It's all gotten to be a bit too much for him. When he realizes that he's bankrupt, and there will likely be a scandal and perhaps prison time for him, he lashes out at everyone. He yells at his wife and kids, revealing at last the pent-up anger he feels at all of the disappointments he's suffered over the years. Stewart is at his best in these scenes. In particular, watch his face after he realizes that, thanks to an insurance policy, he's worth more dead than alive. It's pretty chilling.
I have never quite accepted the ending of this film. Much of the rest of the movie has been realistic... well, except for the whole talking stars thing and the guardian angels and... oh, you know what I mean. Capra had a way of capturing the lives of the downtrodden, and he wasn't always as heavy-handed as he is in It's a Wonderful Life at achieving a happy ending. Maybe it's because it's a Christmas movie? However, when Stewart's George runs through the streets of Bedford Falls wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas," it just rings false to me. Speaking of ringing, I had to resist the urge to switch the movie off before George's daughter Zuzu makes her proclamation about the connection between bell ringing and angel's wings. And let's remember that on the next day, George will be back to his mundane existence running the savings and loan again, albeit with more money. When does the "wonderful life" part actually begin for George?
Yeah, I do realize that I'm in the minority when it comes to this movie. I'm willing to accept that. I understand why it is appealing to the masses. It reinforces their notions of the importance of doing the right thing and trying to help your fellow human beings. I'm certainly not opposed to either of those things. I just object to the idea that doing the right thing always means sacrificing your dreams and living your life in a way that doesn't meet everyone else's notions of what is acceptable. While I can admire It's a Wonderful Life for its technical achievements and for the acting of Stewart and Reed and some of the supporting cast like Beulah Bondi as George's mother, I'm glad that my obligations to watch this film are now over for good.
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