REVIEW: It’s a Wonderful Life [1946]

Rating: PG | Runtime: 130 minutes
Release Date: December 20th, 1946 (USA)
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
Director(s): Frank Capra
Writer(s): Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett and Frank Capra / Philip Van Doren Stern (story)

George lassos the moon.

I don’t know how I went twenty-three years of Christmases without having It’s a Wonderful Life considering how prolifically its screened during the holiday season. Last year I saw it for the first time on the big screen at the Screening Room in Amherst. Now, a calendar year later (it’s become an annual tradition there), I find myself loving it just as much the second time. Frank Capra’s masterpiece is quite a feat too considering the “holiday film” pedigree. Never dull, always heartwarming, funny, and true, it’s truly one of cinema’s shining achievements.

Sure, there’s the whole cliché of seeing the world if you never existed to awaken to the fact you life touches to many others. But it’s a familiar trope spun in a way that makes it unique. The entire film could have run straight through the gimmick as numerous reinterpretations have (think Mr. Destiny, The Family Man, etc), but that’s the cheap way out. Capra instead starts us at the end with the revelation that a tragedy occurred to make a man’s faith in life wane. Prayers have been sent and God has decided to send an angel to help our hero escape his predicament.

Well, this would-be savior knows nothing about George Bailey (James Stewart). So, for the first three-quarters of the runtime, we go along for the ride of catching him up on this great man’s life alongside Clarence’s (Henry Travers) eager angel. We’re shown someone who’s given the whole of his being for those around him. Someone devoid of a single selfish bone in his body who sacrifices his own happiness for the joy of his friends.

It’s through these good deeds that he eventually recognizes the treasures of life that have been in front of him the whole time. A trajectory that helped transform a small Depression-era town into a close-knit community. It’s almost too difficult to think he could be in so much trouble that he would contemplate suicide, but once again it’s due to his caring nature shining through a moment of desperation. When the story finally catches up to the present, we learn the predicament he’s in was manufactured to ruin someone else. But he’s taken responsibility for it to try and solve the town’s problems once again.

Stewart is a revelation. His self-deprecating nature is prevalent at all times and his character’s intellect juxtaposes nicely with his humor and affability. He is George Bailey as the role fully encompasses his being. Every nuance of emotion is etched to his face as he goes from wide-eyed explorer to a mix of smitten lover, responsible adult, compassionate son and brother, loving husband and father, beaten failure, and, finally, redeemed hero and friend to all men and women he’s ever come across.

What hero can exist without a nemesis of equal power whose immense strength is derived from greed? Enter the loathed Mr. Potter played brilliantly by Lionel Barrymore. I don’t think anyone who has ever seen this film can have any real compassion for this man—a true Scrooge. People are numbers and figures to him and they must be conquered and claimed to be placed under his control. Barrymore is despicably slimy and true to the character at all times.

And one must also mention Donna Reed as our protagonist’s love interest. Her beauty and self-assuredness shows why George is so taken by her that he’s always getting distracted from his dreams of leaving Bedford Falls. Their chemistry begins humorously at a school dance and culminates in a serious and authentic moment of love taking over them while on the phone with an old friend. Their relationship is believable from start to finish … and just as effective when portrayed by their younger selves (Robert J. Anderson and Jeanne Gail).

True there’s a segmented population during holidays with those who binge A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation instead, but I’ve been converted to an It’s a Wonderful Life devotee with zero problems watching it every Christmas for the rest of my life. The story means a lot of things to many people and has been remade countless times in many forms (there are chunks of time showing how even Back to the Future II rips it off) for a reason.

If you want a perfectly written and performed tale about the joy of giving and the strength of friendship to help express the true meaning of Christmas, look no further than this cinematic classic that’s endured for sixty years. Yes, I will be purchasing the newly released 60th anniversary DVD—sometimes waiting half a century has its benefits as the first copy I’ll ever own will be the most definitive package yet.