It's a Wonderful Life

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Summary: IT'S A WONDERFUL MOVIE ANYTIME OF THE YEAR !
Review: The quality of the Its A Wonderful Life DVD is crisp and clear. This is my all time favorite movie and gets better with every viewing. The story of everyman George Bailey is one of hope and encouragement. He helps others at his own expense and is beloved in town. It takes an Angel to show George what life would have been like if he had never been born. James Stewart & Donna Reed are wonderful in the roles of the Baileys and are believable as a couple madly in love with each other and life itself. Watch for the cameo of Alfalfa from the OUR GANG comedies!!

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Summary: The Meaning of One Man's Life
Review: Bedford Falls is a small town right after World War II, filled with snow and sentiment at Christmas time. Except that George Bailey (James Stewart)head of the local building & loan company, is in trouble after his office manager loses the day's deposits, leaving George to face a bank examiner and jail. In desperation, he turns to the town's biggest tycoon, Henry Potter, for a loan, but Potter (who was behind the cash theft) laughs in his face. Potter sees the building and loan as competition for his cheap tenements, and wishes to see it destroyed.

George decides to commit suicide so his family can collect his life insurance. He jumps into the river, but is rescued by Clarence, a neophyte angel who has not yet earned his wings.

Clarence has an idea: he shows George the way the world would have been had George never been born. George then visits all his favorite people and places to find them changed. Bedford Falls is now Potterville, a dark and unhappy place. George begins to realize the value his life brought to others.
He returns to face his problems with a renewed spirit and determination. Can he make good on the lost deposits? Can he avoid jail? Will Clarence finally earn his wings?

The best sentiments of the Christmas season are affirmed in this wonderful 1947 classic. Donna Reed plays George Bailey's wife and is lovely and perfect for the part.

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Summary: It's a Wonderful Movie!
Review: "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of those perennial tv events that has held up better than its contemporaries such as 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'March of the Wooden Soldiers'.

The key to its success is a powerful, character-driven story, which today, would have been a perfect vehicle for Creed's "My Sacrifice" (on its soundtrack). In fact, the film is almost spartan in the way it foregoes alot of bells and whistles and relies mainly on its characters to draw viewers in. There are no flashy special effects or cliched soundtrack to speak of (certainly not by today's standards - although 'Buffalo Gal' is kinda catchy!), no munchkins or wicked witches or bogeymen (though there is a scrooge-like Mr. Potter), and the fantasy segment near the end of the movie is a bleak, realistic world which springs organically out of the lead character's Job-like frustration.

Another interesting element is that the story draws from biblical rather than fairy-tale or fantasy sources (though it limits itself to talking stars and 2nd class angels) which should be pleasing to roughly 33% of the world, yet the message seems universal enought for the rest of the planet, as well.

The DVD, like the film, is also rather spartan (as far as extras go). The menus are still shots from the movie and there is a trailer, a 'making of'(hosted by 'Happy Days' Tom Bosley) and a 'rememberence' by the director's son (a real snoozefest). But the story and excellent resloution of the DVD make this a keeper.

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Summary: the Greatest Holiday movie ever made...
Review: Wonderful, Wonderful. Great story, great actors and actresses and a fantastic message...especailly for this time of year when so many people get down and depressed!!

"One man's life touches so many others, when he's not there it leaves an awfully big hole."~Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life

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Summary: Old Classic
Review: Highly emotional, all-ages drama about a near sucidal man learning the value of his exisistence. An irresisteble dose of sentimintally makes this uplifting classic a perennial favorite.

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Summary: A Christmas Classic
Review: This is the best christmas movie ever. Since 1998, I've watched this movie on every Christmas day, it isn't Christmas without it.

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Summary: A true American classic.
Review: Frank Capra's apex of his career never received the recognition it deserved until the late 1970's. Then America started to wake up and thanks to televised viewings, the movie became a hit. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Jimmy Stewart has one of the most engaging roles of his career as George Bailey, the hometown hero who has big dreams, but gives them up for doing the right thing. Younger children may not be able to appreciate the depth of this film, but when we watched a showing of this film at a local theatre, my younger brother actually enjoyed it. A true American classic that will touch the everyman in us all. What more needs be said?

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Summary: Does What Movies are Supposed To Do
Review: Capra manipulates his audience from the first scene. This is not a think for yourself film, not something like Citizen Kane, that is supposed to have the audience leave the theatre already in various discussions or even quarrels.

I remember showing this film every winter in an art house when I was in college; afterwards I'd lean out the transom to look over the seats and I'd see the lines of used Kleenex strewn up and down the rows. This is exactly what Capra intended, and he has succeeded.

Ironically, it is the jaded audiences of America since the Vietnam War that have embraced this film. When it first came out in 1947, the critics panned it. World War Two had just ended, and the critics, as well as the typical audiences wanted something besides a plain old feel-good movie. It was all very nice that George Bailey "suffered" a mediocre middle class life, so that he could save the lives of his brother, and by him, "the men on the transport," not to mention the kid with the diphtheria. But this didn't answer any of the questions on people's minds at the time.

Right after World War Two, people were dealing with war orphans, and the influx of refugees from concentration camps. 1947 was just about the time that America was coming to terms with what has gone on in places like Buchenwald and Treblinka. Not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I think the irony is in the fact that the recent audiences have been able to put aside questions of My Lai, the Bay of Pigs, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, The Gang of Four, the Iranian Embassy hostages, Tiannamen Square, the Taliban, Tibet, and focus on the idea that a man is wealthy as long as he has friends. Why is this possible, when contemporary audiences didn't respond to the film?

I suppose modern audiences respond with nostalgia, to the old black & white film, with its boxy cars, wind up record player, and corner drugstore. Yes, well, we have the Taliban now, and back then there were no jumbo jets, or buildings tall enough for a flying plane....

The truth is that every time has hard times, and no days were simpler. But nonetheless, this is a great film. Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed take stock characters and flesh them out, so that the audience cares what happens to them from the moment they appear on the screen.

The photography makes the film. The filming and editing are superb. If you have a chance to buy a letterboxed version of the film, do, because it loses so much with the sides cropped off. There are a number of deep-focus shots, and odd angles, designed to show George Bailey from G-d's perspective, or to emphasise the times he is alone in a crowd, or to jolt the audience, to make us uncomfortable and nervous when George Bailey is uncomfortable and nervous. Or sometimes just to give an eye-catching view, as when George holds his hands out before receiving his trunk and says "I want a BIG one!"

The crew and the actors have given such close attention to detail, that the film stands up to multiple viewings, so you won't be sorry you bought instead of rented.

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Summary: Christmas Classic!!!!
Review: This movie rocks!!! Jimmy Stewart is wonderful as George Bailey. He makes the watcher feel like they are there with him throughout his stuggles. In my opinion nobody else could have captured George as he did. Uncle Billy is just hilarious!! I'm sure that we all look at our lives and think about how that they could be different, but then realize that we all make a difference in our own way. George and Mary may not have much in the way of money but they do have what counts, love and family and plenty of friends!! This movie is a Christmas classic but a good watch ANYTIME!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Movie, Wonderful Life
Review: This is the best movie ever. I can watch it a thousand times and not tire of it. It isn't Christmas without it. Wonderful!
Merry Christmas!