It's a Wonderful Life

Rating:
Summary: Retrospective of perspective
Review: A beautiful story, well told through the vision of Frank Capra. It is the story of a very typical middle-class man. He lives in the future dreaming of what his life will be, not seeing what it is. He lives for when life will become his dream. Then he is given a rare gift---a chance to see the truth of his life through the open and loving heart of his guardian angel. He then begins to understand that his true life was what was going on while waiting for his life to start. And, he gets to do this when there is still a chance to change. We all have this watershed event, albeit not all of us see it. The truth is always right in front of us, but it is very scary to see. So, like George Bailey we dream about what it should be and wait for that to happen. George opens himself to the truth and finds his true love and happiness. Would that we could all have such a wonderful life.

Rating:
Summary: Black & White Isn't "Too" Bland, Non?....
Review: In fact, the black & white setting suits "It's A Wonderful Life" as perfectly as technocolor would have for this Frank Sinatra-esque cult classic. James Stewart has this "Rocky & Bugsy"-era voice and a vigourous demeanor & Donna Reed is just brung in to play the hard-to-get young girl and the reserved wife. My focus refused to stay entact while watching this movie, but the ideas I did withdraw from this movie is that George Bailey (James Stewart) is caught in the tangled web of a financial scandal... and on the brink of suicide. That is... until a cliched assigned guardian angel appears out of the sky and falls in the waters of Bedford Falls... to save George (ironically). Before this happens, George is on a bridge contemplating (supposedly) suicide (due partially to a busted-lip from a brute in Martini's bar whose wife George insulted on the phone, heh heh), and when he sees Clarence (the "quote on quote"... angel), he jumps in after him and retrieves him. Henceforth, George rebuffs the idea of an angel and wishes he was never born, and granted... he was never born. And boy, does he take the in-your-face gruff reality of having no identity for a sham, but to his shagrin... it's as serious as a heart attack. George is a non-existent would-have-been making a futile attempt to spark some remembrance in his lost friends & family. Predictably, George repents and returns to existance... with a little (or lot of) monetary help from the whole town for his business trouble (whose lives apparently were impacted greatly by him somehow). Upon the saccharine conclusion (where George, his wife, & kid are basking in the solace of christmas communion), my eyes almost started to well-spring... I haven't the faintest idea why (I'm only 17). A nice retrospective on the golden age of Christmas classics. Somebody please make "It's A Wonderful Life 2000."

Rating:
Summary: WAKE UP! This is a lousy movie!
Review: This movie never won any awards. It was so bad that the studio could hardly give it away when they first puit it on tape, then they let it be colorized just so they could sell SOME copies of it, and suddenly the big war cry from the Hollywood liberals was -- "OOH! Save a classic black and white film!" Baloney! No one liked this movie when it was made. No one liked it the 1950s. No one liked it in the 1960s. No one liked it in the 1970s. No one liked it in the 1980s, then SUDDENLY! -- it's an American classic. NOT! It's Communist propaganda about the "evils" of American free enterprise from a guy who made a lot of pinko films but never thought HE should have to live like this "common man" he kept making pictures about.

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest movies of all time.
Review: When I think of words to describe Frank Capra's masterpiece "It's a Wonderful Life," only one word comes to mind: greatness. Greatness in its storytelling, which embodies the traditions and values of an American era gone by... greatness in its ability to generate some of the most complex characters in movie history from the simplest of human themes... greatness in its sense of heartfelt emotion and true knowledge of what life is really all about. Here is a movie that merits multiple viewings with each new holiday season, leaving its mark on each new generation while giving those familiar with it another chance to experience the magic.

People are most often surprised by the history of the film, which opened to moderate business at the box office, yet failed to muster the excitement and audience embracement that modern viewers have so lovingly bestowed upon it. Due to the weather, many people remained in their homes, while many who ventured to the bistro billed the film as too depressing for the Christmas season. And so, like a snowflake in the winter breeze, Frank Capra's slice-of-life film came and went like most modern movies of today.

Perhaps if its copyright had been renewed, we may never have known the true heart of this magnificent film, which has since become a traditional part of the holidays for many who revere the film as a classic; to bill it as anything but such is an injustice. The film has earned its popularity through its virtue and heartfelt emotional core, telling a story that serves as a model for humankind as well as a striking portrait of some of our country's most darkest days.

The story, originally a short story in the form of a Christmas card which was purchased by RKO Pictures for ten thousand dollars, takes us to the small town of Bedford Falls, where life is simple and people are filled with high spirits despite their hardships. At the center of this is George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart in one of the towering screen performances of all time; George has lofty ambitions that include "seeing the world, building skyscrapers 1000 stories high," and "a bridge a mile long." His idealistic view of the outside world is constantly put on hold, as he struggles to upkeep his deceased father's building and loan company, which is in danger of going under.

It may not appear so at first, but as the movie progresses, we can see just how much George does for his fellow man. He keeps the building and loan going as an outlet for those who have little or nothing to begin a better life without having to turn to Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore), "the richest and meanest man in the county" who sees fit to keep the citizens of Bedford Falls under his rule. But George will not allow it, and so, with the help of his newly-acquired wife, Mary (Donna Reed), and his business partner, his uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), he struggles to keep the town alive, ignoring his own dreams and aspirations for the greater good, never realizing the full impact he has on his fellow man until he is given a frightening glimpse of what may have been had he never been born at all, compliments of angel Clarence Oddbody, played by Henry Travers with real wit and acting ability.

Through all of this, George's life is shown in various lights, from the happiest moments a man could ever wish for, to the darkest depths of depression from which every man spends much of his life running from. This is why Capra's film succeeds so enormously: one minute we are in the murkiest recesses of life, as George searches frantically for a way out of his troubles. Through Capra's direction and Stewart's brilliant acting, much of this third act is infused with sheer terror that still manages to evoke chills, as he discovers what his absence would have meant to the people he met in his life. And then, after the realization that running from one's hardships provides no solace, he returns from his nightmare to discover his life in a completely different light, armed with the knowledge that "no man is a failure who has friends."

The overall film itself is a wonderful mosaic of American life at its most jubilant and its most downtrodden. As George grows up, from a small boy working in a drug store, to an ambitious college-bound teenager struck by love when he lays eyes on his future wife, we bear witness to some of the landmarks of our nation's history, from a Charleston contest at a high school dance, to the Great Depression and World War II. Each character is affected by these events, yet their upbeat demeanor in the face of these trying times magnificently captures the human resolve, and we come to care for all of them a great deal more.

And just as Capra is working his magic behind the camera, his wonderful and now-landmark cast works much of their own onscreen. Stewart's performance is one of history's most memorable, and will not soon be forgotten so long as the film remains in our hearts. Donna Reed evokes a warm and caring nature as Mary, sharing a terrific bond with Stewart that makes the marriage between their two characters affectionate and loving, not to mention totally convincing. Thomas Mitchell's eccentric and frantic Uncle Billy is supplied with heart, while each supporting actor offers humor and heartfelt emotion to the town's most notable citizens. Barrymore, too, plays the miserly Mr. Potter with supreme and delectable nastiness, one of Hollywood's most memorable villains.

Despite a less-than-favorable history, "It's a Wonderful Life" has reached its broad audience to find a home in everyone's hearts, with its wonderful storytelling, instantly likeable characters, and warm message about life. It takes risks in that it doesn't hide the hardships from view, but rather shows them in a most eerie and frightening manner, and this juxtaposition of gloom and happiness is the movie's biggest success. That, and its status as a great American film, a timeless classic which keeps us coming back for another slice of George Bailey's life each holiday season.

Rating:
Summary: Most deservedly a classic; some reflections
Review: Apparently, it was the well-known literati film critic Pauline Kael who once described It's a Wonderful Life as "doggerel masquerading as art." As a fairly keen film fan, I am sometimes grateful that there are critics who probe a little deeper and find questionable aspects in certain films that enjoy great popularity, especially in these days of the omnipresent Big Dumb Blockbuster Movie, but here I think she did Capra's classic a gross injustice. For those who are seeing it for the first time, as I finally did recently after missing it for years, IAWL is that true delight, a bona fide classic that, for most people, is actually capable of living up to its reputation. For from a purely cinematic and storytelling point of view, too, IAWL remains a most impressive achievement, and this surely has contributed much towards its lasting and universal appeal.

The film is so well-known that any further comment on it may seem superfluous, but one of the main reasons why I find IAWL ultimately so successful is that unlike, say, Roberto Benigni's recent (and similarly titled and oriented) Life is Beautiful - to my mind, much overrated - IAWL's highly stylized story, beyond its own very obvious fantasy premise, always remains a relatively plausible one. Good, on closer examination it may still seem just a little improbable and contrived, and, for some tastes, perhaps a bit too sentimental at times, but that's not so critical here. For me, Benigni's film loses much of its impact because Benigni stretched credibility way too far in adapting and softening up its holocaust setting to meet the needs of his story. True, fans of Benigni's film argue that it was only meant as a fable anyway, and that is a valid point, but unfortunately the holocaust itself was no fable, and that leaves me seriously questioning the honesty and credibility of the film's message as indicated by its title. Capra's classic fable does not make such a mistake. Instead, it depicts the central protagonist, George Bailey, as a believable, sympathetic character in small-town America who has to suffer constant disappointment and loss throughout his life. His desire to end his life at the film's climax seems quite understandable: it seems that he has lost just about everything.

From a storytelling point of view, the whole buildup to this climax, the depiction of George's life story, can be seen as a spectacular piece of risk-taking on Capra's part, since it is so long and drawn-out. The first half of the film can seem slow, but it is precisely the extreme length of this buildup, and the level of detail of George's life that it depicts, that makes the ultimate resolution of the story so unexpectedly powerful. For the still uninitiated, this means: stay with it. For by the time Clarence the angel finally appears, the viewer is intimately familiar with George's dilemma and can identify with it accordingly. George seems to have had a dull and uninspiring life, has never fulfilled his former dreams and ambitions, and now has a financial crisis on his hands, at Christmas of all times. And just when he's at his most down, he's been further humiliated by his arch-rival, the Scrooge-like Potter, socked on the jaw by his daughter's schoolteacher's husband, and, in his drunkenness, has rammed his car into a tree. Most perceptive; life can be just like that, sometimes the misfortunes pile up just when there's enough of them already. After indulging in often overt sentimentality earlier in the film, Capra depicts this ultimate crisis in George's life in a surprisingly chilling and dark fashion, adding still further to the overall impact. Anyone who thinks that the actors weren't really challenged by their material should reconsider in view of this part of the film - for example, the way James Stewart plays George's climactic breakdown in front of his family, and his later despair in the bar, is truly masterful. Stewart was a genuinely great actor.

The genius of the film is then how Clarence (the most unlikely angel imaginable) is still able to turn George's (and the viewer's) perspective around, despite such a long, dark setup. Here, too, the alternative Bedford Falls "time line" (Pottersville) is both chilling and sure in its logic. Hence, when George finally realizes what would have become of his family, friends and acquaintances, and even his town had he never been, the effect is for both him and the viewer an unexpected and thrilling revelation. When he finally beams with joy at the end, both he and the viewer are appreciating his true riches in an entirely new light. Again, credit is especially due to James Stewart for portraying this so convincingly.

Capra once said that he made this film not for critics, but for those he most admired. So, one might claim that IAWL is, like Benigni's Life is Beautiful, "not a film for the jaded," and yet its great strength is that it can, in fact, also speak so well to some of us who might otherwise be potentially skeptical about its message and make us think a little differently about things. (For me, as far as this aspect of the film is concerned, it wins over Benigni's film hands down.) As for the film's little unspoken messages ("you can only take with you what you've given away" and Clarence's final message to George that "you're never a failure if you have friends"): they speak for themselves.

Incidentally, to a reader from Wakefield, MA, December 25, 1999: don't get the wrong idea about critic Leonard Maltin's comment about the film seeming to improve with age, he wasn't "incredulous" about that all. In fact, IAWL gets his maximum rating of four stars in his Movie and Video Guide (I wish Amazon would include his ratings in their listings), and of the 1970s TV remake, It Happened One Christmas, he says "[it] only shows how wonderful the Frank Capra original was - and is."

Rating:
Summary: It's a Wonderful DVD!
Review: Perhaps because it's such a wonderfully resonant story as well as an annual Christmas "ritual" in many American homes, "It's a Wonderful Life" has been well received despite the frankly horrible quality of thousands of circulating 16mm film prints and VHS tapes. Once the copyright on the film expired, putting it in the public domain in the early seventies, duplicate prints were being struck from duplicate prints, and new, cheap VHS versions were being produced and sold by multiple distributers for under $5. Despite the "muddy," distorted look and absence of "grey scale," we tolerated the inferior print quality in exchange for the magic of the movie.

This DVD version, struck from the original print, makes it possible for the first time to enter Bedford Falls and fully inhabit its sparkling world. It's like seeing the film for the first time all over again. In fact, it may be better. Formerly I thought of the movie as talky and even loud at the expense of visual language, but now I'm able to appreciate Capra's photographic eye as well as the meanings that are purely cinematic.

The flip side of the disc contains interviews with Capra and Stewart, behind-the -scenes information on the making of the film, and some history of the film's conception and reception. It's frequently repetitious, but a nice bonus nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Almost the best movie I have ever seen! I love it !
Review: This is such a great movie I don't really know where to start. First of all, I love Jimmy Stuart. He is so awesome in this though. Its a great story that really touches anyone except the most heartless bastard. I watch it every Christmas season more than 1 time. I remember seeing it as a kid and loved it then too. Anyone who doesn't enjoy this movie is a heartless bastard is all I have to say. Jimmy Stuart and Donna Reed have excellent chemistry and Mr. Potter is an ass. Great movie. Watch it with soemone you love!

Rating:
Summary: It's a Wonderful Movie!
Review: This rates up with my top 5 favorite movies of all time. I grew up on the Donna Reed show and remember that this was the movie I always saw her in and she was a lot more beautiful then. James Stewart is great as George Baily, the guy who wanted to help everybody and sacrificed his own financial success.

The idea that one doesn't realize one's worth until you are removed from the equation has been copied hundreds of times since but never as well as this movie.

Clarence is probably the most enjoyable bumbling character that I have ever seen. There is a cameo by an adult Alfalfa Sweitzer (for the Our Gang series) and the characters of Bert and Ernie later were immortalized by Sesame Street.

The ending of this movie is the "feel good" ending of all-time!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Movie in addition to a wonderful DVD
Review: "It's A Wonderful Life" is a timeless classic and will always be one of my favorite movies. I must say that I was surprised with the DVD. I had very low expectations for it. I was excited to see that they had audio in French and Spanish - most movies only have subtitles. I have listened in the movie in Spanish and was also grateful to hear that it was a very accurate translation of the lines in English.
If you love "It's A Wonderful Life", go out and buy this great DVD.

Rating:
Summary: The message rings clear
Review: This film is one of the classics of American cinema. It's just a shame that it didn't get the praise it so rightly deserved years earlier. I don't think I've been able to make it through the last scene without crying, ever. No matter how hard I try, the message of the film is just as fresh as it was the first time I saw it. It's true. No man is a failure who has friends, and all the little things we've done in our lives add up and come back to us just when we need them the most. Isn't that the message we all need to hear not only during the holidays, but all through the year? This movie will always be a classic as long as people need to hear what it has to say.