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Summary: Classic Black & White
Review: 1947. Director Frank Capra. Stars Jimmy Stewart & Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore (as the mean Mr. Potter)... and a lean Jimmy the Raven (as in all of Capra's movies). Great story about a man who is unhappy with how his life as turned out and wants to commit suicide. He is then shown by a heaven-sent angel what life would be like had he never existed. A story of sacrifice, a childhood blossoming into adulthood, and friendships in the small town of Bedford Falls. This film is not only for Christmas time... a timeless black & white film that may be one of the most recognized films ever. Digitally remastered from the originla tapes. Essential and necessary.
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Summary: Where Is The Outrage?
Review: I don't understand why feminist groups have not roundly denounced this film for the egregious insult to women everywhere, when George Bailey demanded for Clarence to reveal what had happened to Mary. Remember? George said, "Where is she? What happened to Mary, Clarence?" And Clarence finally quit stalling and gravely said, "She's an OLD MAID."And Donna Reed, who must have been all of about 26, was then portrayed as an Old Maid, her hair back in a bun and spinster eyeglasses on her nose. This was an outrageous slam to all of the independent women in the world who are fully capable of living on their own, with no dependence upon anyone else for their livelihood. An "old maid" -- good grief! P.S. The phrase "What happened to Mary, Clarence?" was the inspiration for Whoopi Goldberg's character's name in the comedy "Sister Act," wherein Ms. Goldberg portrayed "Sister Mary Clarence." And since the sisters were all unmarried, we should suppose they are all old maids?
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Summary: What are you waiting for?
Review: What do you say about the quintessential Christmas movie that hasn't already been said? Nothing, so I won't try. This is movie making at its best. Great characters, great actors (supporting and main), great story, great direction, and superb messages. "It's a Wonderful Life" was perhaps at its best when it was still in the public domain and could be watched practically every hour on a different television station. Thanks to a greedy media industry, we can now only see it once a season, or on DVD. Okay, enough of this soap box. George Bailey is a man down on his luck. His dreams always took him far away from Bedford Falls, but his realities kept him firmly secured to this small New York town. Every time his bags were packed, another emergency forced him to take on another responsibility that would more deeply root him. Finally, he faces another crisis from circumstances beyond his control that make him consider suicide. What could keep him from jumping off the bridge? A well meaning angel named Clarence that knew George would never fail to do the right thing for someone else. In an answer to George's prayer, Clarence shows him a world without George Bailey. For a brief time, he sees how his life and love had made a real difference on those around him. The morals of this movie aren't likely to be seen in Hollywood for a long time to come, if ever. So enjoy this treasure from 1946. It might not be "realisitic," but it should be.
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Summary: The kind of movie DVD was meant for.
Review: One of the best features of DVD, of course, is the ability to jump straight to certain scenes instead of searching endlessly through tape. This movie is full of scenes that people love to watch over and over: George saving Harry from drowning; young George and Mary at the ice cream counter; the aquatic Charleston contest; the honeymoon money distributed to the Building and Loan customers; the list goes on and on. This movie was wonderful before -- but with this ability to go straight to the scene you want, it's even better.
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Summary: It's A Wonderful Movie,Too
Review: This Christmas classic stars Jimmy Stewart,my favorite actor,as George Bailey.He is about to taske his own life when Clarence,an angel,shows up to stop him.Charence shows George how things would be if he'd never been born.When he sees how it would affect his loved ones,George Bailey decides "It's A Wonderfurl Life" after all!I love this movie because it shows EVERYONE is impoI rtant and needsd.
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Summary: Call it Capra-corn if you like, but Frank-ly it's exuberant!
Review: With the possible exception of either 'The Wizard Of Oz' or 'The Sound Of Music' there isn't a movie in history that has had more genuine and lasting appeal than 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Also recognized as director Frank Capra's masterpiece, better than fifty years past it's original release the film still garners new fans with every generation in spite of it's sometimes sticky sentimentality and outdated elements. I have yet to meet anyone who can resist watching it during the Christmas holiday season at least once; I myself dust it off every Christmas Eve without fail and even watch it occasionally in between. 'It's A Wonderful Life' nearly defies anyone to criticize it accomplishing another rare feat in cinema history. Though director Capra stacks the deck emotionally forcing the tears to well up in our eyes, he keeps the film well balanced with equal moments of humor, memorable true to life characters and even a dreadful nightmarish sequence that culminates with Jimmy Stewart realizing that life is indeed wonderful ("I want to live!"). Donna Reed and Stewart are the closest thing to perfection as a couple you are likely ever to see in a film; Capra's stock company of gifted and talented actors round out the rest of the cast. Each of them has an opportunity to shine in both the comedic and the touching moments, though clearly the focus is on Stewart. Perhaps the most memorable character in the film though is Henry Travers who portrays Clarence Goodbody ("Angel - Third Class.") Stewart's guardian angel; his warmth and charm offer a great contrast during the sequence of Bedford Falls without the benefit of George Bailey's lifeblood flowing through it. Contrariwise, Lionel Barrymore as the despicable Mr. Potter is also unforgettable - he is the only character that remains unmoved and unchanged by George's predicament and resolution as is demonstrated in the terrific finale. It's hard to imagine this film being produced today and still manage to have all the qualities present here - just watch (and wince) at the 70's TV movie remake with Marlo Thomas if you doubt me. All the schmaltz, sentiment and the genuine affection that the characters show for each other would be simply glossed over; in the conclusion Clarence leaves his copy of "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer" for George signing it "Love", a scene that I doubt would make it into a movie being made today. There are many good family and "feel-good" movies being made today but they don't begin to compare with this venerable holiday classic. Here's hoping that Hollywood won't get itchy to do another remake! Worth noting: in the scene where we are first introduced to Bert the cop and Ernie the cab driver the newspaper one of them is reading has a headline that blares SMITH WINS NOMINATION!; I assume this is a sly reference to the earlier Capra and Stewart movie 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington'.
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Summary: A beautiful film
Review: "It's A Wonderful Life" has become one of those works of art that unfortunately suffers from over exposure. Because everyone and their dog has seen the film eight trillion times (and usually in pathetically rendered public domain prints- more on that later,too many people take this beautiful film for granted. Suprisingly dark, and hard hitting, Capra as a director pulls very few punches with this, his greatest work. Many have critisized the film as cliched and over sentimental. Maybe that's true, but this film earns all the real emotions it conjures in the audience's eyes. It populates its narrative with animals of all stripes. The irredeemable Mr. Potter is such an example. Everyone, male and female, adult and child alike, needs to find the beauty in the everyday experience and in the truth that our lives entertwine with all those around us. We cannot expect life to ever be perfect. We often sacrifice our dreams and hopes frequently to the better of those around us. "It's A Wonderful Life" stands as a testiment to man's determination to find his/her place in the world. This film is a sterling example of how, no matter how much we would like to fool ourselves into believing the opposite, we are all part of a larger soul, a soul that belongs to everyone (aplogies to John Steinbeck). Capra's characters are filled with rage, lust, doubt, sadness, temptation. He also fills them with temperance, love, forgiveness and faith. Every character in this film is fully three drawn and complex. Perhaps no character more so than Jimmy Stewart's everyman, George Bailey. Simply put, George Bailey is one of the all time greatest performances ever put on film. George's complete and utter evololution from gangly teenager to redeemed adult and everything in between stands as a perfect example of film acting. Stewart's performance is as well rounded, shaded and empathetic as anything Brando ever did. Stewart literally opens himself up with a straighrazor in this film and gives his audience complete and full access to his (and therefore, our) very soul(s). Stewart proves with this film, that he was America's consumate leading man (Denzel Washington has perhaps come the closest to taking his place). The cinematography radiates in vivid detail throughout this gloriously remastered DVD. For all of those who have strained to watch this film through the scratches and poor contrast over the years, this DVD is one of the great Christmas presents. The silver, black and white photography looks as if Ansel Adams himself had decided to chuck the Southwest in favor of switching places with Norman Rockwell. Capra's sense of framing really shines throughout. Along with "American Beauty" (the subtle, but present similarities are astounding!)"It's a Wonderful Life" stands as one of the most beautiful portrayals of Human life. It remains as fresh the 100th viewing as it does the first. A true proof of a work of art.
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Summary: excellent quintessential film about life
Review: This isn't really a Christmas movie, the story just takes place around Christmas. George Bailey has always wanted to be an explorer, but instead he lives in the same little town his whole life, marries his childhood sweetheart, and takes over his dad's savings and loan association, Now he is in danger of going bankrupt, through a mishap that is used to the advantage of the local evil codger and main competition to Bailey. Despondent, he decides to jump off a bridge and end it all. Enter Clarence, a student guardian angel who is trying to earn his wings. Saving George Bailey will get him those wings, if only he can show George how the world would have been had he never been born. He reveals the impact George has had on others -- even saving lives --- to prove he is not a failure and very much needed and loved. Keep an eye out for the grown-up Alfalfa (from the Little Rascals) as the jealous guy at the high-school dance who opens up the gym's swimming pool so the dancers fall in. It's priceless!
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: This is the story of an ambitious young man with dreams of leaving his small town, but due to circumstances beyond his control, has to stay there the rest of his life. His savings and loan has to constantly help out the poor inhabitants, who seem incapable of either earning or saving money. At the first sign of financial trouble, all the dear friends that George has helped out demand their money back. George is such a poor businessman that at the prospect of missing ONE payment to Potter his business will go backrupt and he is prepared to kill himself. Then a angel shows up and convinces George that his miserable life has at least made OTHERS happy. In a cruel irony, George is forced to accept hand-outs from the townsfolk he helped out. If they had this money, why did they need the loans in the first place?
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Summary: "No man is a failure who has friends."
Review: That short message is the basis of the story told in Frank Capra's brilliant film, "It's a Wonderful Life". Arguably, one of the best films of all time, "It's a Wonderful Life" tells the biography of the fictional character George Bailey who lives in the small, fictional town of Bedford Falls, NY. Like so many people in real life, George, as a young boy (played by Robert Anderson), aspired to become something greater than what the town of Bedford Falls could offer. However, unforeseen circumstances prevent him from realizing his childhood dreams and lock him squarely into the life of Bedford Falls that he had so desperately wanted to escape. In midlife, George (Jimmy Stewart) is barely able to provide adequate food and shelter to his wife Mary (Donna Reed) and their four children. Further, he is falsely accused of embezzlement and threatened with imprisonment following an absentminded error committed by his uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) by his unscrupulous rival, Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Having faced so many disappointments, the boy who planned to travel the world and become an architect to skyscrapers and bridges instead becomes the manager of the lowly Bailey Savings & Loan and views himself as a complete failure. Seeing no other viable options in his disillusioned state, George goes to a bridge crossing a wide river and contemplates suicide. Just as he's ready to take his own life, he hears a splash and pleas for help rising from the river below. Instinctively, George jumps in, not to kill himself, but to save the individual who had fallen. The man that George saves, Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), is not a man, but a guardian angel sent to save him. Doubting the existence of angels, George states his wish that he had never been born because he believes everyone would have been better off without him. Seeing an opportunity to help George, Clarence grants George his wish and creates an alternate reality in which no George Bailey ever existed. Not realizing that reality changed, George decides to return to Bedford Falls, but instead finds the renamed and sordid community of Pottersville. As George walks the now unfamiliar streets of Pottersville, George sees nothing but nightclubs, pawnshops and other disreputable businesses. He searches for his business, the Bailey Savings & Loan, but he is told by a stranger that it closed years ago after George's father died and his Uncle Billy had been unable to manage it. The two men who had been his best friends, the taxi driver Ernie Bishop (Frank Faylen) and police officer Bert (Ward Bond), don't know George at all. He convinces Ernie to take him to what had once been his home, but now is only an abandoned house in total disrepair. George has no wife and his children don't exist. In this altered reality, the woman who had been his mother (Beulah Bondi) is an embittered childless widow. Her only son Harry died as a child when he drowned in a frozen lake because George had not been there to save him. With no Harry to join the navy, several sailors drown because Harry had not been there to save them and could not become a decorated war hero. Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner) who had once owned a drugstore where George had worked as a child in the other reality, was now only a homeless alcoholic because he had accidentally poisoned a patient when he prescribed the wrong medication. George had not been there to stop it. Finally, the woman who had been his wife, Mary Hatch, is in the alternate reality only a lonely spinster. In desperation, George returns to the bridge where he had once planned to commit suicide and pleads for his life to God and to Clarence. A light snow begins to fall as it had been in the familiar reality. Officer Bert, who has been looking for George (and not trying to arrest him as he had in the alternate reality), recognizes George to George's astonishment and relief. He runs home to find Mary waiting for him and no longer cares about the threat of imprisonment, but Mary has made many phone calls in his absence. Nearly everyone in town collects more than enough money to make up for the $8000 that Uncle Billy had absentmindedly lost. "It's a Wonderful Life" earned 5 Oscar nominations in 1947, including Jimmy Stewart for Best Actor, Frank Capra for Best Director and for Best Picture. Having watched it many times, I am frequently brought to tears by the film's powerful drama and emotion. George's self-sacrifices for Bedford Falls are not overlooked by its citizens who rally to help him. Clarence earns his wings for his efforts; a bell hung on the Bailey Christmas tree rings with George's youngest daughter Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) saying, "Teacher says that whenever a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." George replies, "That's right. That a-boy Clarence!" "It's a Wonderful Life" is a timeless classic that has delighted many generations since its release in 1946. If you have never seen it, don't be dissuaded because it was filmed in black and white. Instead, try it and don't be surprised if you find yourself holding back tears like so many others touched by its powerful drama. As Clarence says, "Each man's life touches so many other lives. If he wasn't around it would leave an awful hole."
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