Any examination of It's A Wonderful Life isn't complete without acknowledging the fact that contemporary reviews were far from universally positive, and that it made RKO Films a loss of more than $500k. Derided by some for its sentimentality and simplistic ideas, Frank Capra's masterpiece has grown in stature and appreciation in the decades since its release to such an extent that that context appears entirely baffling. You can't force good taste, I guess.
Endlessly replayed at Christmas over the years, It's A Wonderful Life is returning to cinemas once more almost 80 years after its release, as if anyone needed any excuse to watch it again. It has earned its place as one of the greatest ever Christmas movies, despite Capra never really aspiring to that specific achievement. He wanted it to be a celebration of life, and he succeeded in a way that he could surely never have predicted.
Rewatching It’s A Wonderful Life is engrained beyond being just a holiday tradition; a sort of spiritually habitual process, and as philosophical messages go, its positive affirmation just feels right for this time of year. Not to get romantic about it, but if you’re looking for a mirror to hold up against the best parts of humanity, you could do a hell of a lot worse than Jimmy Stewart.
Frank Capra's classic Christmas film tells the story of George Bailey, a small-town business and family man who, after a series of personal and business losses, attempts to jump off a bridge on Christmas Eve. Bailey is stopped before he can jump by Clarence, an angel who wishes to show him how much impact he has had on those around him in order to keep him from killing himself. Jimmy Stewart stars as George Bailey, with a further cast that includes Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Henry Travers.
Release Date January 7, 1947
Runtime 130 minutes
Cast James Stewart , Thomas Mitchell , Lionel Barrymore , Donna Reed , Henry Travers
Director Frank Capra
The world's love affair with It's A Wonderful Life is magic in itself: it is not the most profound movie ever made, nor the most technically impressive - it simply deals in immutable truths, and it does it in a way that balances sentimentallity with a sort of cautious pessimism about the reality of existence. More populist, contemporary reads would suggest George Bailey is trapped in a chocolate box nightmare, destined to accept his personal tragedy for the greater good, and there's some merit in not sneering at that. Because part of It's A Wonderful Life enduring appeal is down to how much of a product of its time it is, while also being so universal.
It's A Wonderful Life's Message Is The Ultimate Comfort
Come For The Joy, Stay For The Profound Message
Both its surprisingly complex development and its story, It's A Wonderful Life was defined by conflict. When it was released, the world was still healing from the wounds of World War II, and star Jimmy Stewart brought his own experiences of the war into his performance. That's why, under all the gloss of sentimentality in It's A Wonderful Life's ending,it feelsquite mean, to the point that right up to George's epiphany, the title feels sarcastic. George lives for other people, sacrifices his dreams and freedom for the betterment of others, and is rewarded for his altruism with the threat of bankruptcy and imprisonment.
While there's definitely a cynical read that George is ultimately convinced that the hell that drives him to almost killing himself actually isn't so bad through exploitation of his good nature, George's idealism doesn't deserve the cynicism. He's brought back from the brink by his true sense of goodness, and is willing to rot in prison because he feels resolved that he did enough. That he was enough.
And by modern standards, his existence might seem meager, but his happiness is one of those easily accessible revelations that makes the audience feel something good about humanity. And there's absolutely no doubting that the combination of Capra's storytelling and Stewart's performance manage that deception over the audience. That they continue to do so 80 years later is a stunning achievement that gets completely overlooked in the habit of rewatching.
It's A Wonderful Performance By Jimmy Stewart, More Like
The Supporting Cast Are Great, But This May As Well Be A One-Man Show
It's A Wonderful Life shouldn't feel as personal as it does: it's a 1946 movie about a largely defunct industry in a small town that belongs only in memory or in black and white on a screen. People talk and dress and interact very differently. And yet there is persistent universality in the despicable exploitation of Mr Potter (Lionel Barrymore), and the hangdog desperation of George. His struggles with identity, self-fulfilment, and feeling completely isolated despite his "wealth" of love and friendship he has feel just as much like they belong on social media melancholics as post-War make believe.
Stewart obviously drives the whole film forward. Watching it now, you can trace back every one of the best performances by Tom Hanks, or Denzel Washington, or any actor gifted with both pathos and disarming charm. The timeless feel of the performance comes thanks to Capra's bold acceptance of darker themes, and the fact that George is far from a flawless hero. He's prone to outbursts, is conflicted by his altruism, and is, at times, as raw as an exposed nerve. He is human: a quality that is so often overlooked in the world of theatrical exaggeration.
George is also a twin-faced performance, because Stewart is able to shift easily between his intoxicating charm and frightening vulnerability: and you get an immediate sense of why he's got to the point of desperation he has. The personal feel of his story means when he sinks to his lowest, the audience sits beside him in the same dreadful sadness, and when he's eventually gifted his joy, we sit on his shoulders. He is, and always will be, one of my very favorite actors for that.
The beloved Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life is getting a high-profile remake from Kenya Barris, and there are already exciting updates.
There are very good supporting performances too, that shouldn't be overlooked. Barrymore's Mr Potter is an impressively convincing monster, who stays just the right side of caricature; Donna Reed's Mary is thoroughly believable as the object of George's all-encompassing adoration; Thomas Mitchell deserves high praise for his bumbling Uncle Billy; and Henry Travers is so good as Clarence that it's very easy to forget how little he's actually in it.
I purposefully pause to pay respects to those supporting figures, because it's all too easy with It's A Wonderful Life to be blinded by Stewart's excellence, just as the uplifting ending steals focus from lots of what comes before. That's actually partly why rewatching it is so rewarding; you get to remember the smaller moments, and the flashes of joy and drama that aren't tied directly to George's final revelation. The moon scene is one of my favorite romantic scenes ever made, for instance, and the calamitous school dance is wonderful, despite how clearly middle-aged Stewart is for it.
We Should Be More Grateful For It's A Wonderful Life Now
Buckle Up, It's Going To Get Heavy
I promised I wouldn't get romantic about It's A Wonderful Life, but you know what, I take it back. We need movies like It's A Wonderful Life. We need them for the enduring quotes about bells ringing, and promising the moon to love interests, and running through the streets shrieking with joyful abandon. We need them for their comfort, and their revelations, and for the challenge they offer to modern sensibilities.
George's epiphany that he shaped and saved so many lives often through simple acts of connection so slight that he doesn't realize their importance, resonates loudly around the film. While the film's depiction of banker greed and wholesome altruism was enough to inspire the FBI to intervene with spurious accusations of Communism, in a world marked by personal achievement and a relentless pursuit of milestones, over gentler community aspirations, George Bailey might well be the greatest hero in Hollywood history.
The 1946 Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life was originally released in black and white before the film was colorized 40 years later.
If someone was making an ever-so-clever allegory for the modern world's fetishism of instant gratification, and the contradiction of hyper-connectivity and the epidemic of loneliness, they'd make a fake world modeled on It's A Wonderful Life for a Swiftian morality tale. It is a towering achievement, able to make you cry after countless watches, to connect in new ways as you grow older, and to make you teeter on the edge of existential crises not unlike the tone of this review. It's okay though, I'm fine, it's a wonderful life.
Pros
Jimmy Stewart's performance is perfect.
The message, even 80 years on connects at a spiritual level.
The balance of sentimentality and darkness is masterful.
English (US) ·