It's A Wonderful Life - Review

I had the privilege of watching what has become known as a perennial Christmas classic, 'It's A Wonderful Life', at the cinema last Friday, which, aptly for a film concerning fate, was 67 years to the day it was first, released in 1946.

Screen 3 was almost fully packed with a wider age bracket of people than I expected, ranging from children to OAP’s (with myself somewhere in between). The only annoyances were having to pay nearly full whack for a ticket to see a very old film that's on TV this week and has been every Christmas week since TV was invented, as well as having to watch the usual adverts and trailers tacked on to the start of any new film release.

I sympathised with George Bailey (James Stewart)'s efforts to flee the constraints of his 'crummy' hometown, Bedford Falls, to seek adventure in foreign lands. Instead, he finds himself forced to take over Bailey’s Building and Loan Association, his father's company, when the old man pops his clogs, since it is the only way to stop it falling into the greedy, selfish hands of Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a slumlord and majority shareholder in the Association, who is as equally contemptuous of George as he was of his father. For George, the feeling is mutual and he gives his life to supporting the poor people of the town who would suffer from Potter's financial restrictions, were it not for George continuing his Dad's good work. He is also able to marry his teenage sweetheart Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) and they have four children.

However, fate transpires to test George, when $8,000 of his money goes missing at, wouldn’t you know it, the exact same time that the Association receives a visit from the bank examiner. George searches frantically for the missing dough but to no avail, leading him to appeal to his nemesis, Potter, whom we know has, by twist of fortune, acquired the money for himself and refuses to tell George, instead using the situation to his advantage by reporting George to the Police for bank fraud.

Desperate, George goes drinking, gets in a fight and crashes his car, leading the poor man to a bridge, which he contemplates jumping off. He is beaten to it by someone else that, George being the selfless hero he is, he jumps in to save. This jumper reveals himself to be Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers).

Revealing his problems to this strange man, George ends up wishing he were dead, given that his life insurance amounts to more than his lost $8,000. Clarence declares George's wish granted, leading him into a nightmarish alternate reality where the latter never existed.

This was a happy reminder of Back To The Future Part II, in which Marty McFly finds himself in a dark future 1985 where his nemesis, Biff Tannen, has acquired a Sports Almanac from 2015 - stolen from Marty following his return from a future trip - and used it to make a fortune. You can see the two film's similarities in this video. 

Could George Bailey’s name have inspired George McFly’s, perhaps? 

IAWL itself has its own sci-fi (more accurately, fantasy) moments that came as a pleasant surprise, such as an early scene in space where two heavenly bodies - one being 'Joseph', the other, more authoritative one presumably being God - flicker as they discuss the fate of George Bailey, calling on Clarence, ‘Angel, Second Class’, represented as a little star, who may earn his wings if he is able to help George get his life back on track. His doing this through an alternate reality thread is pretty sci-fi and this plot device of an angelic figure showing a down-on-their-luck human character an different take on their life crops up in everything from Doctor Who to The Simpsons.

The film has a reputation as a sentimental Christmas movie and this is justified to some extent by it being joyfully old-fashioned (which it would be, given its age, ‘hot dog!’ indeed. For 1946, though, it still feels quite fresh and ambitious with the fantasy elements), also sweet, funny and schmaltzy - especially that ending. That said, only the last 20 minutes or so actually take place at Christmas and I was surprised by the story’s darker elements, such as the aforementioned alternate reality (which everyone watching surely knows won't last from having seen oft-shown clips of George back with his family at the end, winking and saying 'attaboy, Clarence!'). Darker still is the way in which certain male characters take out their frustrations on children, first Mr. Gower clouting a young George around his bad ear (which he acquired through diving into freezing water to save his younger brother as a child), even making it bleed. This is made even more uncomfortable by George's quick forgiveness of and efforts to help the old man, who ends up as a drunk in the George-less reality, ostracized by the community. Later, George himself unleashes his anger at losing 8 grand on his own children. Schmaltzy in part the film may be but it doesn't shirk from going to difficult places. It's also not as cheesy as I expected it to be, presenting quite a believable character and his troubles.

IAWL’s Christmas favourite status may have been influenced by its nods to the Nativity story, such as a (albeit fleeting) character named Joseph,as well as Mary, of course and George even jokingly calls Clarence 'Gabriel' at one point, drawing parallels between this angel's message of goodwill and the other guy's.

In the end, Clarence's mission is a success and George regains his sense of self worth yet, crucially, does not miraculously find 8 grand or escape arrest. He does at least resist suicide and live to be repaid for his life of sacrifice for the people of Bedford Falls, who do a whip-round to make up that lost money.

This is all very nice but I couldn't help receiving a mixed message from the ending about money being the be-all-end-all of people's happiness. Even Clarence, despite being an angel, still acts out of personal want, rather than selflessness, in taking on George’s case in order to win his wings. It's really George Bailey who's the 'angel', here, given his life of self-sacrifice. Although it’s easy to see him as a long-suffering victim of circumstance, having to give up his dream of seeing the world in order to continue his father’s business and keep nasty old Mr. Potter at bay.

Their nice home and clothes notwithstanding, the Baileys are not greedy or miserly, like Mr. Potter (surely this film’s Scrooge) but the image of their being so happy about people lending them all that money seemed materialistic, even though what it really represented was people repaying George’s kindness and his family not losing him to the clanger. Perhaps that's the point, as, at Christmas, it's when most people really begin to feel the pinch and the comparatively rich (usually, sometimes) extend a helping hand to those in need.

It’s A Wonderful Life also projects a message of hope for the future and challenges us about duty versus desire, selfishness versus selflessness. Did George lose his life to find it? I like to think that, after avoiding bankruptcy, George had saved enough money to pass on the reigns of the Association to someone else for a while and fulfill his dream of travelling the world, only now joined by his family.

(Images courtesy of IMDb)