Back to Basics – IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Christmas is finally here, and I for one couldn’t feel more festive. This month the 1001 Movie Club has decided to look at IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and while articles won’t be collected and posted until December 29th, I thought I’d post mine today in full yuletide spirit. So check with 1001 next week, but for now take a look after the jump for my thoughts on IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

We could really use someone like George Bailey these days.

In hard times like these, a man like George who can inspire people to pull together for the greater good is sorely missed. It seems like every idea gets debated until it’s been beaten so bloody that it no longer looks like a great idea. Now if George Bailey were to present and debate it – he’d have everyone agreeing to it inside of five minutes, and believing in it too. The man is built in such a way that he can connect with the deepest, kindest part of almost anyone – and it doesn’t hurt that he has a face that looks like it should be printed on money.

What people might take for granted is that being that selfless isn’t exactly easy. It means letting go of what you want in the name of other people’s happiness. That’s an easy thing to do once or twice, but to do it time after time takes truly strong character. Often it seems like it takes an amount of character that people just don’t have in them anymore. We live in an age where many are thinking of “me first”. Ask yourself – would you give up travelling and going away to college to stay home and run the family business? What about turning down the job of a lifetime because you didn’t believe in who you’d be working for??

If you don’t think you could do that, you aren’t really alone – in a way, George doesn’t really want to do it either. The man can make endless quarts of lemonade from every lemon life hands him, but when we watch his expression as Mr. Potter sums up his life, we can see the pain all these missed opportunities really stir in him. Of course, right after telling Potter where to go and storming out, George goes home to find out he has a baby on the way. Think about it – if it were you, wouldn’t you go back and grovel your way into being able to provide for the new addition to your family?

That’s what makes George Bailey such an example. He knows that working for Potter would allow him and his family great comforts, but it would do far more damage to the greater good. Do you have it in you to make that sort of decision?? Hell, I don’t know that I do!

George puts others first, and as much as it wears him down, he always looks to make the best of any given problem. In this way, Mary is his perfect match. She gives up the promise of a life of luxury with Sam Wainwright to follow her heart. However, it’s clear to see that George was the only man for here ever since he first talked her into putting coconut on her ice cream as a kid.

It’s clear to see that the two are kindred spirits. Not only does she willingly offer up their wedding purse to the townfolk panicking during the bank run, but when the purse is all but gone she takes George back to what everyone else sees as a broken down shell of a house. Without a care in the world, and nothing but love in her heart, it’s there that she shows just how meant for each other they are…by turning the rundown spot first into a honeymoon suite – and later into a home.

Yes, much of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is very starry eyed, but that’s part of the point. Times are tough these days, and rather than pulling together, it feels like many of us are breaking apart. We’re all trying to look out for number one, and in that way, we do our communities a great disservice. What we should learn from The Ballad of George Bailey is that if we all work to pull others up, it improves our lives as a whole.

What strikes me most about the story is the fact that after everything, it really isn’t a Christmas movie. Its climax is set on Christmas Eve, but by and large it’s a story that one could watch on the hottest night in August and not feel out of place. Its message of family, friends, and faith is especially apropos this time of year, but aside from a carol or two and the odd decoration here and there, it’s primarily Christmas-free!

It’s a modern fable, and the template for countless knock-off’s. It’s a good thing that it airs on TV several times every December, because it’s something we all need to watch over and over, until we fully understand its message, and can live that message through our daily lives.

But Ryan, Is It List-Worthy?… Without a doubt. I would actually go much further. 1001 is far too high a number. If you only had time to watch ten films before you died, this should be one of them. It’s an absolute essential whose message needs to be heard now more than ever.