It's A Wonderful Life...

Introduction

Isn't it odd how there are films out there that are recognised classics but that you've just missed or avoided over the years? There are plenty out there, you may have seen some with your family on TV in the past when you were younger, but never bothered to reacquaint yourself with them as you grew up and discovered modern cinema and got enthralled with the latest blockbuster with bigger effects and longer car chases. It's even worse if the film is a Christmas icon. Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life hits that spot on both counts, being feted as a Christmas classic. And to my recollection, I have never seen this film before. Ever.

The story is a simple one. George Bailey (James Stewart) is an everyman figure in the small town of Bedford Falls. George has ambitions; he wants to leave this sleepy and repressive town, explore the world and make his mark as a designer and builder, making a million bucks along the way. Except he never does. Putting others before himself on more occasions than he will ever recollect, George sacrifices his grand dreams to do right by his brother, his father and the whole town; all of this revolving around the fight to keep his father's Building And Loan company solvent and making life as good as he can for the people of Bedford Falls.

In the meantime, Bailey meets and reluctantly falls in love and marries Mary (Donna Reed), once more sacrificing his ideals to become a family man and raise a family. Always in the background working his dastardly machinations is evil rich dude Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a Scrooge-like figure who gets rich off the backs of others; most of Bailey's life-changing decisions come from a need to do the right thing and prevent Potter from taking advantage of the townsfolk and destroying his town.



Eventually, and despite the love of his wife and family, this sacrifice of his dreams takes a toll on Bailey, triggered by the rather unfortunate misplacing of $8,000 by his kindly Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell). This causes George to enter a spiral of despair that leads to him considering suicide as he believes he would be worth more dead than alive. Bailey truly believes that his life has amounted to nothing of any value and that he has ultimately sacrificed his dreams in vain. Higher powers take matters into their own hands though, sending Angel Second Class Clarence (Henry Travers) to Earth to both prevent his death and also show him the light. It doesn't start well, despite Clarence distracting George from his suicidal thoughts by beating him into the water and effectively forcing George to put someone else before him again by saving Clarence from drowning.

Clarence hits on a masterstroke though when George, in a fit of self-pity, declares that he wished he'd never been born. Clarence then shows George what would have happened in Bedford Falls (now called Pottersville) without the birth of George Bailey…

Audio/Visual

This is as gorgeous a print as you're likely to see of this 62-year-old film, having been digitally remastered for previous releases.

The soundtrack is Mono, but doesn't feel like it. Obviously the attraction of these old films is to leave them as intact as possible and remixing the soundtrack would be a travesty.

Extras

Same as on previous incarnations of this DVD:

A Personal Introduction And Interview With Frank Capra Jr - a 10 minute featurette where Junior (who's not looking quite that Junior…) waxes lyrical about his father's film, includes old interview footage of both Frank Capra and James Stewart.

Making Of - a 23 minute featurette on the film hosted by old man Cunningham himself, Tom Bosley.

Overall

No need to run and hide, it's a wonderful, wonderful life…

So sang Colin Vearncombe, or Black as he was known back then, in a rather depressing and melancholic way. I always thought that this song was written about Frank Capra's film, but it doesn't appear to be because the song is really downbeat and was apparently the result of a bad time for him. Even so, it always stuck with me and I've always associated the two, which may subconsciously have stopped me from looking at this film.

It's probably odd to people who have seen and been affected by this film when I admit that this review is the result of seeing this film for the very first time. I'm 40 and never seen this before. Now I've seen it, I am amazed and a little ashamed at that fact. I can honestly say that I have truly never seen a film that has affected me in such a way as this one did. As I've gotten older, I've found myself being emotionally affected by any number of films or TV and film scores but I still can't quite reconcile my own view of myself with the emotions I felt watching this film. In fact, I can actually feel myself welling up as I just think about it. It's an odd feeling that a piece of celluloid can actually do that to you. And I'm thankful for that.

This film is much longer than I thought it would be, clocking in at just over two hours; it doesn't outstay its welcome though and you need the full running time to capture all the events that lead to George Bailey's spiral of despair and so take us to a wonderfully uplifting ending and the realisation that family, friendship and love are the true definitions of wealth, and George Bailey is without doubt the 'richest man in town'.



The sequence where Clarence shows the effect on Bedford Falls is truly inspired as both George and the viewer are left in no doubt that every man is important, born to do certain things in their life and touch, inspire and effect countless other lives along the way. George sees that events would have turned out completely differently without his presence and influence, and whilst it is in some ways a quite simplistic message (as others would no doubt have influenced certain events), it is a poignant moment when George realises that he has not only taken saving of his younger brothers life for granted (no more the war hero, he drowned at the age of 9) but that the love of his life is a spinster and that none of his children exist either. Regardless of the twists and turns our lives take across the years, there are always things to be glad for, and we need to be reminded of them when we take them for granted and believe that there's no reason to carry on.

Oddly I'm not a depressive personality at all (rather too optimistic about certain things), but watching It's A Wonderful Life has put me in a rather reflective mood and allowed me to indulge in some cod-philosophy as I also reflect on what is important in life. I can't put everything back to the way it was, and I wouldn't want to, but I can put it into perspective at this moment in time and be thankful for the good things that have happened on the way.

What an uplifting film and a timeless classic. There is no reason I can see why this film has been released on DVD at this time as it looks similar to just about every version released so far (bar the inclusion of a colourised print which probably wouldn't have worked), except that maybe it was my turn to see it at this particular moment in time as it's unlikely that I would have sought it out under my own steam.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad.

Wholeheartedly recommended.