Capra's Its a Wonderful Life is without a doubt one of the all time feel-good movies. It's not feel good in the way that, say, a cheap Lifetime movie is feel good, it's not some phoney baloney optimism like Pay it Forward, it is real, true, and honest. It is also, without a doubt, the greatest Christmas film ever made.
The nostalgic inner child in you may disagree and cite A Christmas Story or How the Grinch Stole Christmas or even It's Christmas Charlie Brown! The cynic in you will jokingly cite Die Hard or Lethal Weapon as the greatest holiday film ever made, but those sides of you are both wrong! When it comes to a holiday film, you need to go with your heart and soul, and that points you towards It's a Wonderful Life.
The film manages to succeed on so many level because it is fearless. From the first act, it deals with subject matter and themes that are much darker than you expect to see in a holiday film. It is because of this courage, the bravery to start at such a low point, that the movie is so triumphantly positive. Heck, the movie's second act starts with an attempted suicide!
Capra starts Stewart's George Bailey at such an incredibly low, sad, dark point that it is truly heroic and triumphant to watch him climb from there. Any director can keep it positive by just never facing the hero with any challenge, but Bailey is beset on all sides by the tyranny of evil men, he's put up against the world and told to make it alone. He starts low and ends on a high note.
The film ranks with Rocky as the greatest Happy Tears movies of all time. If you're not crying by the time the film ends then... You probably weren't actually watching the film! Put down your Nintendo DS or crossword puzzles for just a couple hours and actually watch the film! It is a triumphant display of how optimism and hope always trump negativity.
Interestingly, the film was a flop on release. The director had always been a popular, money-making film maker, but for some reason, this one just didn't grab the movie-going audience. Of course, the movie has since become one of the most successful of all time on video, DVD, second runs and, of course, cable, but at the time, it almost sank Capra's career.
Film legend has it that Capra had pegged Stewart from the start and would accept nobody else in the lead. Not true. In fact, he WANTED Henry Fonda, but Stewart was a close second. Fonda would have been a great lead in Bailey's shoes, but Stewart owns and defines this role better than any other actor possibly could have. We can imagine what might have been, but we can't imagine loving Bailey so much as anyone but Stewart.
There were a number of alternative endings considered, but none of them would have been as satisfying as the way the story wraps up in the film... Except maybe the Saturday Night Live sketch where Bailey leads the whole town to Potter's house to give him a comeuppance... Interestingly, this ending, while a spoof, was nearly the same as an alternative ending that was actually filmed!
The nostalgic inner child in you may disagree and cite A Christmas Story or How the Grinch Stole Christmas or even It's Christmas Charlie Brown! The cynic in you will jokingly cite Die Hard or Lethal Weapon as the greatest holiday film ever made, but those sides of you are both wrong! When it comes to a holiday film, you need to go with your heart and soul, and that points you towards It's a Wonderful Life.
The film manages to succeed on so many level because it is fearless. From the first act, it deals with subject matter and themes that are much darker than you expect to see in a holiday film. It is because of this courage, the bravery to start at such a low point, that the movie is so triumphantly positive. Heck, the movie's second act starts with an attempted suicide!
Capra starts Stewart's George Bailey at such an incredibly low, sad, dark point that it is truly heroic and triumphant to watch him climb from there. Any director can keep it positive by just never facing the hero with any challenge, but Bailey is beset on all sides by the tyranny of evil men, he's put up against the world and told to make it alone. He starts low and ends on a high note.
The film ranks with Rocky as the greatest Happy Tears movies of all time. If you're not crying by the time the film ends then... You probably weren't actually watching the film! Put down your Nintendo DS or crossword puzzles for just a couple hours and actually watch the film! It is a triumphant display of how optimism and hope always trump negativity.
Interestingly, the film was a flop on release. The director had always been a popular, money-making film maker, but for some reason, this one just didn't grab the movie-going audience. Of course, the movie has since become one of the most successful of all time on video, DVD, second runs and, of course, cable, but at the time, it almost sank Capra's career.
Film legend has it that Capra had pegged Stewart from the start and would accept nobody else in the lead. Not true. In fact, he WANTED Henry Fonda, but Stewart was a close second. Fonda would have been a great lead in Bailey's shoes, but Stewart owns and defines this role better than any other actor possibly could have. We can imagine what might have been, but we can't imagine loving Bailey so much as anyone but Stewart.
There were a number of alternative endings considered, but none of them would have been as satisfying as the way the story wraps up in the film... Except maybe the Saturday Night Live sketch where Bailey leads the whole town to Potter's house to give him a comeuppance... Interestingly, this ending, while a spoof, was nearly the same as an alternative ending that was actually filmed!
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