I’m a sucker for schmaltz. On the run up to Christmas every year, I find a movie theatre playing It’s A Wonderful Life and go see it. This isn’t easy. It’s an old black and white movie, filmed in 1946. No Brad and Angelina , no vampires. It’s available on DVD , but watching it at home on a small screen doesn’t cut it, so I rely on the fact that other people out there are as sentimental as I am and some smart movie theatre owner understands the value of a great message movie, however old. After a lot of Googling, when I finally discover the rogue It’s A Wonderful Life screening, I’m absurdly relieved.
I know the dialogue by heart, and I admit there are times, usually about half-way through, when I think "Not again… and can we please speed this up," but there is no way I’d miss it.
Jimmy Stewart, who plays the hero, George Bailey, says things like “Hot Dog!” and dances the Charleston. But the story of It’s A Wonderful Life, like A Christmas Carol, is timeless.
All George Bailey wants to do is leave his hometown, Bedford Falls, go travel the world and explore. But a series of moral choices presents itself in such a way that in order to be a good person, to help his family and help the town, he has to stay and lead a seemingly ordinary, uneventful life.
At the beginning of the movie George is about to throw himself off a bridge. Despite all his sacrifices and good deeds, he is facing bankruptcy and disgrace – because his uncle has foolishly misplaced company money.
Clarence, an angel sent from heaven to stop George from killing himself, shows him what life in Bedford Falls would have been like if he’d never been born. Without George Bailey, one good human being, Bedford Falls would be a sorry place indeed, and all the people he loves would be sad shadows of themselves.
It’s such a brilliantly simple concept that each time I see it, I wish I’d been the genius who wrote it.
Five years ago, It’s a Wonderful Life saved my psyche. I’d just finished chemotherapy. I was exhausted, bald and depressed. But a tradition is a tradition and I dragged myself off to the movie theatre and watched as Clarence did his angel thing and George Bailey did his good guy thing. I almost fell asleep. But at the end, when George realizes he’s been given another chance in life and how much he has to live for; when he runs down the snowy streets of Bedford Falls, shouting “Merry Christmas” with joyful abandon, the message kicked in and I felt my own spirits soar along with his.
The power of a great story to transform our lives still amazes me. I walked out of that movie theatre on a high – one which continued. I’d seen such sadness in chemo and radiotherapy rooms. But what It’s a Wonderful Life is telling us is that every single person’s life counts, both in small and big ways. And that we shouldn’t give up, whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in.
There’s one particulary harrowing scene that gets me every time: After a series of sacrifices, George is finally about to realize his dream and leave Bedford Falls. But his brother, who has just come back from college and is going to take over the family business, arrives home with a surprise wife in tow. At the train station, the new wife tells George that her father has offered his brother a great job in a different town which will make their future secure.
George immediately understands all the implications of this – if he leaves and makes his brother stay in Bedford Falls, his brother will lose out on his chance of a lifetime. The agony on Jimmy Stewart’s face is wrenchingly intense, and in that one moment, the spirit of what Christmas is all about hangs in the balance.
This isn’t about whether to give an IPhone or a Wii, or how much we should spend on whom, it’s a core human dilemma.
Do we give, even when that giving goes against our own desire or needs? Wouldn’t any therapist in 2009 tell George he’d done enough, that it was his right to follow his dreams? Even I find myself thinking: “Go for it , George. Forget your brother. Go on, be selfish. Stop this crazy sacrificing.” But George Bailey is always George Bailey and the true spirit of Christmas always prevails.
For the past four years, I’ve brought my daughter along with me. She loves it just as much as I do, and now she brings her friends too. I have this fantasy that there will always be a movie theatre playing It’s A Wonderful Life at Christmas time, that my daughter will take her children to it and that they’ll take theirs, and that ninety minutes in a darkened movie theater remembering what Christmas should be about will be a tradition that will continue for generations.
Wonderful! Now I know exactly what it is I love so much about this movie. Wish I could find a theater to watch it in!
Posted by: Lisa | December 17, 2009 at 11:02 AM
great post about a great movie! i tweeted about it!
Posted by: 3samovar | December 17, 2009 at 01:33 PM
I loved this post! I wear a bracelet during the holidays that I placed an angel and a bell charm (which really rings). When others notice or comment I state every time a bell rings an angel gets their wings! ;-*
Darby
darbys closet at yahoo dot com
Posted by: D. Lohrding | December 17, 2009 at 08:02 PM
Great article! I'm always looking for people writing about It's A Wonderful Life. I wanted to share a song I wrote with you called George Bailey, thought you might get a kick out of it. You can hear it on my website or watch the youtube video below. Thanks and happy holidays!
Carolyn Sills
http://carolynsills.com/Original_Music.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOQna0DuOfU
Posted by: Carolyn Sills | December 19, 2009 at 12:56 AM