It's A Wonderful Life at 75
IT'S A Wonderful Life is 75 years old. For at least 30 of those years, I and millions of others have watched that film every festive season and its power to move both heart and mind remains undiminished.
Some will tell you Frank Capra's masterpiece is the greatest Christmas movie ever made, but really it's much more than that. A still resonant study of an ordinary man trying to do the right thing in a small town where his social suffocation is almost too much to bear, it's a startling examination of society both then and now, but one which never allows the darkness too much time to wheedle its way under our skin.
It's a film that leans gloriously into the light by the time our hero realises just how the world would have been without his presence and it's that profoundly moving denouement which renders it an untouchable slice of cinematic beauty. It's dark, but it's deep, and its sense of hope and re-birth ring loudly at this time of year.
It's also got the glory of James Stewart in his first post-war screen role, cranking up his patented everyman persona like never before as George Bailey, a man who thinks the world might be better off without him around when he loses his business $8,000 on Christmas eve, and a master class in film directing from Capra, a man who echoes George's emotional journey through life with an array of claustrophobic close-up shots and huge sweeping takes of his world as it widens out.
Stewart is sublime as the troubled soul talked around from committing suicide by a guardian angel out to earn his wings (played by Henry Travers) and there are fine roles for Lionel Barrymore as the evil businessman Mr Potter and Donna Reed as his beloved wife Mary.
The film flopped with cinema audiences on its original release in December 1946 famously earning just $3.3 million back against the $3.7 it cost to make. Many dismissed it as too saccharine, too rushed and even suggested that the studio may have been better opting for Cary Grant for the role of George Bailey, as was originally mooted.
It was, however, talked up by critics and found itself nominated for five Oscars, including nods for both Capra and Stewart, though it returned from the ceremony empty handed.
Thankfully, it falling out of copyright meant endless subsequent screenings on TV as a result, helping to embed Capra's film deep into the public's collective heart.
In some ways, It's A Wonderful Life feels almost too 'on the money' in 2021. As hardship hits home with more force than ever in family homes all over the world and social alienation and isolation grow with every passing day during an ongoing pandemic, there's much to be learnt from George's journey to the bright side of the road in Bedford Falls. No matter how many times I watch, it still delivers an emotional punch unlike any other film.
It's a tough life for sure, but a wonderful one all the same.
