It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

As I mentioned, the purpose of this blog is to document and review the classic movies I've seen in 2020, but I'm going to give a special honourable mention to a movie I've seen several times, starring my favourite actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

It's a Wonderful Life aired over the holidays in select theatres, which meant I got to fulfill a dream and see one of my favourite old movies on the BIG SCREEN as it was meant to be seen. Long story short, I fell in love all over again.

Everyone knows It's a Wonderful Life is about George Bailey, played by the incomparable Jimmy Stewart, who I love and adore. George Bailey does not in fact have a wonderful life - or so he thinks - and debates jumping off a bridge to end it all - after all, Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) did point out to George that he was worth more dead than he was alive. That is until the angel Clarence - who still needs to earn his wings, comes down to earth and shows him what the world would be life if George Bailey had never been born.

Watching a movie in the movie theatre is entirely different than watching it in your living room. Besides swooning over seeing Jimmy Stewart on the big screen, I was able to focus on the story more, and understand George's plight more. I absorbed every word of dialogue and noticed parts in the movie I had never noticed before. George's pain was alive on the screen; his love for Mary (Donna Reed) - and Mary's love for him - was felt so strongly.

George in fact had a pretty typical life, I think. He had big dreams, and was going to see the world, and create things, and do what he wanted to do. However, the reality of life hit in him hard when he had to take over his father's duties at the building and loan - thus "trapping" him in a life he never wanted. But a life, he genuinely made the best of. What is not typical or George is his moral compass. He always chooses to take the right path, whether it's what he wants or not. He is completely unselfish which of course gets to him sometimes - and why wouldn't it?! The thing that finally puts him over the edge, isn't even his fault - but he lets it rest on his shoulders like he does everything in his world. It's no wonder he found himself on the bridge wondering what the hell went wrong.

It's well known that this movie didn't do so well at the box office when it was first released. Legend has it that due to a clerical error, the copyright to the move expired and TV stations during my day could air the movie without paying royalties. Which is how it became popular in today's world.  But I have to wonder if the world in 1946 wasn't ready to see a down-and-out man - especially a down-and-out Jimmy Stewart, who himself was struggling after serving in WWII. Known as the sweet, good-guy, boy-next-door type, Stewart worked with director Frank Capra in You Can't Take it With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); a comedy and drama respectively, both co-starring Jean Arthur, and both amongst my favourite Jimmy Stewart movies.

Maybe in 1946 people didn't need a reminder of how tough, but also amazing, life can be. They knew it. They lived it. And they wanted to move on. But the world today needs this reminder, because frankly the world has gone to shit even without a world war. The world needs Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart to remind us to hold on to what and who love, and to hold on to what we know to be good and true and just. And to remind us that we are wanted, and needed, and loved. It's a message that often gets lost in a world full of negativity that is spread so much faster than it ever could in 1946, thanks to 24/7 social media and news platforms.

Basically I'm saying everyone really needs to see this movie.

I won't be reviewing a lot of Jimmy Stewart movies, as I've seen about 46 of his films, so really I've seen all I want see (I'm skipping most of his westerns from the '60s). But I tend to re-watch of few of my favourites, so perhaps I will post about them after all. And for the record, my favourite Jimmy Stewart movies (in chronological order - not order of most favorite) are:

You Can't Take it With You (1938)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Mortal Storm (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Harvey (1950)
Rear Window (1954)
Vertigo (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)