Christmas traditions, though in a steady, sad decline in the age of modernity and “higher thinking”, are still the highlight of the year to most. Mine involve going to the vigil mass, avoiding All I Want for Christmas is You and Wonderful Christmastime, and although the first was by far the most important, an excuse to watch the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life, one of the greatest movies ever made and the best Christmas movie ever made.
I am sure that almost all of you have seen it, but just in case you have not, It’s a Wonderful Life takes place from the early 1910s to right after the end of the Second World War, following a young man named George Bailey. Throughout the film, George grapples with his responsibilities protecting the town from the predations of a conniving, scheming real estate tycoon Potter (played by Lionel Barrymore from the famed Barrymore family of actors), assisting with the war effort, and providing the best for his family along with his wife Mary.
George is played by Jimmy Stewart, who had an acting career before WWII and after experiencing twenty combat ventures, became a Colonel in the Air Force. He would become a Brigadier General years later and earn the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Regan. It’s a Wonderful Life was his first movie made after the war, just to give some historical context.
It’s a Wonderful Life excels in its simplicity and raw emotion more than anything else. From the beginning of the story on, we know that something has gone terribly wrong as we hear several prayers from people that we are not at all aware of, asking George Bailey to be spared from something and be kept safe. Then, the transition is to Clarence, Angel Second Class, learning of George Bailey’s life so he could know how to save him, namely the relationship between him and his wife Mary, not wishing to spoil much of anything.
The climax of the movie takes place on Christmas Eve when we are all caught up and George is in the present. Clarence appears to George, who is contemplating suicide and forces George to save him to take his mind off of it. George and Clarence recover, and the latter jumps into rebuking George for ever thinking about it. George agrees with Clarence, instead opting for another route of non-existence, saying that he wished he was never born. Clarence reveals his identity to George after and to prove it to George, takes George into a separate present, one where he does not exist: George is then forced to realize how much he meant to so many and how the significance of one person could change the entire town, not just his wife and his brother, who would be dead without George, a fact he learned in one of the most harrowing scenes ever made. George learns just how wonderful his life is and from Clarence, “No man is a failure that has friends.” It is truly the most well-balanced joyful movie ever made.
So, why should you watch it? Excluding the acting, which is still fantastic, it’s the message of the movie that encourages most people to watch it and in fact, the reason why more people today need to hear it: the characters are all extremely servant-hearted and jovial people. Both of these are important, but I think the latter might be less so. Modern culture celebrates depression and I do not mean it in the sense that it says one should seek help in confronting their turmoil, which of course one should.
The problem is that they treat it like it’s a menial disease like it can simply go away with some pills and some lackluster therapy, which has been disproven and it would not necessarily need to be disproven anyhow because it obviously would not work. Rather, depression is a natural human feeling at times. I’ve been depressed before and I do not mean in that way when one is not happy or has mediocre feelings in the colloquial usage of the term. And some people have a very good reason to be depressed: the death of a family member, lack of a job, having little direction in life, parents getting divorced, etc. These are things that rock one’s life.
But our culture acts as if being on the receiving end of a mean comment and experiencing one of these things is on par with one another. In fact, it encourages divorce, joblessness, and poor education; it facilitates it. Harassment is wrong and sinful, yes, but the way to solve this is to be secure in yourself. I had to learn that the hard way, believe me. I do not say “secure” to mean that one should be arrogant and not accept any criticism: being secure means having a filter to what matters and not and thus, having the ability to take some things seriously and have a light heart when the time allows for it.
This is what the characters in It’s a Wonderful Life do: they have loud, boisterous voices and George and Mary are able to love each other in a way in which they act like kids. George became a father and becoming the inspirational leader of the town during the war are events that are barely focused on at all, only within a brief montage. It’s a Wonderful Life is if anything, a story that focuses on the triumph over cynicism by gratitude and joy, both child-like and more so adult, as adult joy often involves far more gratitude. Both are what allow George to happy in the end, strengthing that filter he lost momentarily by realizing what is important and not. Are not both what Christmas is all about?
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