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Review: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
I wonder if It's a Wonderful Life was one of the first Christmas feel-good movies to be made. It was fine as a simple story with a simple message. But I'd probably only recommend it for Christmas viewing in a group.
Spoilers.
Story
George Bailey was a man who kept running into financial troubles and it made him wish that he'd never been born. These issues took up the majority of the movie.
Clarence, his guardian angel, granted his wish of never having been born, and George realized how he'd taken for granted all of his friends and loved ones. He was then put back into his original world and the film ended with the entire town chipping in to help his company from going under.
Writing
To someone from the 21st century, the dialogue felt a bit exaggerated, but I'm sure it was contemporary dialogue for people at the time. The pacing of the conversations was interesting because they'd just jump straight to the point, which I didn't mind at all.
Production
I thought that the sets and such were very nice, and I realized that it was probably because the movie was set in what was contemporary times. What we were seeing was likely authentic to the time, which I thought was very, very cool.
Characters
George Bailey
George was the kind of man who was always very affected by his bad days at the office. The first time we saw that was when he found out that Harry's father-in-law had offered him a job, which would prevent George from needing to hold down the fort so that he could go to school.
He'd gone over to Mary's place but had entirely ignored all of her efforts to cheer him up with their old inside jokes. That scene did end with them getting together though, so I guess he realized he was being an ass later on.
But things really accumulated to a boiling point when Uncle Billy had lost a ton of cash and Building and Loan was in real danger of going under.
George wished that he'd never been born, and in his romp through town, he was shocked by all of the people who used to be nice to him but were not treating him like a total stranger.
Obviously this wake up call made George realize that nothing in life was bad as a lack of love and so he happily returned to his original world, even if it meant he had to go to jail, because at least he still had love and friends.
Mary Hatch
Mary was George's wife. They had a specific connection that nobody seemed to get. Throughout George's financial troubles Mary willfully forwent a honeymoon, and didn't mind living in the shabby run-down house. And when George ran out on the family on Christmas, Mary went aroun town looking for him and raising money from the neighbours. Mary was a huge pillar of support for George.
Mr. Potter
Mr. Potter was the only evil man in town. His goal was literally to own the town, and in the alternate timeline he literally did. He got his way by buying people out, and he was close to buying George out too, until George decided to stand by Bailey Park.
Clarence
Clarence actually didn't show up until very late in the movie. Despite not having his wings yet, he was shown to be a rather easygoing guy, maybe even naive for someone who was almost 300 years old.
Overall
This was supposed to be one of those non-problematic stories where there was only one evil guy in town (Mr. Potter). I think it mostly achieved that.
That being said, this isn't exactly a deep movie, and I think it's only so popular because it's become a tradition to watch it around Christmas time.
Spoilers.
Story
George Bailey was a man who kept running into financial troubles and it made him wish that he'd never been born. These issues took up the majority of the movie.
Clarence, his guardian angel, granted his wish of never having been born, and George realized how he'd taken for granted all of his friends and loved ones. He was then put back into his original world and the film ended with the entire town chipping in to help his company from going under.
Writing
To someone from the 21st century, the dialogue felt a bit exaggerated, but I'm sure it was contemporary dialogue for people at the time. The pacing of the conversations was interesting because they'd just jump straight to the point, which I didn't mind at all.
Production
I thought that the sets and such were very nice, and I realized that it was probably because the movie was set in what was contemporary times. What we were seeing was likely authentic to the time, which I thought was very, very cool.
Characters
George Bailey
George was the kind of man who was always very affected by his bad days at the office. The first time we saw that was when he found out that Harry's father-in-law had offered him a job, which would prevent George from needing to hold down the fort so that he could go to school.
He'd gone over to Mary's place but had entirely ignored all of her efforts to cheer him up with their old inside jokes. That scene did end with them getting together though, so I guess he realized he was being an ass later on.
But things really accumulated to a boiling point when Uncle Billy had lost a ton of cash and Building and Loan was in real danger of going under.
George wished that he'd never been born, and in his romp through town, he was shocked by all of the people who used to be nice to him but were not treating him like a total stranger.
Obviously this wake up call made George realize that nothing in life was bad as a lack of love and so he happily returned to his original world, even if it meant he had to go to jail, because at least he still had love and friends.
Mary Hatch
Mary was George's wife. They had a specific connection that nobody seemed to get. Throughout George's financial troubles Mary willfully forwent a honeymoon, and didn't mind living in the shabby run-down house. And when George ran out on the family on Christmas, Mary went aroun town looking for him and raising money from the neighbours. Mary was a huge pillar of support for George.
Mr. Potter
Mr. Potter was the only evil man in town. His goal was literally to own the town, and in the alternate timeline he literally did. He got his way by buying people out, and he was close to buying George out too, until George decided to stand by Bailey Park.
Clarence
Clarence actually didn't show up until very late in the movie. Despite not having his wings yet, he was shown to be a rather easygoing guy, maybe even naive for someone who was almost 300 years old.
Overall
This was supposed to be one of those non-problematic stories where there was only one evil guy in town (Mr. Potter). I think it mostly achieved that.
That being said, this isn't exactly a deep movie, and I think it's only so popular because it's become a tradition to watch it around Christmas time.