By Geno McGahee
You can’t tell me that James Stewart really talks like that. I have never met anyone that has ever spoken like that. I have to assume it’s a voice he created for his acting career and it worked. It was just very weird and I have never met anyone that spoke like that. One day, I hope that I do.
The 1946 film “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE” is one of those films that I had never seen. Since I do Christmas reviews, I had to find it sooner or later and tonight was the night, and I can see why people like it so much. We begin with the angels in heaven talking about George Bailey (Stewart) and how he wants to kill himself. So, to get the angel up to speed as to why he wants to end it, they do a full review of his life, beginning when he was about 12-years-old.
Young George and his buddies are using shovels to slide down the snowy hills and I kept thinking about how much that probably kills your nuts when you do it. I would not roll the dice on my junk just for the thrill of sliding down a hill. We learn that young George jumped into a frozen lake to save his younger brother and lost hearing in his left ear. We also see him working for some asshole, Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner). When he stops that old idiot from killing somebody by giving them poison instead of medicine, Gower slaps the living shit out of him. Remarkably, George forgives the prick as they transition to a 20-year-old (ish) George.
George wants desperately to get out of the small town he lives in. He bitches all the time about it. I’m sure everyone wanted to say: “George, leave or shut the fuck up about it you strange-talking fuck!” He sticks around, but plans to go to college, but that falls through when his dad drops dead and he has to take over the family business. His brother takes the college money as George stays in the small town.
On top of not living up to his ambitions, George has to deal with the biggest asshole in town, the very rich Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Potter desperately wants to run George out of business because he’s trying the help the poor get houses and Potter wants them all to live in his housing. The two are at constant war, with insults flying both ways. The writing is very good and it’s amusing.
George lashes out a lot, even at Mary (Donna Reed), a girl that has loved him since they were kids. As adults, she ends up hooking up with a complete annoying idiot, Sam (Frank Albertson). As a child, Sam would run around making donkey sounds. As an adult, he does the same thing. Mary dates Sam for a bit and he is still making those donkey sounds, which made me think. Maybe Sam likes to give or take donkey punches. It’s a strange fetish thing, but some people are into donkey punches. For Sam to keep on making those fucking noises, I have to assume some dude was plowing him and punched him in the back of the head.
Sam loses his girl to George and they get married and have children. George does his best to help the community and be happy but he can’t stop expecting more from life. He wants out of town and to explore the world, but he’s now married with children, stuck in a job, and stuck in the place he wants to leave with Potter up his ass 24/7. Things go from bad to worse when his uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) accidently gives eight thousand dollars of company money to Potter. George flips out of his mind, roughs up Billy and trashes his house. He also yells at his children and wife. He’s fucking fed up with the bullshit and won’t take it anymore. When he tries to suck up to Potter to get a loan to replace the lost money, Potter gives it to him dry. The only way to pay the money back is to kill himself and have his family collect the life insurance.
The angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), comes down to earth and stops him from killing himself, but his mood still sucks. He wishes that he never existed and Clarence grants the wish, and he gets to see what life would be if it didn’t exist. The town is ruined and turned into a shithole with strip clubs and bars on every corner. Wait, did I say shithole? I like strip clubs and bars. Maybe shithole was too strong of a word. I guess I’ll say that things were really different without George.
Nobody recognizes poor George and he never really gets the point. He basically goes to every single person in town and says “don’t you recognize me?” After the 750th no, I would have given up. He realizes that he wants to live and that life is good. It’s no wonder why they call this “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.”
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is a great film. It captures the spirit of Christmas and appreciating what you have. It is a feel good movie that is incredibly well written and paced. I can’t recommend it enough.
