AND LASTLY, SOME CHRISTMAS CHEER : "IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE"

Directed by Frank Capra, this film is often described as “Hollywood at it’s worst”. By this, I don’t mean it is generally considered a bad film. On the contrary, this is the height of “old”, classic Hollywood in every sense, with stars like James Stewart and Donna Reid it is a warm and fuzzy Christmas Tale, just right for Christmas Eve round the telly with the whole family. If you go for it for pure entertainment value, well and good. You will love it. If you try and analyze it with your “political” glasses on however, you may not like what you see that much. It really is up to you; but let’s get round to the story first, and then we can discuss what we want to do with it.
It is Christmas Eve. And Clarance the clockmaker is on a mission. This may seem odd at first as he has been dead for 200 years, but there is more to the story than you may think. He is due to be promoted as an angel; but to get his wings he must accomplish this one rather difficult task, and honestly, he hasn’t proved to be the brightest bulb in the box so far. His duty is to stop George Bailey (James Stewart) a man living, seemingly quite happily, in a small town from committing suicide. Now, George lives with his beloved wife and four children, he has lived in the same small town all his life. He is notorious for his good heart, generosity and helpfulness and the family’s loans and banking business is the town’s last bastion against the greedy banker ??? who would suck the town dry if he only could… However, ?? has dreamt of leaving the town, travelling, going to university and making something truly great with his life as long as he can remember, he is a good man with ethics, but deep down he hates his job and wishes he could have had a different job and different experiences in life. When crisis strikes his business, it is the last straw for him and the only way out he can think of is into the river off a high bridge. Can his rather unlikely – and seemingly rather unable – little guardian angel convince him that life is worth living after all?
This film was a Christmas gift to me from a well beloved friend. I know he checks the blog out from time to time, so allow me to thank him for it once again from here; I honestly and truly enjoyed every minute of it. However, I could quite understand if you watched and became slightly aggravated with it too. The thing to remember is that one of Hollywood’s principal roles, back in the day as well as today was the propagation of a certain life style; and this film is a walking, talking advertisement of a particular lifestyle, patriarchal – with the wife, clever and able of course, clearly positioned as “beta” to her husbands “alfa” and the general message that “one should be happy with what one has and not make ones dreams too lofty” almost shoved down one’s throat in unequivocally Christian terms (if the whole “don’t let your imagination fly away with you” line confuses you in today’s viciously capitalist society, do remember that this was 1947, not that long after the Great Depression and a mere two years after the Second World War, conservatism was the “mot du jour”). So, small town life, family and 2,4 children are in fact presented as the “ideal”. Now this may annoy you, and I don’t blame you. In places the film almost reads like a propaganda reel. However, as annoyed as I was with bits of it, there were other bits of it I simply loved. The film is sweet overall; there are some very funny little touches and well… I mean look back on all the black and white classics we know and love; which doesn’t have a streak we would consider “politically incorrect” today? Yet we still watch and love them. I say, be tolerant, don’t take it too too seriously and enjoy it of an evening with the kids. You can ease your conscious but ranting about it to friends later. And do you know what, you needn’t really tell them you quite enjoyed it =)