Unpopular opinion; 'It's A Wonderful Life' is a lie. It's not a wonderful life.
Took me years to see it and when I did, I found myself angry and frustrated for poor old George. All he ever wanted was to leave Bedford Falls but he never did anything he wanted. What's so wonderful about that?
From this, you might be thinking I'm some kind of Scrooge or to you youngsters, a Grinch. Well I'm not a big fan of the Grinch either but that's another post. I actually really love Christmas. I used to have my own traditions when I was a kid and enforced some when I got older but Christmas this year will be very different which is sad but all things change. I'm still keeping my Christmas spirit though. Putting up the tree (soon), wrapping the presents and watching all my Christmas films. 'It's a Wonderful Life' is NOT included.
I always saw Frank Capra's classic as a beacon of hope and Christmas cheer and that's how it was sold to me. Of course as I got older, still never having seen it, I read that George, our hero, goes through a 'Christmas Carol' type deal but just with the future part, where he sees what lives would be like if he hadn't been born. The fact that George was about to kill himself by jumping off a bridge only having to jump in anyway to save an old man, his guardian angel, puts a downer on the whole story. George is pushed to his limit when he steps up to that bridge, having had to miss out on countless chances to escape his hometown, where I'm sure he would be far happier. He is always making sacrifices and always 'doing the right thing' for everyone else, its no surprise he ends up on that bridge. He's meant to be saving his town, friends and family from the evil Mr Potter but how has it come to be George's problem? The visit to 'Pottersville' just mounts more pressure on George than ever. Seeing that yes he may have saved people, or changed people's lives, but I still can'y shake the fact that it is all at the expence of George's real happiness. What I would have liked to see is what if George HAD got to live his dream, what would have his life been like?
I suppose if there had been anything different, there wouldn't have been a film, right? George's plight just doesn't sit well with me, which is why I can't happily watch the film. I want to George to travel the world with Mary and have a life outside Bedford Falls, but I know what will happen when I play the film, the same un-wonderful life. Give me a Christmas film where everything does work out fine in the end.