12/15/06: It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Yeah, that’s right.
It’s A Wonderful Life. The most tired topic in the history of Christmas pop culture. We’ve still got a few things to say on the subject, and at least one of them isn’t heard enough.
We first watched
It’s A Wonderful Life in 1983, simply because young punks and old hippies kept complaining about the film’s celebration of a pathetic man’s existence. To be fair, even intelligent people back then were sick of the film. Thanks to a shaky status in the public domain, every UHF station in America spent all of December as the
It’s A Wonderful Life Channel.
Even now, you might want to skip the synopsis: The film opens with God responding to people’s prayers. Failed angel Clarence Oddbody (with “the I.Q. of a rabbit and the faith of a child”) is put in charge of the tortured George Bailey. The film’s simple lesson is established at the start. Clarence asks God, “Is he sick?”
“Worse. He’s discouraged.”
And for good reason. George spends his young life trying to get out of the small town of Bedford Falls, where his father runs a small Building & Loan. George’s dreams of world travel, however, are constantly foiled. He ends up running the family business to protect his hometown from evil banker Mr. Potter. George keeps the community going at little profit to himself. This all goes wrong when Potter swipes an $8,000 deposit from George on the day before Christmas. A bank examiner discovers the missing funds, and George is looking jail bound. Frustrated and miserable, a suicidal George wishes he’d never been born. Clarence grants him that wish, and then….
Oh, you know what happens. George finds himself in a world where he never existed. There’s no Bedford Falls. There is only the new town of Pottersville. You know Pottersville, too. It’s like the New York City that was envisioned by the dolt who was mayor before Rudy Giuliani. It’s the kind of cesspool that comes from folks who believe that sex shops give a community some character.
There’s nothing wrong with a little red-light district. The problem is that Pottersville is nothing but pool halls, strip joints, and pawnshops. Leftists used to get offended when we’d note that they’d rather live in Pottersville. Nowadays, they tend to make that point themselves. It’s a hipster fantasy. The people we see living in Pottersville are miserable. They have no hope for a better life. They don’t believe in angels, either.
And there are only two kinds of women in Pottersville: prostitutes and uptight old-maid librarians. The place practically invents modern Women’s Studies.
Earlier in the film, Mr. Potter has accused George of stirring up people with impossible ideas. The impossible idea is that ordinary people can lead good lives. Like his father, George Bailey stands for great American beliefs. Unlike today’s charities, George helps people so that they can stand up on their own. It’s the only way to escape Potter’s slums.
George escapes from the nightmare of Pottersville, and finds himself back amongst his troubles in Bedford Falls. At film’s end, the people of the town gather to solve his problem with a sentimental flow of cold hard cash. This can only happen because George loaned money to people based on their personal character. He never had to consider race, gender, or sexual preference. Today, he’d have to meet quotas by lending money to undeserving strangers. Those people would not be there for George Bailey.
Why does this story take place at Christmastime? Because director Frank Capra understood that Mr. Potter was a great Christmas villain. George Bailey is saved by the financial freedom of others. Christmas villains are always against people getting to spend their own money. Burgermeister Meisterburger of
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town hates toys and forbids anyone to sell them.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas is self-explanatory.
And, as we learned in the wake of Columbine, the hero of
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a ticking time bomb. What’s the only thing that reforms this freak into a useful member of society? The threat of children not getting their hard-earned toys.
It’s A Wonderful Life is all about money. It’s all about gifts. And it’s all about Sam Wainwright. He’s an old industrialist pal of George’s who has the money to save both Bedford Falls and George Bailey. The character’s barely on the periphery of the plot, but Wainwright is the film’s true force for Good.
Meanwhile, the true Pottersville is right off the coast of Florida. This might be the year where Cuba is blessed with a Christmas without Fidel Castro. The dictator banned Christmas back in 1969. He didn’t let Cubans celebrate the holiday again until 1998. Many religious leaders wrongly praised Castro for this empty gesture. The problem is that the dictator only allows a religious holiday for people to pray and feast (which probably means an extra lima bean). But any good Christian prays all the time—especially in Cuba.
Castro allowed Christmas, but he continued to ban Santa Claus. There's no giving of gifts. There are no little kids getting excited about the holiday. Castro understood a simple truth. He knew that Santa Claus is more dangerous than Jesus.
So remember Santa Claus in your prayers this year, exiled to the jungle and plotting a return to power. It’ll happen. Che Guevara is forgotten to decent people, but everybody knows Santa Claus. He will be triumphant, and Fidel Castro—like Mr. Potter—will end up as yet another in a long line of vanquished Christmas villains.
Make it your own: For such a tired old classic,
It’s A Wonderful Life still hasn’t rated the kind of deluxe DVD reissue that’s been granted to, say,
There’s Something About Mary. Take what
you can get for Christmas.
