One of the greatest movies ever made, is to me, one of the movies that continues to stand the test of time and does not feel out dated or decaying. Unlike Citizen Kane, which was unbearable to me, It's a Wonderful Life is a smooth sailing, in depth tale of George Bailey, a big fish in a small pond that grows to take over his father's business. Hopefully we all know the tale of It's a Wonderful Life, because on this Christmas Eve I'm going to explain why the movie is so bittersweet I don't know if I can stand watching it anymore. It's a fear that I have long since expected myself to never overcome, and it's a warning to those who wish to treat their life with burderns. It's raining outside, and it'll only rain harder.
God is watching over George Bailey, and the 1946 movie is watched over by Frank Capra, a director that continued to symbolize his heroes as the "common nobility" which in my opinion culminated in the david and goliath fight in the politically charged Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In It's a Wonderful Life George Bailey was born and grew up completely normal and middle class. As a testament to his character though, Jimmy Stewart has always been completely able to take normal characters and trascend them to a grand, heroic, and powerful nature. George Bailey from the beginning working in the ice cream shop in town is passionate and charismatic, attracting the attention of the soon to be Monroe and Kennedy women, with the blonde bombshell, and the beautiful damsel. Both experience overwhelming respect and wanting of Bailey, but like everything in his life but his intentions, Bailey takes no notice. His entire life is a run through with a culminating savior story of an angel descending from heaven to teach George Bailey that not only is life worth living but it's worth living his life.
And what a life he could have lived, and that's what makes it bittersweet. Bailey's life from beginning to end is a story of saving other people from themselves. Bailey must first save his brother from drowning (and loses hearing in one ear as punishment). Bailey must save the family business from being dissolved into Potter's regime. Bailey must save money for his brother to go to college instead of him, and when his brother finally does return, he has no intention of going back to the family business. Bailey must save his Uncle from ruining the Building and Loan and jail time by being visited by everyone in town with money to give. It's hard to imagine how much better Bailey's life would've been without his burden. Indeed he might've changed the world.
Mr. Potter - an Evil Without a Cause
So throughout the movie we are introduced to George Bailey's principled rival Mr. Potter. Potter apparently is an outrageously rich man that builds slums and carries people to the grave with high interest rates. Bailey on the other hand is a family made and run business that builds better houses, offers bigger better loans, and has much lower of an interest rate. Seem something odd here? How are Bailey's houses better? He could only build two or three before the account would be overdrawn. There's only so many handouts you can give before the levy breaks. This is a reminder of the attempt by our U.S. Government to put everyone in a house with a bath. Potter doesn't talk about that. Potter talks about killing people's dreams, and he steals money and he can't even walk. The opposition is George Bailey, a handsome man with money from somewhere who builds incredible houses out of thin air. The real estate in our country was utterly destroyed because of the way we made grand houses with artificial interests rates, yet we cheer everytime we watch it on TV.
Like most movies we are supposed to not like Mr. Potter because we are told not to like him. Like Cinderella Man, a man must be personified as unspeakably evil in order to establish a conflict and a hero. What if Russel Crowe was beating the crap out of Rocky. That wouldn't make since. Give him a man who does not exist. Give him a "bear". The man in this movie literally killed for fun, and had the middle ground of boxing to save him from law. He was rude, shallow, aggressive, and dangerous. Potter is such a character. Unfortunately I consider this lazy and radical as I have never met a man like Mr. Potter. If a man acted like Mr. Potter, he would wind up without a business let alone a rude disposition. You're telling me that he makes expensive slums with high interest rates, and people still buy them? Everyone crawls back to Potter? What does that even mean? Potter should've been building the better houses for cheaper because he could. He could've pushed the Bailey business right off the cliff with it's monetary muscle. Bailey builds the better houses for cheaper? That doesn't make since. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Mr. Potter is senile, legless, emotionless, and rude. Potter steals, swindles, and maims whoever stands in his way. And you wonder why people hate businessmen. People hate them because we are told we must hate them. While they provide interstellar telescopes, supersonic engines, and smooth tile, we must give them curses as their payment.
"You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider."
Oh I'm sorry it does. It does when you come begging to him for more money and it does matter that your life is turned around because of money. People treat money like a disease. Run from the man who says that money is the root of all evil. He either has a knife to your throat or a hand in your pocket.
And Then I'm Going to Build Things...
"I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long... "
You know what God did to the Tower of Babel? He killed it. He killed ambition with changed language. You know what happened to George Bailey's dreams and hopes? Obliterated. Destroyed under circumstance and a passion to "do what's right." But what is right? Was it right for George's brother Harry to leave him to rot in that dusty old town. Was it right for his Uncle's problem to fall upon George's shoulders.
Harry went to college instead of George. What did Harry do at college? He became a football player...
George Bailey was so talented and passionate he could have led the world in architecture! He could've built things that people would've never thought possible. He could've lived a grand life that would be built of brick and mortar and dirt and cement, and glass and industry. Harry just played football.
Men and women hate ambition. We can say that we don't but we are taught from day one that ambition leads to a pride, and since Greek plays, pride is the downfall of anyone. Wealth gained from ambition will only lead you to hell, unless you can get a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
This movie feels insulting, and it's insulting because we are supposed to rejoice with George Bailey because although he didn't want to exist, he was wrong, and that his small life was everything it should've been: a wonderful one. Unfortunately that's not the point I got. The point was whether or not George Bailey should've existed, the point was whether or not he should've seen the world. Every time I watch this movie, I secretly hope that George Bailey takes one look at the head chairman of the board, and says, "then I'll see you in hell!" as he kicks the door open and walks into the sunlight. But everytime the music cue kicks in, and he wildly reconsiders his life, and gives his college money to Harry Bailey.
And what's worse is George Bailey actually sees it and feels it happening to him. By the time he returns to Mary after greeting his brother from the train, Bailey is having an early life crisis. He has a deeply affectionate feeling toward Mary, but he knows that marrying her would be the final shot that would sink his dreams. Mary tries as hard as she can to woo the dashing George Bailey. She even plays "Buffalo Gal" to recreate the nostalgic scene after the high school dance. Bailey is overwhelmingly avoidant however, and does not see her. Bailey has done nothing but sacrifice his whole life. Is marrying Mary a sacrifice? No, because he wants her, but it could be a yes if deep down inside his dream was more powerful. That hurts to think about but a sacrifice is trading something you value more for something you value less. Bailey sacfrificed his honeymoon money. Bailey sacrificed his college chance. Bailey sacrificed his ear.
Bailey sacrificed his whole life. And all we can do is applaud and wish that more people were like George Bailey. We wish there were more people that would become sacrificial animals like George. We scream and shout like a Coliseum for more noble blood to be shed to pay for our own incompetence. George Bailey should never have had to do what he did. But he did it. Is that supposed to make him heroic? Tragically heroic.
Here's to George Bailey, the Poorest Man in Town
The big dumb ending, where the town literally buys out the company and George Bailey. Do you really think this would happen in real life? "What a swindler!" they would shout, "I knew it all along." People would assume he did keep all that money, and despite their personal relationship they would let him rot. Are we really supposed to believe the town would be nothing but bars and strip joints if George Bailey had not existed. It was said earlier that Mr. Potter owns pretty much everything except the Bailey Building and Loan. Is Potter's whole goal in life to build awful establishments? Mr. Potter is worse than the devil apparently. He shows not attempt to better his business but is more willing to seduce his people to sex and alcohol.
Of course George Bailey wants to live. Would he even have noticed if he had not existed? Does that make any sense? I know now that life would be terrible if I had not existed. How can anyone draw that conclusion? It cannot be terrible if you did not even exist! It's going to look pretty glim if your wife does not recognize you and the business does not exist. What does that prove? It only proves that life is worth existing.
Really? Everybody knows this. People would be committing suicide right and left otherwise. Apparently to George Bailey's life though, it's not worth living. It isn't if no matter how hard you work you've still got uncle's that'll clumsily send you to JAIL! It isn't if you are a puppet to a town and a tool to your brother. It isn't if you don't have Zu-Zu's petals I guess...
I have a hard time believing the ending. Of course it's heroic and portrays what life should be, but what's more tragic is that it does exactly that. How many George Bailey's are out there? How many have been utterly destroyed by expectations and passionate belief in sacrifice.
The movies is on in the other room, and I cannot bear to watch. I will not sit there and watch an American Dream die like so many others have for so long.
It Could've Been a Wonderful Life
What if George Bailey had gone out that door? What if he appeared on the front of TIME magazine for being an intellectual pioneer of his time. What if he acheived his dream? He would've died anyway?
You moral cannibals. Can't you see what's at stake here? It's not George Bailey's life it is our very soul, and they are going to cut it apart, piece by piece, until they have us by the neck. It is people like Bailey that could change the world if we would have the constitution to let him go and figure out the Bailey Building and Loan for ourselves. It's our moral code that's in danger, and yet people still applaud to the sound of Bailey's spiritual death. It's a Wonderul Life tapped into something terrible. It blatantly exposes a cruel underbelly of what happens when people cannot do things on our own. What if George Bailey had been the Government? We would rave and go on about how they couldn't control or lives or run things, but put a man on the torture rack and we claim that we could not live on without George Bailey.
We like It's a Wonderful Life but why do we like it?
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