Release Year: 1946

Genre: Drama, Family

Director: Frank Capra

Writer: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra

Stars: Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore

George Bailey has hit rock bottom.

Nothing has worked out for the nicest guy in town. He gave up his childhood dreams of traveling the world to stay home and save the family business. His brother gets to go to college instead of him; his boyhood buddy is living large while George is scraping by; the local evil, rich guy is about to send George's business into bankruptcy and George to jail for bank fraud. He's standing on a bridge on a snowy Christmas Eve staring into the water below, thinking he's worth more to his family dead than alive.

Wait. Isn't this movie called It's a Wonderful Life? Were we mistakenly redirected from Million Dollar Baby or something?

Have no fear, folks; you're in the right place. Director Frank Capra is here, and in a Frank Capra movie, nice guys never finish last.

After unsuccessfully shopping around his short story "The Greatest Gift," Philip Van Doren Stern sent it to 200 friends as his Christmas card in 1939. The story was about a selfless, decent guy who's saved by his guardian angel at the lowest moment in his life. By some epically Capra-esque miracle, it came to the attention of studio bigwigs at RKO Pictures, who sold the rights to the story to director Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films.

A world war later, the movie finally went into production. Capra, who specialized in the timelessly heart-warming (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It Happened One Night), helmed the project. Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed took the lead roles of George Bailey and Mary Hatch, and the legendary Lionel Barrymore (Drew's great-uncle) played the villainous Mr. Potter. Its uplifting message was classic Capra "victory for the little guy" stuff.

When it was released in 1946, the film, now titled It's a Wonderful Life, didn't even make back its production costs. But, a funny thing happened when its copyright ran out in 1974. Now free to anyone who wanted to air it as often as they wanted, the movie was picked up and packaged as Christmas programming by cash-strapped public television stations, who couldn't afford expensive, flashy Christmas specials.

Other networks followed suit—who doesn't love cheap programming?—and before you could say Kris Kringle, the movie was all over the small screens at Christmastime. By the time its copyright was restored in 1993, millions of families had already made it their holiday tradition to watch how George Bailey is saved from despair by the love of family, friends, and God.

Its reputation grew; now, everyone loves the film. Steven Spielberg has said that it's one of the three movies he watches before starting any new film. (Source) Even people in movies (Home Alone, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) watch it. It's classic holiday fare that reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Festivus.

The late, great film critic Roger Ebert wrote that, "What is remarkable about 'It's a Wonderful Life' is how well it holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies […] that improves with age." (Source) Unlike, say, Fire Maidens From Outer Space. The American Film Institute put it at the very top of its 100 Years … 100 Cheers. Rotten Tomatoes rates it as 96% fresh. It's a textbook lesson in how to tug at someone's heartstrings and provides all the necessary study material for anyone who's interested in tugging those very strings.

Capra-corn, as some cynics have called it? Bring it on.

We live in a cynical world. A cynical. World. Irony rules. We're surrounded by snark. And, it sure looks to anyone who turns on the news—uh, checks their news feed—that things everywhere look pretty, pretty bleak indeed.

But, Capra convinces us that life is actually wonderful. (Bet you didn't see that one coming.) What's worth studying about the film is how Capra presents this sentimental, angel-saves-the-day story without veering into gooey ridiculousness. Here's how we think he does it.

First, Capra absolutely believed in his message. He once admitted that the theme of all of his films was basically the Sermon on the Mount—the meek inheriting the earth and all that jazz. He believed in the goodness of people, who, when put in difficult positions, would do the right thing. He wrote in his autobiography that he wanted to send the message: "Heads up, fella. No man is poor who has one friend. Three friends and you're filthy rich."

Capra didn't have to fake it to tell George's story.

Second, the film asks a lot of the viewer. This is the ultimate feel-good movie, but in order to get there, you have to take an emotional dive. You have to stare with George on a bridge at the icy river below, wondering if life is just an empty, meaningless avenue of broken dreams. The film flirts with the abyss. It shows us a horrible world without compassion or humanity, and it brings us to the edge of despair before the warm, snuggly ending. The point is, it earns that ending. It's allowed to be sentimental.

Finally, despite George's idyllic little town and idyllic marriage, there's a realism about Capra's films. (In fact, Capra famously refused to allow his actors to wear makeup unless absolutely necessary.) George, for all his selfless heroism, has his rougher, transgressive side. He can be reckless and impulsive, and he struggles to control that. He insults his daughter's teacher. He screams at his kids and trashes the living room. Uncle Billy, despite being a lovable guy, is a mess. Even archvillain Potter just does what many business titans do to promote their financial interests.

Capra doesn't shy away from the tough stuff: poverty, greed, suicidal depression, and spiritual despair. With all of George's romantic ideas and grandiose plans, the film comes down on the side of reality. Home, friends, feeling rooted in your community—that's what's really meaningful.

Shmoop would've loved to conclude by saying that Capra "celebrated the noblest impulses of woman and man, showed all of us our dark side and then pointed a flashlight at the way out." But, Steven Spielberg said it first. (Source)

Sentimental? Sure. But, Capra sells it, and everybody's buying.