What a Wonderful life !!

Ever wondered why you were born?

Ever been so frustrated in life, that all you wanted to do, was to drop everything and hide yourself from the world?

Ever felt so depressed, that you hoped that the past few years in your life never happened?

Ever wished you could go back in time and change every single action in your life?

The hero of the movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ - George Bailey, feels all the above and more. Within the first 5 minutes of the movie, you are told that George Bailey is contemplating suicide. What follows for the next 2 hours is a story of hope and eternal optimism.

‘It’s a Wonderful life’, - a 1946 film by Frank Capra, is one of my all-time favourites. In fact, I love the movie so much that I watch it at least once a year. More often than not, I cite the reason that I am introducing the movie to someone else. Two days back, it was my sister, who was my excuse to watch this awesome movie again. It stars one of my beloved actors of B&W English cinema - James Stewart (the other being Cary Grant).

The movie is some sort of fantasy, but apart from a pudgy looking ‘angel’, without wings, you may not find any other fantastic creatures!

The story is deceptively simple. George Bailey, our hero is on the verge of jumping into the river. God (yes, you read it right), summons one of his angels - Clarence AS2 (Angel Second Class) and gives him the responsibility of saving George. He also briefs Clarence about George’s life so far and the events that have led him to consider suicide.

The flashback sequence (as narrated by God) starts with George with his brother Harry and a few more boys, playing with a sled in the snow. By accident, Harry skids and falls inside the cracked ice pond and George does not think twice before saving him. Harry is saved but George falls ill and loses his hearing on one ear.

He later works for a pharmacist and one day, when the pharmacist receives a telegram on his young son’s death, saves the pharmacist from a grave mistake.

Young George grows up to become James Stewart, a young man, who dreams of leaving Bedford Falls, the town he grows up in. He dreams of traveling to different parts of the world, but circumstances force him to stay. George’s father who has been running the ‘Building and Loan’ company, is frequently threatened by the local bigwig Potter. Potter already owns most businesses in Bedford Falls and is irritated with George’s father for giving loans to the poor in the town to build their homes instead of renting apartments from Potter.

Time moves on - George gets married to his childhood sweetheart Mary, his brother goes to college and returns with a wife. George’s chance leave Bedford Falls increasingly becomes remote, especially after his father dies. George has children and is loved by the townspeople for his good nature. He is stuck with his father’s company.

One day, due to cruel twist of fate, George’s uncle loses the money that he was supposed to deposit in the bank, during a chance encounter with Potter inside the bank. The bank’s examiner and federal officials (called by Potter) reach George’s house assuming he has swindled people’s money. George is crestfallen and reaches out to Potter for help. Potter dismisses him off saying that the only thing that George has as collateral - his insurance policy, is worth nothing till he is alive.

George decides to commit suicide and it is at this point that Clarence comes into the picture (pun unintended!!). Clarence jumps inside the water instead and cries for help and George jumps in to save him. Later when both of them wait inside a cabin for the clothes to dry, Clarence tells him that he is an angel and that he had been sent by God to ensure that George does not throw away God’s greatest gift to him - his life. George, obviously thinks Clarence is crazy and refuses to believe him. He mocks him and asks him if Clarence can lend him the 8000 USD to save him instead. Clarence responds saying that they did not use money ‘up there’ and George answers with a smirk ‘I thought so. Well, it comes pretty handy down here!!’.

George then says bitterly that he wishes he had never been born and Clarence grants him that wish. George then gets a chance to see the lives of his family and friends without him in their lives. Harry dies in the accident, their mother becomes a bitter woman, their house becomes a lodge, his friend Violet becomes a prostitute, his wife turns to an old maid with no one to love her and the town is fully owned by Potter and is called Pottersville. George realizes his mistake and begs Clarence to take back his wish.

He rushes back home, happy to be alive. Meanwhile his wife, who has found out about the trouble, has already approached George’s friends, customers, neighbours etc. While the policemen wait to arrest George, the whole town walks in for the Christmas party and everybody contributes some money to bail George out. Seeing the amount of goodwill and love George has in the town, even the bank examiner and the policemen contribute! Clarence wins his wings due to the success of his mission.

Performances are uniformly good. James Stewart manages to look youthful and carefree in the first half of the movie and slowly transforms to the disappointed family man, with 4 kids, caught in the drudgery of a thankless business. Donna Reed as Mary Bailey is the sunshine of George’s life. It seems so believable that with love, even deserted mansions can be transformed to love and for all the beauty and fragility of Mary, you can easily see that she runs the house and keeps George motivated by being a pillar of strength.

If the movie belonged to an actor, I think that would be Lionel Barrymore, who plays Henry F Potter (not related to Harry Potter!!). Potter is one of the most interesting villain characters to be ever written. At the time I am writing this post, Potter ranks 6th in the list of Top 50 villains. Potter is greedy and nasty. His smile is enough to convince you that he is a fox in the garb of a man. All credit goes to Lionel Barrymore for portraying this character wonderfully.

It is very surprising but the movie was supposedly a failure when it released. Over the years, ‘It’s a Wonderful life’ has become a cult classic and a Christmas time favourite even after more than 60 years of its release!! And that says a lot about the movie!! Frank Capra is known for making feel-good movies with a message and most of them have been remade in many languages. Among his other movies are ‘It happened one night’ (copied by the original DVD ripper - Mahesh Bhatt, as ‘Dil Hai ki Manta Nahi’), ‘You can’t take it with you’, ‘Mr Smith goes to Washington’ (again starring a wonderfully naive James Stewart) etc.

In life and in movies, I prefer the approach that all people are basically good at heart and would not willfully cause harm to others. In the movie, apart from Potter’s character, which seems irredeemable, all the other characters are basically good at heart. Situations may make them mean or rude, but in their hearts they mean no harm.

Agreed, the message is obvious and the story not too realistic, but the strange thing is, every single time I watch this movie, I choke with emotion during the climax sequence, although I know exactly how George Bailey will be saved (Interestingly, my sister said there were tears in her eyes too during this sequence, so I am not weird!!). With so much negativity surrounding us in the form of news and entertainment, movies like ‘It’s a Wonderful life’ somehow reinforces my faith in mankind and makes me believe that, in spite of what media would like me to believe, there are more good people in the world than bad and that all good deeds always pay off!