It's A Wonderful Life

Townhall.com ^ | December 19, 2013 | Paul Greenberg

[massgopguy]

Never heard of it.....

[Nifster]

I started to read this with trepidation but as I got further along I fully enjoyed this piece. A truly good analysis of It’s a Wonderful Life.

[Nifster]

You either never watch movies or are so young that you still are wet behind the ears. This is a great movie (though some on FR rail against it as being too sweet). If you haven’t seen it make an effort to. It will enrich your life

[Ditto]

"...where you end up marrying the girl you went to high school with..."

If she looks like Donna Reed, that's a damn good start for a Wonderful Life. :~))

[Mygirlsmom]

Saw this for the first time 20 years ago. I was pregnant with the twins and on total bedrest. MGD took our oldest to his parents’ house for Christmas eve, and I was all alone with my worry and discomfort, watching IAWL and crying my eyes out.

[sickoflibs]

I always like to skip to the end where Baily's uncle loses the money and Baily says to him :
“What did you do with the money you old Fool?”

Then he tells his kids to shut up.

Best part of movie is the end, the town that would have been.

[kosciusko51]

Check out massgopguy’s tagline...

[Nifster]

my bad…..I rarely read tag lines

[Gamecock]

“...where you end up marrying the girl you went to high school with...”

Shoot, I had to move half way across the country to find someone who would marry me.

[Spruce]

I am a HUGE Frank Capra fan. IAWL is a very typical Capra movie.

My personal favorite is Mr. Deeds goes to town starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. Coop was supposed to be in Mr. Deeds goes to Washington, but when that fell through and Jimmy Stewart took the lead role, they renamed it Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

[Pietro]

It's a funny thing, but while travel can enrich life it's not necessary for a rich life.

And while I'm sure (at least I've been told) that Europe is a marvelous place, where I live is also marvelous and the people here are as rich and deep and loving as anywhere else on the planet.

I sometimes wish that I had traveled more when I was young but in retrospect I wouldn't trade any of my actual experiences in this small, uncelebrated corner of the world.

I haven't missed a thing.

[wordsofearnest]

Always liked the SNL alternate ending where they kicked Potter’s a$$ and took the money back.

[JaguarXKE]

I own this movie in HD!

[Salvation]

Wonderful movie. Get it and treat your family to a movie at home this Christmas season.

[Sherman Logan]

You betcha!

I always though the phone conversation scene was one of the most erotic ever captured on film. Infinitely more so than the standard “roll around in the hay” scene almost every movie for the last 40 years appears to feel obligated to inflict on us.

[utahagen]

Plus, George Bailey's kids were still, well, kids at the end of the movie. Who is to say George and Mary Bailey wouldn't have traveled to Europe when the kids were grown?

[Buckeye McFrog]

In the town next-door a new store with a big street-facing window just opened up, selling naughty nighties and sex toys. Just in time for Christmas.

My first thought upon driving by was “I am in Pottersville”.

[El Cid]

I always had a soft spot for Mr. Potter - except for the last part where he basically stole the cash from the idiot Uncle (the idiot Uncle left the cash behind, but Mr. Potter knew who it belonged to, and just took it). Dude was basically just trying to make a buck. The Jimmy Stewart character was pushing airy-fairy kumbaya socialism. Works in fairy land, but not in a world made up of sinful men.

[Nepeta]

To him, it showed only that, while life can be "an enriching Norman Rockwell experience, it also can be smothering, where you end up marrying the girl you went to high school with, and you never get to go to Europe. ... It tells us George is one of the most sad and lonely and tragic characters ever imagined. I cry when I see it."

O, what a life George Bailey could have had, going to Europe and maybe beyond to Nepal, maybe some recreational drugs, maybe some boyfriends to expand his relational horizons and explore himself...