Get me, I'm givin' out wings!

All right you Pixies....

The movie Its a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra remains as the “Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World…of Holiday movies!”. My favorite for sure!

 At the heart of the film lies the conflict between the desires of the heart and the needs of the common good. George Bailey struggles throughout the picture with an irreconcilable conflict within himself.

Throughout most of the film we see an extended flashback of George’s life, in which George’s guardian angel named Clarence Oddbody  “AS2” (Angle Second Class) is shown a review of George's life as the head of a small-town building and loan.

We (along with Clarence) are shown the key moments in George's life, moments when he had to make important choices about family, friends, and career. We soon see that in spite of his desire to escape Bedford Falls, George has chosen to stay in town so he can run the lending institution founded by his father Peter. We see his dreams of college, travel, exploration and a professional life in the big city fall by the wayside. We see George fall in love and he gets married to Mary Hatch and starts a family.

The review takes a grim turn when, on the day before Christmas, a careless mistake on the part of George’s absent-minded uncle Billy, threatens to wipe out the Building and Loan and give “Old Man Potter” complete control of the town. George is on the brink of total despair. Thoughts of scandal and incarceration fill his mind.

Believing that he has failed as a husband, father and businessman, George heads to Martini’s Bar for a drink. It’s there that his woes continue. While grasping his glass of Bourbon, George gets popped in the mouth by his child’s school teacher’s husband. George leaves the bar and heads toward the local toll bridge.

George has been pushed to his breaking point.  As he stands on the bridge and stares down at the raging waters below, you can see it in his body language that he is contemplating suicide on this Christmas Eve...

God decides to step in and send Clarence the angel to prevent George from jumping off the bridge. Clarence (“I’m the answer to your prayers”) lets George see and experience what Bedford Falls would be like without him.

George sees that without him, Bedford Falls, renamed Pottersville, becomes an urban hell of mean little people including George's embittered mother and the wife he never married. Loud music, night clubs and riots. The picturesque Bedford Falls becomes a dark, rough and tumble place.

At the end of his conversion experience, George returns to the bridge again. This time to seek forgiveness for thoughts of suicide crying out “I want to live again”.   Well, the snow begins to fall (again) and George is back to reality. Now he joyfully runs home (to face his cross) where he is met by the warmth and affection of family and friends, who will together have pooled their resources to save the Bailey Building and Loan from insolvency. The hero's wry smile at the close of the movie and his wink to the audience signify that he has seen, understood, and accepted life in all its glory and imperfection. He knows that God is there no matter how bad it gets.

Frank Capra (a Catholic) called It's a Wonderful Life the greatest film he had ever made: "A film to tell the weary, the disheartened, and the disillusioned; the wino, the junkie, the prostitute; those behind prison walls and those behind Iron Curtains that no man is a failure! To show those born slow of foot or slow of mind, those oldest sisters condemned to spinsterhood, and those oldest sons condemned to unschooled toil, that each man's life touches so many other lives. And that if he isn't around it would leave an awful hole."

During this Christmas season, know that the tiniest, planned as well as random acts of kindness and charity that we perform touches someone’s life in a profound way. You never know when you just might be the answer to someone’s prayers.

We are all familiar with the notation to George in Clarence’s copy of Tom Sawyer at the end of the movie: "Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence." A true statement indeed! However, I offer you this: there is a sign that hangs under a picture of Peter Bailey in George’s office that can only be seen in the background. You only get a glimpse of it when George is in the office with Violet Bick. The sign reads, “You can’t take anything with you except what you give away.”

Dominus vobiscum!

KN

PS: In 2005 Daniel Sullivan wrote a nice piece on this wonderful film you can follow the link below to read it in its entirety. 

Sentimental Hogwash? On Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life

Daniel J. Sullivan - The Catholic University of America

http://www.nhinet.org/sullivan18-1&2.pdf