The New York Times recently offered a different perspective on the holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life:
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.
Read full article here: Wonderful? Sorry, George, It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life
I found this article via Metafilter, where users started snarking against the movie. In the Metafilter comments, a user named Miko writes a great summary of the movie’s message:
Anyone who thinks of “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a one-level, heartwarming Christmas feelgood movie has the wrong expectations – or just isn’t thinking about it. The author’s observations are obvious in the film; they’re the setup. George is a young man with dreams, but his sense of responsibility – overdeveloped, probably – and the needs of others make him sacrifice his dreams. There’s no smarmy sense that obviously one needs to sacrifice one’s dreams for the well-being of others; portraying that shallowly is what Hallmark Christmas Specials do. Instead, the sacrifice is slow, anguished, an excruciating death by a thousand cuts. Capra meant the viewers to notice, and be pained, every time George receives another disappointment… Capra wasn’t hiding this from the viewer.
…The heartwarming part is that George is able to make a conscious decision to accept the price. Can you say the same? When George decides not to die, he realizes the life he’s been despairing at – with the loud annoying kids, the dilapidated house, the “broken-down old building and loan,” the deferred dreams – is actually a pretty good, in fact damned lucky life. People love him; he has resources he never bothered to assess; his life has meaning. If you have never felt that way, suddenly profoundly appreciative of the basic goodnesses in your own life, I’d wager you’ve never yet nearly lost your life. Because that is exactly how a person feels when you realize that your day-to-day stresses and strains and disappointments and bothersome entanglements are not in the way of you living your life; they are your life. The fact that you never got to become and engineer and see the oilfields of Venezuelas, or whatever it is for you, tends to fall dramatically in relative importance.
The movie is dark and depressing for a reason. This is a challenging message, one a lot of people really don’t want to hear, and yet it turns out to be pretty true in most lives.
Miko’s last sentence sums up the reason why It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie of all time. There are challenges and difficulties, failed dreams and changed plans, but after all that, it is a wonderful life.
