It's A Wonderful Life
Storytellers symbolically reference the changes in the weather and the seasons of the year to support their story lines. Rain accompanies bad news, spring brings romance, and winter sets the stage for loneliness or loss.
The holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, begins and ends in winter, but like winter celebrations it brings enlightenment, hope and charity to a man living through the darkest day of his life in the small town of Bedford Falls.
George Bailey (James Stewart) has led an unglamorous, yet honest life as loving husband and father, executive secretary of his late father’s building and loan company and good neighbor.
Having sacrificed his dreams and struggled financially all his life George has learned that a bit of bad luck has put him in serious threat of bankruptcy, scandal and jail. His only asset is the cash value on his life insurance policy, and that isn’t enough to save him. George is worth more dead than alive - or so he thinks.
So on a dark and snowy night, George stands on a bridge, looking down at the river, and contemplates jumping.
George’s family and friends have been sending prayers and good wishes for George’s deliverance. As a result, George has been sent a guardian angel. Clarence is a second-class angel and must guide George through this crisis in order to earn his wings. But first he must review the life and character of this man in order to understand the actions he must take to help George.
The flashback begins with young George and his friends snow sledding down a small hill and onto a frozen pond. When Harry, George’s little brother, slides onto thin ice and falls through, George jumps into the icy water and saves him. Consequently, George gets an ear infection and loses the hearing in his left ear.
This incident sums up George’s lifelong character and bad luck. With no thought to his own welfare, he selflessly jumps to help another but, as a result, suffers a loss that he endures for the rest of his life.
George has a dream to see the world, become an engineer, design cities and build bridges. But just as he is preparing to leave town to see a bit of the world and begin college, his father suffers a stroke and dies.
The year is 1928, the year before the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), the town scrooge, makes a motion at the building and loan stockholders’ meeting to turn over the company’s assets and liabilities to a receiver and dissolve the company. Mr. Potter has been trying to get his hands on the business for years.
Peter Bailey was a 'man of high ideals.' He gave loans to people who had been turned down by Potter’s bank, working-class people who would never have bought their modest houses if they had had to continue living in Potter’s slums and save for a home of their own.
When one of them couldn’t pay the mortgage because of an emergency or job loss, Mr. Bailey gave them an extension on their due date. Mr. Potter’s advice to Mr. Bailey had been to foreclose on these people.
In this scene we see the difference between the businessman who works for the good of the people and the one who works to maximize his profits at the expense of the people. The Baileys recognized that the cab driver was as responsible and as deserving as the more prosperous citizen.
George, who has been working with his father and saving his money for college, makes a passionate plea for the townspeople. The shareholders agree that if George will take over control of the company, they will not shut it down.
George stays behind and gives the money he had saved to Harry so that he can begin college. Harry agrees to relieve George at the building and loan after he graduates. But that plan doesn’t work out either.
Mary (Donna Reed) returns from college, and although her mother wants her to marry another young man with brighter prospects, she is in love with George. It takes George a little time to realize that he is in love with Mary, but when he does they soon marry. They plan to spend a week in New York City and another week in the Caribbean for their honeymoon.
But as they are leaving for the train station, they see a commotion at Mr. Potter’s bank. The Great Depression has caused a run on the banks, everyone is afraid the banks will fail and they will lose the money in their accounts. George hurries to the building and loan company. Mr. Potter has called in their loan, leaving them with no funds. There’s a crowd of townspeople gathered demanding payment for their shares in the company.
Mr. Potter offers to buy the people’s shares in the Bailey Building and Loan for half their value. George explains that this is Mr. Potter’s way of closing his company, the town’s last stand against this ruthless man’s greed. He reminds them of their high rent while living in Potter’s shacks and how the building and loan company extended their due dates when they were unable to make their payments on time. But the people need some cash now, and all the banks except Mr. Potter’s have closed.
Mary comes to the rescue. She offers the honeymoon fund, and without a second thought, George gives the people what they need to tide them over during this time of uncertainty and fear.
Now Clarence has the information he needs to save George. Appealing to George’s sense of selflessness he saves George from the river - only to hear him say that he wishes he had never been born. So Clarence takes George to the make-believe world of Bedford Falls where George Bailey was never born. It isn’t a pretty sight.
It’s a town filled with venues of vice where people can numb their senses, find a few moments of unwholesome fun and escape their sorrows and dilapidated dwellings.
But George had lived. He had helped many people and he had made many friends. With his latest setback it is George who needs help. And the townspeople are there to repay the good fortune they received from George.
Like his father, George Bailey believed that lending a helping hand to the working class and having faith that they would use the help to become the best they could be, was the right thing to do, for the people and for the prosperity of the town. George remarked that his father was richer than Mr. Potter would ever be. The same could be said of George.
There were small victories, celebrations, and tender moments woven through all the cloudy days of George’s life. For a short while George mislaid those memories. Everyone gets discouraged at times. George needed a gentle soul to walk along with him and help him remember. And because of that help an angel named Clarence earned his wings.
It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role, James Stewart and Best Director, Frank Capra. It’s a heartwarming tale full of good cheer, warm friendship, the occasional chuckle, and the remembrance of that which is wonderful in life, just what is needed for a joyful winter celebration.
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