Don't you ever get tired
of just reading about things?
— Violet Bick to George Bailey in
It's
a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life,
a 1946 film starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, is one of the most
popular movies of all time. Because it focuses on the events of one
Christmas Eve in the fictional town of Bedford Falls, it is a holiday
classic and is shown endlessly during the Christmas season. The movie
is so beloved that it even has its own
webring
made up of fan sites devoted to it, including one maintained by
Karolyn Grimes,
the actress who, at six, played ZuZu Bailey, the main character's
youngest child.
Unlike the members of that ring (and most others in the country, it
seems), until today I had never seen the movie all the way through from
beginning to end. I'd seen parts of it from time to time as I worked in
the kitchen on my party preparations, and I'd seen clips of it on talk
show segments that featured analysis of its message. My experience of
it was like my experience of a lot of "classics" such as
Ulysses or
The Ring of the Niebelung. I knew
a lot
about it but I had never
experienced it first hand.
I checked it out of the library a few days ago and late this afternoon,
after our Christmas dinner was over and my mother-in-law had been
returned to her residence, I sat down with a glass of white wine to see
what people mean when they call this movie an important cultural
experience.
The movie tells the story of George Bailey, a man who has always risen
to duty. At twelve he saved his brother's life in a sledding accident
and forestalled a tragedy by intercepting a prescription he knew the
distracted druggist had prepared improperly. He postponed college to
earn money for that same brother's education, and then abandoned his
plans entirely in order to save the family business, a faltering
savings and loan association, after his father's sudden death. He fends
off the takeover advances of an Evil Rich Banker, helps working people
get out of tenements and into their own modest homes, and supports some
townspeople hurt by the Depression. He marries his high school
sweetheart and establishes a picture-perfect family of four children.
But one Christmas Eve he is suddenly faced with a seemingly
insurmountable financial loss caused by his uncle's carelessness. He
feels personally responsible for covering the shortage and despairs
when it looks as if he can't, even after begging for help from the Evil
Rich Banker. He sinks into despair, believes it would be better if he
had never been born, and decides to kill himself. He is saved from this
action by an angel who shows him what the world would have been like
without him — no brother to grow up into a war hero, no community of
neat homes for people who would otherwise have none, no beautiful
children to be the hope of the future. George sees the light,
understands that he has within himself the capacity to rise to the
challenges he faces, and returns home to find that the people who love
him are rallying around him.
The movie is everything its adoring fans say it is. It celebrates
traditional values and treats important themes such as hope and the
need for personal responsibility. But . . .
I didn't like it. Although I appreciate those values and themes, I
thought the presentation was corny and heavy-handed. I was especially
put off by the despairing George, who becomes so abusive to his family
that I felt frightened and uncomfortable during the scene where he is
yelling at the children. Every character was either all good or all bad
(and George, of course, was both of those things at once). And I
wondered about the loose ends, in particular the disposition of the
missing money, which the Evil Rich Banker is concealing under his lap
robe as he tells George there is nothing he can do for him. The day is
saved for George, but shouldn't the ERB also be shown getting his
comeuppance for his dishonesty? In short, in terms of its emotional
impact on me, it's no
Amahl and
definitely no
Dragnet
Christmas episode.
I'm glad I've seen the movie in its entirety now. I probably won't make
an effort to see it in full again. I will, however, remember one
particular scene that is probably not important to the film's many
fans. When George Bailey once again foregoes his own plans to see the
world and instead remains with the family business in Bedford Falls so
that his brother can join a new venture, he is shown looking wistfully
at a handful of travel brochures which he then discards. Later at the
library he runs into Violet Bick, the town temptress who has never let
caution or duty get in the way of her personal pleasure. She looks at
the books he is carrying and says, "Don't you ever get tired of just
reading about things?"
Thirty years ago I was in the same state of despair that George Bailey
faced. I wondered if my life meant anything and was certain that the
world would not miss me if I disappeared from it. Something — an angel,
somebody's prayer for me, maybe just dumb luck — stayed my hand and I
didn't just endure the darkness, I prevailed against it.
And I've had a wonderful life. I've been dreaming about Wyoming since I
was ten. I'm about to embark on six months of reading about it. And
then I'm going.
