A Defense of It’s a Wonderful Life

I always dismissed Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life as schmaltz until I married a woman who considered it her favorite movie. She made me watch it with her one Christmas, and I realized that I had always missed the first two-thirds of the movie. For years, I would stumble upon the movie while flipping channels and inevitably hit the final act only, usually about the time George Bailey meets his guardian angel Clarence. 

I missed so many wonderful scenes that make the final act so meaningful. I never saw George Bailey growing up and falling in love with Mary Hatch. I missed the scene where a young George prevents his grieving pharmacist boss from accidentally poisoning customers. I’d missed the school dance where everyone falls in the pool. I missed George offering to lasso the moon for Mary. I missed the run on Bailey Savings and Loan where at the end of the day they are able to remain in business, because they still had “Momma dollar and Papa dollar.” I even missed mean old Mr. Potter absconding with the deposit left by George’s absentminded uncle.

Most of all, I missed the scene where George confesses his love for Mary, perhaps one of the most romantic scenes ever put on film. George has just broken things off with Mary, because he is finally going to leave boring Bedford Falls to travel the world when a phone call comes from Sam Wainwright. Standing inches from one another, they listen to Sam offering George a job that’s a “chance of a lifetime.”  Standing so close to Mary can’t resist confessing his love for her in a somewhat alarming way. He grabs Mary's shoulders and shakes her yelling, “I don’t want to get married to anyone! I want to do what I want to do!” Then he embraces her and kisses her fiercely revealing whatever the words coming out of his mouth he really wants a life with Mary. Mary is his “chance of a lifetime.’

The scene when George declares his intentions of leaving Bedford Falls while at the same time proving through his actions his love for Mary epitomizes George’s struggle. George’s inner conflict causes his existential crisis later in the film. He ends up wishing he had never been born and therefore provokes Clarence the angel’s experiment to show George what the world would be like without him. This inner dilemma is why the film, despite its dismal box office performance, would become a classic decades later. Who hasn’t wrestled with the conflict between the life one dreams about and the life one actually possesses? Which of us hasn’t acted for good or for ill in contrast to our stated convictions? The road not taken always seems more glamorous in moments of struggle, because it remains a fantasy unblemished by the difficulties of living this life.

One doesn’t have to look hard to find criticisms and dismissals of It’s a Wonderful Life. I always wonder when I read such opinions if the critic has only seen part of the movie, as I once had. Sure the movie is super White and Bedford Falls may look boring compared to the nightlife of Potterville and the happy ending lacks the gravitas of tragedies, but I declare that the reason this movie remains a classic is because it is far deeper than the Hallmark Christmas movies and their copycats so popular today. For all that George Bailey does to help his neighbors in Bedford Falls, he is a deeply conflicted and flawed character. He acts in noble and selfless ways, yet takes no joy in his existence, always resenting missed opportunities and the weight of responsibility. It takes supernatural intervention for him to begin to find inner peace.

One recent negative review of the film stated that it was all about individualism and presents an inflated idea of its protagonist’s influence. I disagree. In his years supporting housing for immigrants and working class families George fends off the predations of Mr. Potter. He has worked to help his whole community prosper. Yet, this giving is not a one way street. In the end, George who has been the bestower of grace to his community is saved by the grace of his community as they all bail out his failing Savings and Loan. The giver becomes the recipient. The film’s protagonist is redeemed by the community around him. He achieves a semblance of inner peace when he discovers the richness of his relationships.

I propose that we love stories like It’s a Wonderful Life for the same reason we love all good stories. They reveal to us our need for interconnection and relationship. Our illusions of being self-made or fully self-sufficient are just that, illusions. This is why we need to retell the nativity story each year. We need reminding that we do not exist unto ourselves but rather as a part of a vast fabric of creation with our Creator, who doesn’t stand off from us but comes near to us as Emanuel, God with us. We hold onto the image of the nativity–parents gathered around a child, witnesses from the community who are present despite their lowly status and stable animals standing in for all creation–because it points us towards the deepest need we have–connection with others. 

George Bailey believed he was an adventurer set to travel the world in heroic solitude, but he discovered the joy found in relationships of mutual care. When we discover the gift of relationship and community, we see that it really is a wonderful life.

Grace and Peace,

Chase