Frank Capra’s
It’s An Wonderful Life
Monkey Su, Monica Wang, Eleanor Chang
Review
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http://www.angryalien.com/1204/wonderful_lif
ebuns.asp
Historical Background
-World War II
1939~1945
-Distribution
1946
Setting
Clues
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Harry was born in 1911 (we could see this
on the grave of Harry in George’s nightmare)
World War II broke out (1939)
Harry got a Medal of Honor for his exploit
during the war, and came back to Bedford
Falls after WWII had finished(1945).
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James Stewart also enlisted as an air
force during WWII. “It’s a Wonderful Life”
was his first movie after the war. For
Stewart, also recently back in civilian
clothes, the movie was a chance to work
again with Capra, for whom he had
played Mr. Smith.
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Building and loan
Men came from War, and they needed
money to re-build their life. Banks (like
Potter’s) reaped profits from the high
interests.
(Building and loan was similar to “互助會”
in Taiwan.)
Distribution
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It was actually a box-office flop at the time of
its release, and only became the Christmas
movie classic in the 1970s due to repeated
television showings at Christmas-time when
its copyright protection slipped and it fell into
the public domain and TV stations could air it
for free.
Director
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Frank Capra (1897~1991),
Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy
Capra was nominated six
times for Best Director
Oscars, and took home
three of the statuettes over
the course of his career.
Only John Ford ever
bettered this record-- he
won four.
Director
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Capra never quite believed in his own
accomplishments, and in his Catholic way seemed
to suffer most when he was most praised. After a
record critical and commercial success with It
Happened One Night and Broadway Bill (both
1934), Capra had a breakdown that required lengthy
hospitalization. His life and career were marked by
both milestones — helping start the Directors Guild,
transforming Columbia Pictures from poverty row to
major studio — and catastrophes. Among the latter
were serious bouts of depression, nagging guilt over
being wealthy when the rest of society was suffering,
and being investigated as a communist by HUAC.
Director
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Before World War II, Capra’s personal demons were largely held at
bay by a kind of natural buoyancy and a gratitude for what he
believed America had done for him. During the war he made a
series of propaganda films called collectively Why We Fight and in
the process had to examine reams of unedited atrocity footage shot
by the allies. These images seemed to bring Capra’s anxieties to the
fore in his first postwar film, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). This grim
portrait of small-town America enslaved by its capitalist masters is
as black as any film noir, and redemption is no longer possible
through the initiative of a single principled individual, as it had been
in the earlier films. Only supernatural intervention — in this case, an
angel — could save Capra's fantasy of small-town America and his
beloved "little man" George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) from killing
himself.
(http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/23/capra.html)
Director
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As James Agee put it in a review in 1947,
"Capra’s chief mistake or sin," and he called
it that, "was his refusal to face the fact that
evil is intrinsic in each individual and that no
man may deliver his brother or make an
agreement unto God for him."
(http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol2no1/Carter2.html)
Crushing a Classic It's a Wonderful Life
--MaryAnn Johanson
Its two main characters -- George Bailey and
Mr. Potter -- are stereotypes, respectively, of
the poor, eternally put-upon ordinary guy and
the mean-spirited, rich old bastard. The
conflicts the film sets up couldn't be more
black-and-white.
George Bailey may think the deck is heavily
stacked against him his entire life, but the
audience can see that it isn't. Sure, everything
that can possibly go wrong for poor George
does -- he's forced to skip his long-planned
summer in Europe, ends up passing up his
dreamed-of college career, doesn't get to have
an exciting time during WWII like the other
men in his town do (and how likely is that?),
and even has to cancel his honeymoon. But
he does it all in the cause of the eternal battle
his family -- which runs the local building and
loan society, serving the working-class people
of Bedford Falls.
... but something about this has
always bothered me, too, and I've just
realized what it is: George deferred
and eventually lost all his dreams in
order to help other people fulfill their
dreams. A noble cause, surely, and
helping others is certainly something
we should all be doing... to an extent.
But who's going to help poor George
realize his dreams?
It bothers me, too, that Potter -- whose
sneaky act is finally what drives George
to suicide -- gets no comeuppance and
suffers no consequences as a result of
his contemptible act. Sure, we're
supposed to see Potter as a loser
because he has no friends -- unlike
George, beloved by the entire town -but Potter seems quite happy with
himself.
(http://www.flickfilosopher.com/christmas/flicks/wonderfullife
.shtml)
Something More Than
Night
tales of the noir city
Frank Krutnik
Film Noir
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Hollywood Thrillers of 1940s and early 1950s.
Individual in the Noir City which is a shadow
realm of Crime and Dislocation
Fears of the Second World War.
Stylistic features and urban atmosphere (P.83)
Film Noir
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City is a Threat to American Community.
Small Town won’t be a redemptive alternative.
City of Strangers may hold attractions barred
from the restricted orbit of small-town
America. (p.88)
Abysmal City in It’s a Wonderful Life
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A Hybrid of Supernatural Fantasy, drama and
comedy.
If George has never been born, the city will
be a nightmare version of America- a vision
of Noir City.
Bedford Fall－George
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A Folk Community
Building ＆Loan
Thomas Jefferson’s Pastoral Ideal.
Criticism- retreats from their passionate
engagement.
Pottersville－Capitalist Potter
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Dominated by the commercialized Leisure
Riot of Neon and Jazz. Burlesque halls, Dance Joints,
Pawnbroker’s Stores, Numerous Bars.)(p.85)
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Corrupt City is just like the Crippled Potter.
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The horror of Pottersville comes not simply from the
transformation of those George knows but form the
Dislocation of his own Identity.
(A
Cynicism-conversion-faith
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Prewar- conflict between the hero and the modern
city is mediated through his relationship with an
urban career-woman. The women’s trajectory
crystallizes the general process through which the
hero restores faith and integrity to an urban world
under the sway of cynicism , exploitation and
corruption.
Wonderful Life- central female characters play
more passive supporting roles and vital male-female
contest of Capra’s prewar films is replaced with a
conflict that takes place within the male protagonist.
Christmas
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Rebirth
Sanctifying the small-town and the
individual’s place within it.
R. Dyer’s “Entertainment and Utopia” from
Only Entertainment. The idea of “escape” and
“wish-fulfillment”
Entertainment and Utopia
Social Tension/
inadequacy/absence
 Scarcity
 Exhaustion
 Dreariness
 Manipulation
 Fragmentation
Utopia Solution
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Abundance
Energy (Pastoral Return)
Intensity (drama)
Transparency (Nature)
Community
It’s A Wonderful Life and The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
It’s A Wonderful Life
Three Basic Oppositions Central
To American Culture In General:
Adventure
Domesticity
Individual
Community
Worldly
Success
Ordinary
Life
Adventure vs. Domesticity
Columbus
Eric Ericson
Tocqueville
The truly subversive point about
It’s A Wonderful Life
Romantic Inspirations On a
World That It Does Not Apply
Tom Sawyer = George Bailey
It’s A Wonderful Life’s connection
with Mark Twain
Taxi Driver
Individual vs. Community
Attacking Classical Hollywood Myth
Costs of Helping Others
Classical Hollywood Solution
America In WWII
Worldly Success vs. Ordinary Life
America Attitude Toward Success
Potter, Wainwright, George
Baseness of Worldly Success &
Desperation of Ordinary Unsuccessful Life
Paradoxical Nature of Democracy
George’s fear leads to Suicide
The Overt Intent of
It’s A Wonderful
Life
Reaffirm The America Dream
*Wedding Night Surprise
*Saving Building & Loan
*George’s House
The Vision
Solves the individual-community
contradiction
Solves the adventure-domesticity
contradiction
Solves the Worldly SuccessOrdinary Life contradiction
Anxieties Unsolved
1. Potter Left Unpunished
2. George’s Extraordinariness
3. Money & Friendship
4. Narrow Escape