Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life
The story is about a man named George Bailey who lives in a lovely small town. He lives a happy life by most accounts. He married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Donna Reed), has four sweet kids, dog, great job, and house on the hill. Everybody knows everybody in Bedford Falls. It’s a pretty sweet life. Although George has this—he’s always wanted out of Bedford Falls, but life got in the way and his good heart just wouldn’t let him leave. So George stayed in Bedford Falls. He sacrificed his education for his brother’s. Now that his father has passed and his brother Harry off to college, George had to take over the family owned savings and loan bank. He plugged away at the family business, he kept it a float, and safe from the greedy town banker Mr. Potter( Lionel Barrymore) . Mr. Potter is the town’s wealthiest man and if George’s bank closes, Mr. Potter will have total financial control of the town. George continuously sacrifices for the good of the other. He always stepped away from what he wanted just to make it all better for everyone else. He stayed at the bank and bailed it out many times, even giving up his honeymoon money one day when the bank needed it.
Years came and went and George kept on working and protecting the town from Mr. Potter’s grip. It is now Christmas Eve 1946 and George is bragging all over town about his brother’s WW II Medal of Honor. He is just so proud of his brother. His brother’s joy became his own. George asked his uncle Billy to make an $8000.00 deposit at the bank. Billy is distracted during an exchange of words with Mr. Potter. He accidentally puts the money in Potter’s newspaper. Potter finds it, but does not return it. Here is his chance to take the town over and destroy George Bailey. Billy and George try unsuccessfully to find the money. George becomes frantic. He will be charged with embezzlement and he will go to prison. He’d have to claim bankruptcy. He becomes angry and morose. He berates Billy and goes home. He is so angry when he gets home. He yells at everyone. He is just short and has harsh words with his wife Mary and leaves. He tries to get help from Potter who brushes him off. You can just see Mr. Potter’s joy party in his eyes over George’s misery. Potter taunts him and tells him he’s better off dead than alive.
George is at end of his rope–he just wants to die, end it all. He prays with an earnest heart, just cries out to God and God listens. George has always wanted to see exotic places and this is one ride he will never forget. God sends an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) to show George that his life is not insignificant, that his life has value. George is given another chance at life. He learns how life would’ve been without him on this earth. He learns how his life was a piece of a much bigger puzzle. If a puzzle is missing just one piece it just does not look good. He is given his life back and he didn’t care about the problems he had when he got there. He somehow knew it was all under control. He became joyful, loving, and grateful for everything. The moral of story–no matter what we are going through there is light at the end of tunnel. Our lives have value, and meaning.We are not as insignificant as we may think and life is truly wonderful. If you’ve not seen this one, you must.
