Flick of The Day: It's a Wonderful Life

It is you know. What can be said about this film that hasn't been said already? This is the film that invented feel good cinema. Its directed by the masterful Frank Capra and stars the every-man James Stewart playing the every-man George Bailey.

A commercial failure upon its release in 1946, this was the film that marked the end of Frank Capra's long run as the director of choice for populist features. It was only after it became a staple of the Christmas TV schedule that this film came to be seen as the classic that it is to the surprise of all including its director who told the Wall Street Journal in 1984:

"It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen, the film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I'm like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I'm proud"

It is a classic tale of redemption. The film opens on Christmas Eve, George Bailey, a man whom we know nothing about is in trouble, on the brink of suicide. The voice in the sky sends a guardian angel to earth to save George and show him the value of his life, but before he can be dispatched to earth, he needs to know George. So unfolds the life story of George and how he came to his moment of doubt and pain upon a wintry Christmas Eve. 

James Stewart inhabits the role of George so completely, giving his downfall such pathos that you cannot but be moved by his tale. At all the key moments in George's life which we witness during the film, be it saving his brother from a frozen lake, or staying at home to run the family business after his fathers death, George does the right thing. He does the moral thing and selflessly gives up his own dreams and aspirations to do the right thing. A man who wanted to travel the world in the search for adventure, he spends his whole life in the same small town. You would be a hard person not to feel sympathy for him. It is something which we all struggle with, squaring the needs of friends and family with your own personal ambition, perhaps the most difficult of tasks.

Of course, being the good son or daughter, sometimes it doesn't lead you to where you want to be. It just leaves you unfulfilled. So it is that George finds himself on Christmas Eve on the brink of suicide before he is made to see the happiness he has brought to other people and the value of his life in the good he has done.

Most importantly, all of the people who he helped along the road of life are there for him at the end. Maybe that is the greatest gift of all.

Featuring a superb supporting cast including the incomparable Lionel Barrymore as the evil old Mr Potter, George Bailey's arch nemesis, this is one of the finest films of all time. Christmas just wouldn't be the same without it and the ending will put a smile on anyone's face and give you faith in your fellow man. It is often forgotten how dark it gets before the redemption. George bitterly wishing he wasn't born and then being granted that wish. The darkest hour is before the dawn though and the emotional pay-off is worth it.

It is a wonderful life...most of the time.

The Daily Flick will return in the New Year. Have a Merry Christmas!