Wonderful! (It's A Wonderful Life (DVD))

Member Name: xBorgx

Product:	It's A Wonderful Life (DVD)
Date:	04/10/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One of the best feel-good films out there

Disadvantages: None

'Every time a bell rings an angel gains his wings...'

And every so often there comes along a truly great film. A film that you can watch over and over, a film that leaves you feeling good, feeling that you have watched something worthwhile and entertaining. It's a Wonderful Life falls slap bang in the middle of that category. It truly is a 'wonderful film.' Over fifty years old now, it still holds its magic, it is embedded in the very fabric of its being. It oozes the 'feel good factor,' it creates tears of sentimental joy for its viewers. It is a great, great film. It stars one of cinema's best-loved actors, and is directed by one of its best directors.

I could not believe a friend at work recently told me had never seen it! It's like someone never having see Wizard of Oz...

George Bailey, played by James Stewart, is thinking about suicide. Everything that could go wrong seems to have gone wrong and he is 'worth more dead than alive,' according to his archenemy Mr Potter, the richest man in town. Clarence, his guardian angel is sent down to earth to 'gain his wings' by talking George out of suicide. George, obviously, does not believe he is an angel and says that it would be better if he had never been born. Clarence then goes on to show him a world in which George Bailey was never born...

Warning, there might be odd spoiler here...

This world he shows him is a world in which his brother dies at eleven because George was not there to save his life. His ex boss goes to prison for twenty years because George was not there to notice that the chemist (through the anguish of losing his son) has given the wrong tablets to a child and the child has subsequently died. He would not be there to take over the family business, a loans company and take on the aforementioned Mr Potter, a miserable old rich man who wanted to own everything. Most of all, he would not be around to marry Mary (played by Donna Reed) and have four children.

The thing about It's a Wonderful Life is that George Bailey does not actually know how much of a wonderful life he does have, and how he is loved by most of the town. It takes showing him what life would be without him, for him to appreciate it. From an early age, George wanted to travel the world, and have adventures, but he kept being 'tied' to his life... when his father died, when his brother got married... He felt he did not have such a good life, but he was wrong.


This is a well told cinematic tale, well acted and directed. It still looks good and it still looks fresh...

Date of release: 1946

Running time: 130 mins
Country: USA
Directed by Frank Capra
Also Starring:
Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter
Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy
Henry Travers as Clarence Oddbody
Beulah Bondi as Ma Bailey
Frank Faylen as Ernie Bishop, Taxi Driver
Ward Bond as Officer Bert
Gloria Grahame as Violet Bick

Thanks for reading...

First written for Ciao UK by me in a slightly different format, as Borg...

Summary: It's a wonderful film...