In "It's a Wonderful Life" Frank Capra was not predicting that Bedford Falls would become Potterville. He saw that the process was well underway across America.
Wonderful essay about a “wonderful” movie! No matter how many times I watch it, three or four times during every Christmas season, I still cry at the end. I also cry in the scene at Mr. Gower’s drugstore. And that leads me to the point of my comment. I see Mr. Davis already noted that Gower’s son Robert died of the flu. The year was 1919, after all, during the terrible pandemic. I don’t know if Gower had any other children, though. And I don’t want to cavil, but only little Mary Hatch was still at the counter when Gower started slapping George. Vi had gotten her candy (2 cents worth of shoelaces) and already left the drugstore. I always tell my nieces and nephews that’s how local drugstores used to be: with a counter for milkshakes, sundaes, ice cream, and even short order food. I don’t think I’ve seen one like that in about 30 years. Last thought: George kept his word and never told anyone about what Mr. Gower did, not even Mary. All the best. P.S. I love the movie recommendations. Keep them coming!
What a wonderful article about a splendid film! I especially appreciate this insight: "Its message is not simply that every life is important, but that what makes my life important, in the long view, in the providential view, is almost always what the world considers silly, small-town, no-account, trivial—a waste." In this respect, I can't help but note a strong similarity between "It's a Wonderful Life" and Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town"- another story in which characters sacrifice certain worldly ambitions for another good (e.g.- George forgoing agricultural college to stay in Grover's Corners and marry the girl-next-door who has always loved him, or Mrs. Gibbs sacrificing the money for a Paris trip to leave a bequest to her son and daughter-in-law). And, of course, after Emily has died in the Third Act, she doesn't repine over the circumstances that kept her in the same small town all her life; she laments that she didn't see the full value of the quotidian details of her life while she was still alive. I think it's the same sort of realization in George Bailey which leads him to kiss, in sheer gratitude, the very newel which used to vex him. Many Thanks for your as-ever thought-provoking commentary!
This is a perfect commentary on this most beloved movie. I had not thought it possible to go deeper. It seemed awful that Frank Capra let this movie go out of copyright (due to some career and financial failures). But now realize that it was because of this the movie was shown so often it became universal and reached so many more people. God was helping Capra in that as well.
A fine essay on a great movie. The Hungarian emigre historian John Lukac observed with alarm late 20 th century Americans have a destructive tendency to move from one place to another, not to build communities. On A happy note. My brother saw this movie 30 years ago at the UVA film festival. Before the screening Jimmy Stewart spoke. My brother had gotten the only seat left when he arrived late, on a lonesome couch in the front. After speaking Mr Stewart walked off the stage and sat on the couch next to him. As the lights dimmed, he turned to my brother and said, “This is my favorite movie.”
"The old man receives a telegram from the army notifying him that his son has died in battle, and he quietly drinks himself into a stupor in the back room."
My recollection is both his sons died of the Spanish flu.
When I was teaching high school math to seniors, I used to ask them what they wanted to do after they graduated. In almost all instances it was something big: I want to try out for the NBA, be an entertainer, musician, newscaster, big-shot CEO. When I would point out, for example, that even if you had the talent and industry of the legendary Michael Jordan, your chance of making it big in the NBA were still slim to none, (so what's your Plan B?) I would get looks of incomprehension even resentment as I were standing in the way of their progress. This was especially true for the girls almost all of whom responded with this career or that. If I asked them, "well what about being a wife, mother and homemaker?" the best response I got was "Well, maybe that too...someday." Being a big maybe and someday being remote enough to set aside any serious consideration.
I don't exempt myself from this grandiosity. Even at 73 I still dream of being a world-class watchmaker and often find myself embarrassingly envious of those much younger men who have the talent and the time--neither of which I have in abundance--to make it a feasible objective. I am not as content as I should be to run a small watch and clock shop in my town performing humble tasks like replacing batteries, adjusting bands and bracelets and occasionally servicing somebody's grandfather's pocket watch. It is often the case that people show a lot of gratitude when they get their timepieces back in working order. "What a fool I am!" when this happens and I am once again reminded of my vanity. That is why the words, "God wanted him instead to be a fair-to-middling businessman in a small town" came straight home as I read it. I resolve again to offer my labors to the Lord and to my neighbor! Thanks so much for your words.
The hero of Its a Wonderful Life is really Donna Reed's character. When things get bleak for George she steps in at different points. Is it a coincidence that her character is named "Mary?" Folks like Chesterton argue that western civilization is based upon respect for femininity and motherhood. And the Virgin Mary is likely the most celebrated human being in the history of the world. What does she represent? Peter Kreeft has a whole book on why Mary should be considered the greatest philosopher and the great Freudian/Catholic convert Karl Stern argues western civilization has gotten off track by the retreat from the "feminine" to balance the "masculine" that focuses on the technical. The feminine is grounded upon the example of the Blessed Virgin and stands for creating and nurturing life -- and philosophically for the recognition that the most important things in life can't be quantified empirically by limited human creatures. Both Marxism and "Mr. Potter" both stand for the primacy of the material/financial over the human. They both discount and ignore the "main" thing -- the importance of family and children and human relationships that can't be quantified. (Harvard published an 85-year long study last year that concluded (shockingly) that happiness comes from human relationships. Most folks in history didn't need empirical evidence for what is the obvious). Jimmy Stewart is thinking about ending it because he forgets that very point in the middle of the crisis that is thrust upon him by Potter. "Masculine" professions and economic success only make sense in support of the family (i.e. the feminine.) "Mary" is really the one at war with Potter in the movie and ultimately wins. But the piece is right -- Potter is now in full ascendance both on Main Street and in the academy. But if folks like Chesterton and Stern are right, the source of the antidote is the common sense "feminine." But the majority of American women are in the thrall of feminism at this point -- the pursuit of status and economic power with the outright rejection of motherhood and family. Feminism is the actual rejection of the feminine according to Chesterton. The three Ivy League feminist presidents getting stumped on genocide points up the dearth of the feminine in as stark a way possible. The advent of #quietquitting may suggest feminist women are learning the hard way that the fullness of life is not found in a bureaucratic job and that an Ivy degree does not make you super-human. Mary Bailey triumphed in Its a Wonderful Life over Potter. But can the feminine be recovered without the Virgin Mary in our current state?
I got upset about this or that, cancelled, but continued to receive the emails. This morning I read this and thought "this is too good not to support." So I'm back. A couple of other movies about leaving vs. not leaving...The Best Years of our Lives when Fred Derry ends up not leaving Boone City, and High Noon when Will Kane ends up not leaving Hadleyville even though "nothing important happens here."
I had and have many dreams, but only one matters: Heaven. That has put all the others into their proper places.
Wonderful essay about a “wonderful” movie! No matter how many times I watch it, three or four times during every Christmas season, I still cry at the end. I also cry in the scene at Mr. Gower’s drugstore. And that leads me to the point of my comment. I see Mr. Davis already noted that Gower’s son Robert died of the flu. The year was 1919, after all, during the terrible pandemic. I don’t know if Gower had any other children, though. And I don’t want to cavil, but only little Mary Hatch was still at the counter when Gower started slapping George. Vi had gotten her candy (2 cents worth of shoelaces) and already left the drugstore. I always tell my nieces and nephews that’s how local drugstores used to be: with a counter for milkshakes, sundaes, ice cream, and even short order food. I don’t think I’ve seen one like that in about 30 years. Last thought: George kept his word and never told anyone about what Mr. Gower did, not even Mary. All the best. P.S. I love the movie recommendations. Keep them coming!
What a wonderful article about a splendid film! I especially appreciate this insight: "Its message is not simply that every life is important, but that what makes my life important, in the long view, in the providential view, is almost always what the world considers silly, small-town, no-account, trivial—a waste." In this respect, I can't help but note a strong similarity between "It's a Wonderful Life" and Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town"- another story in which characters sacrifice certain worldly ambitions for another good (e.g.- George forgoing agricultural college to stay in Grover's Corners and marry the girl-next-door who has always loved him, or Mrs. Gibbs sacrificing the money for a Paris trip to leave a bequest to her son and daughter-in-law). And, of course, after Emily has died in the Third Act, she doesn't repine over the circumstances that kept her in the same small town all her life; she laments that she didn't see the full value of the quotidian details of her life while she was still alive. I think it's the same sort of realization in George Bailey which leads him to kiss, in sheer gratitude, the very newel which used to vex him. Many Thanks for your as-ever thought-provoking commentary!
Imitation is not Being.
This is a fantastic essay and reminds me why it's always worth reading the work of Tony Esolen!
This is a perfect commentary on this most beloved movie. I had not thought it possible to go deeper. It seemed awful that Frank Capra let this movie go out of copyright (due to some career and financial failures). But now realize that it was because of this the movie was shown so often it became universal and reached so many more people. God was helping Capra in that as well.
A fine essay on a great movie. The Hungarian emigre historian John Lukac observed with alarm late 20 th century Americans have a destructive tendency to move from one place to another, not to build communities. On A happy note. My brother saw this movie 30 years ago at the UVA film festival. Before the screening Jimmy Stewart spoke. My brother had gotten the only seat left when he arrived late, on a lonesome couch in the front. After speaking Mr Stewart walked off the stage and sat on the couch next to him. As the lights dimmed, he turned to my brother and said, “This is my favorite movie.”
"The old man receives a telegram from the army notifying him that his son has died in battle, and he quietly drinks himself into a stupor in the back room."
My recollection is both his sons died of the Spanish flu.
When I was teaching high school math to seniors, I used to ask them what they wanted to do after they graduated. In almost all instances it was something big: I want to try out for the NBA, be an entertainer, musician, newscaster, big-shot CEO. When I would point out, for example, that even if you had the talent and industry of the legendary Michael Jordan, your chance of making it big in the NBA were still slim to none, (so what's your Plan B?) I would get looks of incomprehension even resentment as I were standing in the way of their progress. This was especially true for the girls almost all of whom responded with this career or that. If I asked them, "well what about being a wife, mother and homemaker?" the best response I got was "Well, maybe that too...someday." Being a big maybe and someday being remote enough to set aside any serious consideration.
I don't exempt myself from this grandiosity. Even at 73 I still dream of being a world-class watchmaker and often find myself embarrassingly envious of those much younger men who have the talent and the time--neither of which I have in abundance--to make it a feasible objective. I am not as content as I should be to run a small watch and clock shop in my town performing humble tasks like replacing batteries, adjusting bands and bracelets and occasionally servicing somebody's grandfather's pocket watch. It is often the case that people show a lot of gratitude when they get their timepieces back in working order. "What a fool I am!" when this happens and I am once again reminded of my vanity. That is why the words, "God wanted him instead to be a fair-to-middling businessman in a small town" came straight home as I read it. I resolve again to offer my labors to the Lord and to my neighbor! Thanks so much for your words.
The hero of Its a Wonderful Life is really Donna Reed's character. When things get bleak for George she steps in at different points. Is it a coincidence that her character is named "Mary?" Folks like Chesterton argue that western civilization is based upon respect for femininity and motherhood. And the Virgin Mary is likely the most celebrated human being in the history of the world. What does she represent? Peter Kreeft has a whole book on why Mary should be considered the greatest philosopher and the great Freudian/Catholic convert Karl Stern argues western civilization has gotten off track by the retreat from the "feminine" to balance the "masculine" that focuses on the technical. The feminine is grounded upon the example of the Blessed Virgin and stands for creating and nurturing life -- and philosophically for the recognition that the most important things in life can't be quantified empirically by limited human creatures. Both Marxism and "Mr. Potter" both stand for the primacy of the material/financial over the human. They both discount and ignore the "main" thing -- the importance of family and children and human relationships that can't be quantified. (Harvard published an 85-year long study last year that concluded (shockingly) that happiness comes from human relationships. Most folks in history didn't need empirical evidence for what is the obvious). Jimmy Stewart is thinking about ending it because he forgets that very point in the middle of the crisis that is thrust upon him by Potter. "Masculine" professions and economic success only make sense in support of the family (i.e. the feminine.) "Mary" is really the one at war with Potter in the movie and ultimately wins. But the piece is right -- Potter is now in full ascendance both on Main Street and in the academy. But if folks like Chesterton and Stern are right, the source of the antidote is the common sense "feminine." But the majority of American women are in the thrall of feminism at this point -- the pursuit of status and economic power with the outright rejection of motherhood and family. Feminism is the actual rejection of the feminine according to Chesterton. The three Ivy League feminist presidents getting stumped on genocide points up the dearth of the feminine in as stark a way possible. The advent of #quietquitting may suggest feminist women are learning the hard way that the fullness of life is not found in a bureaucratic job and that an Ivy degree does not make you super-human. Mary Bailey triumphed in Its a Wonderful Life over Potter. But can the feminine be recovered without the Virgin Mary in our current state?
I got upset about this or that, cancelled, but continued to receive the emails. This morning I read this and thought "this is too good not to support." So I'm back. A couple of other movies about leaving vs. not leaving...The Best Years of our Lives when Fred Derry ends up not leaving Boone City, and High Noon when Will Kane ends up not leaving Hadleyville even though "nothing important happens here."