It's A Wonderful Life

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I used to be all cynical about this movie but I just watched it again then and it truly is a masterpiece.

No one is poor who has wrong planet friends.

...and somewhere, an angel just got his wings...

adore this film...first time I went to see it was going through a bad period myself and went to see it with family in the glasgow film theatre...it was like stepping back to 1949 and the screen had curtains/people appluaded at the end...the experiance of even seeing such a great film was amazing.

Well about this difference between the 1940's and today, a friend and I had a conversation about this movie topic by comparing Capra films to the company making the most similar films today: Happy Madison i.e. Adam Sandler.

Let's compare 2 remakes:

It's A Wonderful Life (Capra): he's the richest man in town because he sacrificed for his friends

Click (Sandler): a guy needs some time to himself

Mr Deeds Goes To Town (Capra): he gives his money away to farmers and says if they work the land for 3 years it's theirs

Mr Deeds (Sandler): buys everyone ferraris

I love the movie too. We frequently quote it (and it was very frequently quoted in Mystery Science Theater 3000).

On the off-shoot topic of Adam Sandler, though I haven't seen Click I have seen some of Mr Deeds and it's a real shame they did such a rotten job with these. I hated Sandler on Saturday Night Live because of his stupid characters and the fact that he found himself so utterly amusing while playing them that he kept cracking up. It got old fast. But in films, where they can edit out the stupidity, Sandler surprises all by being able to portray a likable, down-to-earth regular character with a bit of a temper and a sense of humor, one who could in fact do a great job in the right script playing just the sort of characters required for a Capra remake (as if one was ever necessary). Yet given the relative suitability of the leading man, the movies are ruined by ridiculous plot changes and a total misunderstanding of the characters. I wish they'd just left things alone if they couldn't update it properly.

I know that is how plot works, but it's something about Capra movies... It's the fact that usually the badness is usually brought on by big, mean people. That sounds simplistic, but I mean it's a wilfull, cruel act, usually, by someone so intent upon their own agenda that they don't care who they crush in the process. That person is generally the nicest guy around, or at least one who's done the nicest stuff for the right reasons (let's face it, George Bailey is a masterpiece of realistic humanity with his basic goodness, sometimes extravagant dreams that don't quite come in to port, and moments of mischief and just plain bad temper). Capra clearly had issues with the "big men" of society and lost no sleep over exposing the evils of such types of people. I applaud it but it really hurts to watch, sometimes. I, like a lot of people here, have seen my share of people who care more about themselves than about who they crush to gain their own enjoyment.

I think that's why so many people enjoyed that Saturday Night Live sketch... let me see if I can find it...

Nah, all there is on youtube is cheap ripoff of it. For those who haven't seen it, Uncle Billy remembers what happened to the money, they form an angry mob and go beat up Mr. Potter.