Growing up watching television, I missed Hollywood’s Golden Age – generally chronicled from 1929 to the 1960s. “It’s A Wonderful Life” serves as a prescient reminder that there is more to life than money or profit. A growing body of research reveals that corporate obsession with tax breaks, quarterly earnings, and bloated share prices comes at the expense of workers and their families, whose growing antagonism threatens the societal fabric.

The plight of smaller businesses and regional banks against the too-big-to-fail financial institutions and Amazonian retailers now figure more prominently than ever. It seems that little has changed in the intervening years. Potter’s wealth affords him so much influence that he keeps Congressmen in his pocket and blithely refuses their calls. Potter cares only about profits, regardless of the toll taken on the larger community. Because of his work at the building and loan, homeownership emerges as the dream for middle and working-class Americans.Ī persistent Capra theme of the little guy against powerful institutions remains front and center. George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, strolls through the walkable and personable downtown of Bedford Falls, surviving a perilous bank run in the days before President Roosevelt championed deposit insurance. Presuming that most readers will have seen the film (and even if not) I will simply share some of the aspects I find most memorable.įirst, “A Wonderful Life” feels like a sort of time capsule of the depression era and post-war periods that more contemporary productions never quite seem to capture. Now fully restored, “It’s A Wonderful Life” returns better than ever.Įveryone probably treasures his or her own favorite scenes or particular moments. VCRs and DVD players further ensured the movie’s perennial popularity. Not until the copyright expired in 1974, enabling the story to air on network television did its reputation begin to burnish.

Viewers remained largely unimpressed – despite five Academy Award nominations – for decades afterward. In the case of the Frank Capra classic, the narrative elements were considered somewhat dark for audiences in 1946. Then again, who would have thought the same about fine films such as “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Children of Men,” or “Blade Runner,” which all shared a similar fate? Regularly appearing on the list of Hollywood releases that opened as box office flops yet went on to become classics, it’s hard to understand how “It’s A Wonderful Life” could have managed such a distinction. An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.

It's a wonderful life imdb