In 1946, Legendary director Frank Capra wanted to make his own Christmas movie. So he created the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” based upon the book “The Greatest Gift” At the time of its release, the movie did extremely mediocre at the box office and received mixed reviews. The failure of this movie made Capra appear as though he could no longer make financially successful movies. The copyright expired in 1974, meaning that the movie could be broadcast without any royalties, which is when it became a Christmas classic. The message of the movie was lost on audiences in 1946, but became more appreciated year after year. The film “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released more than 75 years ago but its themes of the importance of family and mental health make it the most meaningful Christmas movie for our modern generation.
The picture begins with a young George Bailey saving his younger brother, Harry from drowning in an icy lake, even though George himself becomes deaf in one ear because of the frostbite. Throughout the story, George is shown to be an incredibly caring person that always puts the needs of others before his own. When George plans to travel across the world, but his father suddenly dies, he postpones his plans and takes over the family business. George also took the money for his honeymoon with his wife Mary, and used it to save the bank when the Great Depression hit. George saved the pharmacist, Mr. Gower, from accident poisoning a man and he also established a housing development, Bailey Park, to get rid of the slums built by Henry Potter. When Mr. Potter steals $8,000 from George’s bank, George contemplates suicide, because all he has done throughout his life is be kind and yet he receives nothing back. Jumping off a bridge into an icy river, George is saved by his guardian angel Clarence and Clarence shows George what the town would be like without him. He shows George a world where no one was there to save Harry from drowning, where Mr. Gower was charged with manslaughter, where no one could take over the bank, and where Bailey Park is instead a cemetery. George is shown how much he matters to his family and everyone in his town. Harry gets all of their friends to donate the missing $8,000 and keep the bank afloat, as George is called the “richest man in town.”
Mental health awareness was almost non existent when this film was released in 1946, yet the message of the movie is still applicable in 2024. Even though this movie is called a Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is much more complex than any other Christmas movie. It shows the audience that the impact of one person’s life is so much greater than people realize. That even when it feels like nobody cares about you and that you’re insignificant, that you matter in unimaginable ways.
