It's A Wonderful Life: A true embodiment of the spirit of Christmas

Everyone witnesses a time when they feel absolutely helpless and dejected because of some or the other situation. Quite often, at times such as these, we imagine how easy it would have been if we were incredibly rich, or if we just fell off the face of the Earth and had no troubles. In absolutely dire situations you also here of people wishing they had never been born so as to have not come across any trouble at all. A similar premise forms the beginning of the story of It’s A Wonderful Life, the 1946 classic Christmas themed film directed by Frank Capra.

A consortium of angels in Heaven is discussing a situation on Earth which needs their attention. They decide to send a second-class angel down to Earth to deal with the problem. Before they send him down, they brief him on the person in question who is George Bailey. George was a good man throughout his life. He sacrificed many of his personal hopes and dreams for the happiness of others. At a young age he showed great courage when he saved his brother from drowning and lost partial hearing in one ear. He also helped a man he worked for when he stopped him from carelessly mixing poison into his packaged bottles. Later on, he had plans of travelling around Europe. But these were cut short when the passing away of his father required him to take over the family business to stop it from falling in the hands of a snobbish old man who wanted nothing but profits for himself. As a young man he helped out many people by sanctioning loans which would help them build houses and start new businesses. He even handed money to his brother that was saved up for his own education in lieu of his brother getting a good education. When his brother completed his studies, George allowed him to follow his dreams and continued taking care of the business in the same old town instead of forcing his brother to do so. George eventually settled down to marry and have children with his childhood sweetheart. On Christmas Eve, when a tax examination is eminent, George realises that his uncle misplaced 8,000 dollars of the business funds. Realising that this will mean certain imprisonment, George decides to take the blame on himself and feels downtrodden. He finds himself standing on a bridge and contemplating suicide so his family can receive the money from his insurance policy when his guardian angel Clarence Odbody is sent down to help him.

The film is a classic inspirational tale. The final outcome and how George finds his way out of his troubles is what makes the entire film come together perfectly. The beauty in the film is the course which it takes from a boy being ready to sacrifice life and limb who grows into a young man ready to give up on his dreams, eventually maturing into an adult who looks out for people around him and is somehow afflicted by financial troubles and is helped out in the most miraculous way by the people who love him.

Although the style of dramatised acting and melodramatic situations does seem to be out on a limb, it works perfectly well for the film since the sordid sweetness in the end becomes the highlight of the film. The dialogues are of an archaic and colloquial form of English which employs slang at times but fits well into the nature of the film. The background scoring also does seem to dramatise but isn’t overtly misused.

The film and its story are a perfect sample of living a simple but honest life. The film is also an embodiment of the spirit of Christmas which is why the film is synonymous with the holiday season. As a film, it has its flaws and may not appeal to those who are slow to forgive the overly dramatic but it is still quite an extraordinary film nevertheless.