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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
 Posted - 12/18/2006 : 6:31:11 PM
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| I'm with Nshumate on this one. It's a Wonderful Life is corny, kitschy, obvious... and dammit, it gets me every time I watch it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna see it for the eightieth time and get all weepy once again. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2006 : 8:10:15 PM
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A comic once asked something like "what if the angel found out that everything would be better WITHOUT George Baily? He'd have to appoligise!"
Hey George, you say your brother died falling into a frozen pond so he couldn't have gone on to save an LST full of solders? Well who was it that SUGGESTED that you two use shovels for sleds? Yeah, it was YOU George! If you hadn't been born, he wouldn't have fallen into the pond and nearly drown!
Feel free to join in, folks.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2006 : 11:31:54 PM
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Somebody beat you to the punch.
An episode of "Married With Children" had Sam Kinnison as Al Bundy's guardian angel sent to show him what life would be like if he hadn't been around.
Kelly was chaste, the Mom competent, and the son spoke with a cultured English accent.
In the end, Al decided to go back and plague his family just out of spite.
My favorite Christmas movie?
Die Hard, of course.
Starts off with a lot of holiday cheer. The hip hop Christmas music in the limo. The party.
Then he's blasting apart a guy's legs by shooting up through a table! And the simple yuletide mirth of throwing that body down on the police car to get some attention.
And wasn't it great when he sent that dead guy dressed as Santa down the elevator to rattle Hans and the others?
I'm in my 30s too and I can say without hint of shame that this gets me weepy every time.
Just kidding.
Kind of. |
Edited by - Citizen Carrier on 12/18/2006 11:38:54 PM |
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2006 : 06:49:35 AM
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It would have been better if Rod Serling had written the screenplay. When I first saw it as a kid it reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode.
"I reserve the right to look as well as be boring." - Robert Fripp |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2006 : 11:54:32 AM
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Baily Park is not a charity housing project. It is a profit making development. Its A Wonderful Life is not anti business. Its really not even anti big business. Afterall George dreams of building big buildings, dams and bridges and the like. But that isn't even the real point. The point is the links we all share. As Clarence says when we leave we leave a big hole in peoples lives. If Its A Wonderful Life wasn't such a great movie it would not leave such a powerful emotion (both positive and negative) in people. As George's dreams get shattered one by one his decent into depression is so real and so believable that its frightening and gripping. When George believes that he is worth more dead than alive it is one of the most powerful scenes in all the movies.
rossM |
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Altair IV
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Japan
110 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2006 : 2:14:59 PM
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I've got to agree with the above. While IAWL has it's flaws, and it's never appealed much to me personally, I can't see it as a bad movie. I really don't understand this vindictiveness against it. It's just a sweet little story about recognizing the values of human kindness and community. Sure it's illogical in some points, and illustrates some bad economics, but that's not what you're supposed to be focusing on (And considering how people don't always make logical choices in the first place, maybe it's not so unrealistic after all).
Perhaps it's just the fact that it gets shown over and over and has become such a holiday cliché. I've noticed that whenever something reaches the point of cultural saturation it usually starts to develop detractors. For example, Andrew Loyd Webber has long been the king of musicals, a man who has all but redefined the genre. But when the Phantom of the Opera movie came out I saw a lot of comments to the effect that he's just an old hack who never had any talent. Strange that. He's so "old news" now that some people project their current annoyance back onto his entire career and can't see how he ever had any value whatsoever.
Maybe we should stop thinking about IAWL in modern-day, over-exposed and over-analyzed terms, and simply look at it as what it really is--a well-intentioned, forties-era holiday parable. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2006 : 4:10:47 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Altair IV
Maybe we should stop thinking about IAWL in modern-day, over-exposed and over-analyzed terms, and simply look at it as what it really is--a well-intentioned, forties-era holiday parable.
The truth is that when the movie came out, it BOMBED and was shelved for years! Perhaps the only reason it became a TV tradition was because the Screen Actors' Guild decided that TV stations didn't have to pay royalties for movies made before 1959.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2006 : 4:45:07 PM
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When Its A Wonderful Life came out in 1946 it did not bomb. It didn't make a whole lot of money but it did make a profit. Remember Frank Capra made this movie independently. Right after the war people wanted lighter fare as they had just been through real hell and back. It took a respite for people to get to know this great movie. What happened was that Capra forgot to renew the rights to it and it fell into the public domain. That allowed tv stations to run it freely, so they did over and over and over. Recently a lawsuit over the rights has been settled and its ownership legally defined so you will be seeing IAWL less frequently now. When you see a movie hundreds of times all of its seams begin to show. They are indented to be seen just once or twice.
rossM |
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brandywine
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
56 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2006 : 4:46:19 PM
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Greenhornet says it. The movie was a critical and commercial failure in the forties, but the copyright expired and networks grabbed it up cause they could show it for free. And if it was just a matter of overexposure, I would loathe it's cultural mate "A Christmas Carol" even more, however, it is a favorite of mine.
And there's been over-the-top Andrew Lloyd Weber-bashing ever since there was an ALW. |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2006 : 01:29:51 AM
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It was neither a commercial nor critical failure in 1946. IAWL was ell praised and made a profit at that time. It was not a big hit but it was not a failure. Its also not a Christmas movie. Only the final scene is set at Christmas time. Its A Wonderful Life is one of the best movies ever made. Its complex and real. george Baily is a good man who instinctivly does the right thing but he is also deeply flawed. He is in fact very self centered and doesn't see that it is indeed a wonderful life. By doing the right thing his own ambitions are thwarted and that leads him into his deep depression. Every single scene is critical to the movie, even the ones that initially look like throwaways, as Capra keeps it moving along and ties it all together.
rossM |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2006 : 01:32:25 AM
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Also if you don't like Its A Wonderful Life don't watch it. TV sets do have channels you can change and on/off buttons. Why watch a movie you don't like over and over?
rossM |
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New Hinda
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Israel
469 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2006 : 06:17:52 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by brandywine
And if it was just a matter of overexposure, I would loathe it's cultural mate "A Christmas Carol" even more, however, it is a favorite of mine.
Which version? My favorites are Alastair Sim and Mr. Magoo. |
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New Hinda
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Israel
469 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2006 : 06:19:48 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Ericb
It would have been better if Rod Serling had written the screenplay. When I first saw it as a kid it reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode.
It would certainly have been shorter. IAWL drags on a little too long. |
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brandywine
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
56 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2006 : 01:15:10 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by RossM
Also if you don't like Its A Wonderful Life don't watch it. TV sets do have channels you can change and on/off buttons. Why watch a movie you don't like over and over?
rossM
Because my family feels it isn't Christmas without it, and if I tell any of them to turn it off they either ignore me, get offended, or are all pouty and sad like I'm Scrooge and they're Bob Cratchit. |
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