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brandywine
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
56 Posts |
 Posted - 12/25/2006 : 9:21:33 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Greenhornet
Don't say anything, just click on this:
http://video.nbc.com/v/?linkId=2433
Oh, and merry Christmas.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935
On The Simpsons they found the lost 'Killing Spree' ending. "Back then, well, studio execs, we was just dopes in suits. Not like today!"
Try to catch Dana Carver's old HBO standup special, he does this great Jimmy Stewart Getting A Blowjob bit. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 12:13:00 PM
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Just watched it the other night. Man, I'd forgotten about 95% of it!
Quick take:
My biggest problem was why Stewart was the one who wanted to kill himself. After all, it was his uncle (Thomas Mitchell) who screwed-up bigtime. Until that Christmas Eve the movie clearly establishes that Stewart had been managing to keep the building and loan afloat. Then suddenly his dopey uncle "misplaces" $8000 and it's Stewart who wishes the he had never been born? Why would a happily married man with four kids and a loving, extended family contemplate suicide out of the blue just because his business had one default? Way over the top in my view. |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 2:26:41 PM
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| That's the point. Its his family who loves him and a town that adores George that makes George's life wonderful. George doesn't see it. In his view he has done all the right things as a matter of course but each time he does anything his own dreams and ambitions are shattered. The loss of the money and the possible accusation of embezzling creating the loss of the building and loan is the final straw. He sees his life as a failure and it takes that reverie to make him see your point. This is in reality a very accurate depiction of depression. |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2009 : 12:33:39 AM
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| If the movie had depicted Stewart gradually becoming suicidal as a result of setback after setback, then okay. But Mitchell loses one money envelope and suddenly Stewart contemplates doing a Steve Brodie? Still don't buy it. |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2009 : 04:18:12 AM
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The movie does depict George becoming more and more depressed and suicidal. Just look at the expression on his face when his own plans for travel are thwarted when his brother gets to go the service and George cannot because of his hearing. Because his brother has to go to the service it is George who has to stay and keep the Building and Loan afloat. George's hearing is shot because he jumped into the frigid water to save his brother. No good deed goes unpunished.
George's perceptions of his own failure simply overwhelm any sense of reality. This is very true of people with serious depression. So when Mr. Potter tells George that he, George, is worth more dead than alive, George is very ready to believe him.
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2009 : 9:23:36 PM
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Guess we'll agree to disagree here. Anyway, I like this version much better:
[url]http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0338144/[/url]
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Ken HPoJ
Supreme Potentate
USA
1530 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 8:08:56 PM
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I can't agree with you on this one, Brandy. IaWL is one of the very few perfect films I've ever seen. Everything about it is note perfect, especially Stewart, America's greatest film actor, giving arguably his greatest performance.*
(*Tied, in my opinion, with his performance in Anatomy of a Murder.)
Hank Hill, perusing a waiting room magazine: "I'll tell you what, this Goofus fella is a dumbass."
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2009 : 06:50:26 AM
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Regardless of Capra's politics at the time the politics on display in the film are more the old fashioned, all American Midwestern populism of the William Jennings Bryan variety than Soviet Communism. George Baily doesn't work for the government and he isn't forming workers' committees to hang Mr. Potter he's just an American businessman with a big heart who looks out for the little guy.
"I used to be With IT. But then they changed what IT was. Now what I'm with isn't IT, and what's IT seems scary and wierd. It'll happen to YOU!" - Grandpa Simpson
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Ericb
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
648 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2009 : 07:03:50 AM
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Oh, and by way of contrast compare it to The Grapes of Wrath which is more explicately left leaning (in the mid-20th century sense) than It's A Wonderful Life, which, as a said in my earlier post, is more the populism of the 1890s.
"I used to be With IT. But then they changed what IT was. Now what I'm with isn't IT, and what's IT seems scary and wierd. It'll happen to YOU!" - Grandpa Simpson
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 12/16/2009 : 10:06:59 AM
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The Building and Loan is not a charitable institution. George is trying to make it profitable and keeping it afloat by running it honestly. Potter on the other hand runs his commercial bank like a predator. Much like today's commercial banks. He knows that he has George's money but lets George squirm and risk jail. Also when we see Potterville it looks like a lot more fun than Bedford Falls. So I don't know exactly where to put the movie's politics. Neither is running a charity. Its Wonderful Life is more sophisticated than simple propaganda. Incidentally George names Baily Park not after himself but after his father for whom the bank is named.(I think if I remember the movie correctly).
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Culfy
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
United Kingdom
113 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2009 : 03:56:22 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by RossM
Its Wonderful Life is more sophisticated than simple propaganda. Incidentally George names Baily Park not after himself but after his father for whom the bank is named.(I think if I remember the movie correctly).
Agreed. I just saw a stage version of IAWL and while it was well done and got me sobbing (as any version should), it missed out one crucial scene....the scene of George Bailey running home after his vision and saying 'merry christmas' to Mr Potter - who simply retorts 'See you in jail'. Why is this crucial? Because it shows that Mr Potter has not had his comeuppance (as he would have done if this had been a simply propaganda film) and will still be about to torment George. There is a much darker heart to IAWL than is often appreciated, which means the sweet side all the better.
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Notes from a small cavy
www.culfy.blogspot.com |
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