So here we are. Review number 500.

I’ve been encouraged (or should that be forced?) to do a special review for this landmark.

So I’ve come back to this timeless classic. Even though it’s months from Xmas, I’ve gone for Frank Capra’s tale of despair and hope. 

I’ve been re-reading the Red Dwarf novels recently and IAWL is the favourite film of Dave Lister. So much so that his psyche recreates the town for him to live in when playing Better Than Life - so the names George Bailey, Savings & Loan and the lovely folk of Bedford Falls have been bandied around plenty.

Lister is drawn to the simplicity of life in Bedford Falls. To him it’s a utopia of kind-hearted people and the value of love over wealth. A beacon of hope shining through the gloom of his life. (Interesting to note Potter isn’t mentioned)

Which brings me onto another reason for my choice of this film: suicide.

Poor George is driven to the brink of taking his own life and, when I last saw this I was youthful and optimistic so simply couldn’t comprehend what could put someone in such a position. 

Now I’m an insane and unsober 43 year old and have experienced mental health problems not dissimilar to Bailey. While I’ve not come close to  considering suicide I can certainly sympathise totally with anyone feeling so utterly hopeless that the only answer could be that end. 

I’m anticipating uplifting hope and dreading tears before this one is over.  Wish me luck... 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

What strikes me way more than I ever remember before is just how cool George is. 
Years ahead of his time, his wanderlust and thirst for knowledge and adventure are tempered by misfortune and his own compassion. 
From the way he styles out the swimming pool prank by continuing to dance in the pool to suggesting a romantic sounding trip up to the falls in the moonlight, barefoot in the grass, he has a joyously scampish outlook on life. 

He also possesses balls. Giving Old Man Potter a mouthful when he was slagging off his late father’s ideals showed how thoroughly gosh-darn decent he is too, even going so far as to cancel his European trip to prevent the grasping miser from getting his way. 

However, George’s habit of putting others before himself eventually begins to rub me the wrong way. For someone as passionate as he seems for seeing the world and becoming an architect to keep letting chances escape makes me want to slap him. 
Get on your fucking bike mate! Carpe that diem! 

Even cancelling his honeymoon for the stricken Building & Loan, the thought occurred to me that sometimes you just need to let the chips fall where they may and then deal with it. 

(I think I can see plenty of seeds planted in his personality that might well end up as emotional volcanoes given a few precision pokes by events) - but of course the narrative requires George opens up to the people of the town and asks them to take the bare minimum of cash from the bank. 

The scenes leading up to George’s spiral of despair are brutally effective at showing just how guilty he’s feeling. How the perfect storm of shit has driven him to the point of suicide. His (understandable but sickeningly) curt way of speaking to his children is a tragic symptom of his brain’s red alert going into overdrive. 

If I was to offer some constructive criticisms it would be these:

Spend a little longer in the What If world, to really underscore how much George’s absence from it would negatively affect more people. This felt a tad rushed.

Tackle the suicide bit. George was considering jumping into the river. Then Clarence shows up and he changes his plea to wishing he’d never lived. But George couldn’t achieve this without Clarence’s help. So why not show him what the world would look like had he gone through with his suicide bid?

Speaking of suicide, when the angel jumps in to ‘save’ George, and George follows him... isn’t that also George jumping into the river, which would have killed him seconds before...?  I guess God gets away with plot holes like that. 

Personally, seeing how James Stewart portrays the gradual wearing down of George Bailey’s mental strength is difficult to watch at times. 
As a father to a young son, the thought that I’d ever get so low as to shout at him to stop playing piano or yell at him for checking a spelling is abhorrent to me. 
But I’ve also experienced days when I wished I just wasn’t here any more... so I can also identify with some of George’s self-loathing feelings and can see how his reaction could be so explosive.

Finishing on a positive though, what I do like this time round is how Potter isn’t mentioned once Bailey is back in the real world and thankful for being there. He might still have something over George but it’s not referred to. This lessens his earlier venomous, grasping miser villain-factor, his financial wealth ultimately means nothing as he’s alone and despised. George really is the richest man in town. 

Ps - tears did indeed flow during the film. Who had 121 mins in the sweepstake? It was George’s brother and all the townsfolk chipping in to help him during his hour of need.  (Of course this got me thinking of all the things / people Bailey had that I don’t... so I had to put a stop to that train of thought before things got bad round here.)

Pps- is this ‘special’ enough Bryan? 😜