It's a Wonderful Life
Adam

Review by Adam Pro

It's a Wonderful Life 1946

★★★★★

Rewatched 26 Dec 2018

“How’s that?” Such an odd film to be so emotionally powerful and universally moving. From the strange supernatural flashback perspective to the infamous “what’s the world like without me” resolution the film is a consistently sad yet hopeful look at the middle class struggling against inequality and the social structures, trade offs and sacrifices that bind people into their places in a classist society.

The politics of the film are bizarre and confused, where the town millionaire rather than the FDIC is closing the bank and providing the necessary capital liquidity in the mid 1930s (which is seen as a bad thing) and the federal bank regulator is the villain of the back half of the film. So the film is simultaneously hostile and suspicious of New Deal federal stabilizing regulation and of the plutocrats controlling the old system (and far above being held responsible for their actions). 

But the performances are second to none, the script is phenomenal, and the camera work and editing are wonderful, its truly one off the greatest films of all time.

One shot I noticed this time is that when Harry returns on the train, Harry and his wife exit opposite sides of the frame, and the camera pushes into a closeup of George, and then tracks with him in closeup for a long time before the camera pulls out and we see him rejoin his sister in law.  This long shot, is beautiful and really lets you into George’s head as he’s processing the manipulations of his family that brought him to this point which is functionally a disaster for him personally.  It’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking and of acting and these sorts of flourishes are dense within the body of the film.

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