reibureibu’s review published on Letterboxd:
Somehow I've never seen this until now, a mistake that I'm happy to have finally rectified. Though riffed off of countless times, It’s a Wonderful Life holds up enormously to my modern-day eyes and its current acclaim and cultural status feels well-deserved.
So it's genuinely odd to learn that upon release it was not well received, nor did it do well at the box-office. It then languished for decades until 1974 when a clerical error put it in the public domain. Constant reruns on different stations then acted as a communal re-discovery, and cemented its place as a Christmas staple. How wonderful that is, and perhaps how wonderful free, public access to movies is for all!
And as a movie its messages are touching and important even if saccharine. Here is a man who tries so hard to provide for his family, provide for his job, and provide for his community, yet despite this he ends up trapped under insurmountable debt from those who prey on his kindness – as long as profit is to be made no good deed goes unpunished.
So he tries everything he can until he's at his wit's end, a position where due to life insurance he becomes literally worth more dead than alive. For a man who's such an ideal community figure, who cares so much for his family and neighbors, and who's driven as far as he is able to go and yet is still asked to give even more... he despairs, and encounters a crisis of faith. Is this really the answer to his problems, what he's asked to do?
"Dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me... show me the way... show me the way."
By the end it's certainly feel-good stuff, but it doesn't get there without earning that schmaltz. There's a dark undercurrent running through this one, asking us how much we should forsake our desires to do what is right for those around us. Yet at the same time it affirms the importance of life, how we are all meaningful in each other's lives even if we can't quite see it yet. Some just happen to get an angel to remind them.
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