But by the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy. It’s the devil whispering in George’s good ear until Clarence’s arrival. What makes the movie powerful is not the angel Clarence guiding George around town. Al explains how he did that in Frank Capra on It’s a Wonderful Life. Watch the film beginning to end without commercials and feel the tension build.įrank Capra created It’s a Wonderful Life as a “thank you” to America. Even amid the countless delightful moments, Capra is tightening the screws. It was spending the first three-quarters of the film hurling George Bailey toward destruction. Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.Ĭapra’s genius was not the plot device of George seeing what life without him would have been like for his beloved Mary and the town of Bedford Falls. Remember, George did not know his wife and friends were running around town collecting money to save him. But For Prayerīut for the powerful prayer of others … and divine intervention, George would never have learned his value.
He had not done “something big and something important” as he had hoped when a young man. It was that his decades of sacrifice seemed for naught. It wasn’t just the lost $8,000 that drove him to despair and the brink of suicide. And because of his sacrifice, his community thrived.īut boy, did George pay the cost. His education, his career, his passion to see the world … even his honeymoon. Repeatedly in the film - and unlike most Hallmark movies - George sacrifices the plans he has for himself to serve those around him. And as an unseen result, Bedford Falls would have decayed into Pottersville as if George had never been born. Had It’s a Wonderful Life been a Hallmark movie, George Bailey would have followed his heart as a young man, lived his dream. This someone in the shadows, out of frame, had no friends to pick him up off the floor, let alone lift him up in prayer. (See A Kiss Before Christmas with Teri Hatcher and James Denton, for one recent example.)įor another deep insight into the wisdom of It’s a Wonderful Life, see Al Perrotta’s A Prayer for the Other Guy at Martini’s Bar.
No matter how many Hallmark Christmas movies try to mimic It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a Wonderful Life is no Hallmark Christmas movie. But watching It’s a Wonderful Life this year, a thought struck me. You know I love me those Hallmark Christmas movies. It’s a Wonderful Life is Not a Hallmark Christmas Movie Every time you go to it, you find more and more. This Christmas marks 75 years since Oscar-winning director Frank Capra released arguably the greatest movie ever made.įinding life lessons in It’s a Wonderful Life is like finding sand at the beach.
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