IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE 

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: B+

It only took my over 25 years, but I finally sat down and watched this all the way through. 

I liked it. It was well written. Covering all of the major elements of a well told story. It conveyed an idea without being too didactic in its transparency. Good prose, rich characters, strong plot construction, thematic depth and the development of powerful emotions. 

It raise questions conscientiously as well as theoretically and philosophically. To an extent even theologically. I'm not sure if the world would have been as doom and gloom without George Bailey as what Clarence pointed it out to him to be, but it does raise the question. Obviously the world would be a lot different without the heroes, heroines and villains we study in history class. I suppose in our little words we all have some significance that cannot be denied. Yet it is easier for me to picture the world had Martin Luther King Jr never existed, than it is to wonder about someone on an assembly line, who would be replaced within the hour they died.

The movie make you think. Makes you wonder. Makes you question yourself and how important you are to the people around you. What there lives would be like without you. What your life would be without them. It's why the movie, 70 years later, still transcends with audiences today.

The world will always have Henry Potter's trying to make it a worse place and it will always have George Bailey's trying to make it a better place. Nothing has changed their, other than the Potter's have become more sly and clever. And the Bailey's questioned for their pasts and imperfections, rather than their sincerity and devotion to their efforts.

I would have allowed for more development for Clarence, and more relationship to unfold on the screen between he and George. I feel a little too much focus was put into the build up and not enough in the climax and resolution.

Still that wasn't enough for me to give the film a B+ instead of an A. What keeps the film from getting an A for me were some of the nonsensical scenes in the film.Some scenes did not make any sense.

As for the acting performances, it is clear to see why Jimmy Stuart owned his time in Hollywood. A few times he seemed nothing more than average, but other times throughout the film he really shined. He knew how to deliver a speech, a monologue and capture you not only in what he was saying, but what he was feeling.

Lastly I'll say that it was fun to see the Mayor from The ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW have a part in the film.

And $20,000 at that time would have been about $250,000 a year. That would take a noble man to turn that down. A man more noble than me.