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It’s A Wonderful Life Night
By a show of hands, how many of you have never seen It’s A Wonderful Life? It’s okay, don’t be shy. Until I was married I hadn’t seen it either, and I was no stranger to old movies. I am a movie nerd, I used to program my family VCR to record movies in the middle of the night. I grew up with Gone With The Wind, Mommy Dearest, and Shenandoah playing in the background. But somehow I managed to miss It’s A Wonderful Life, or tuned it out when it was on.
That changed a week or so before Christmas in 1998. Another couple who’d never seen it decided to join us in watching it for the first time, and I suspect I was more interested in the take-out pizza and coffee with Schnapps than the movie. I was tasked with driving to Video City to make the rental, but when I got there the three copies they had were all checked out. I looked around for a different movie but noticed they had some VHS copies for sale that even came with a little bell Christmas tree ornament. If we’d had cell phones back in those days, my wife probably would have told me not to buy it.
It’s supposed to be a classic, I reasoned, and figured it would fit nicely next to my VHS copies of Casablanca and Schindler’s List.
I made my way home to the two-bedroom apartment and the four of us settled in to watch the old movie with varying degrees of interest. Two hours later, four twenty-somethings were smiling, moved (maybe to tears), and experiencing what can only be understood by those who’ve seen it.
It’s A Wonderful Life is more than a classic film; it’s a perfect film, and I don’t say that lightly. Nor am I alone. For a more detailed explanation about its cinematic superiority, check out the Critical Drinker’s review — after you’ve watched it, that is, because spoilers abound. But that’s not what this post is about.
A year after that first viewing, my wife and I decided to watch it again, maybe with the same couple, maybe with others, I don’t remember exactly. We loved it all over again and it became a tradition. We started calling it It’s A Wonderful Life Night, a Guerra tradition that’s continued for 22 years. Every year in mid-December we invite a few families over, provide two big pots of soup (my wife makes great soup) and fresh bread. Guests are welcome to bring a sugary snack if they want to, but it’s not requisite.
We start the party at 5:30, start the movie at 6, and let them know they can stay as long as they want, which almost always ends up being well past everyone’s normal bedtime. It’s an event dedicated to simplicity, fellowship, coziness, and fun.
Over the years the faces have changed; so have our houses. There are some old friends who are always invited, others who have moved out-of-state (but we’re working on luring them back), and usually a family or two we’ve been interested in getting to know better.
As the families arrive and get settled in, the quiet atmosphere punctuated by candlelight and Christmas lights becomes loud and lively. The movie starts and everyone gets their bowls of soup, settling down in some area of the house. Often the older kids and a couple of dads engage in conversations and have no interest in the movie, so talk during the whole thing. That’s fine because something interesting always happens, usually right around the time George and Mary fall into the pool: The story captivates them and they turn their attention to the screen. They even put away their phones.
Soon everyone — even those who’ve seen it over 30 times — starts paying attention. It draws them in and the characters play out life’s (sometimes brutal) truths, truths that 22-year-old newlywed Vince understood one way, but that 35-year-old Vince with four kids saw another. Now, 44-year-old Vince with eight kids and no steady income feels George Bailey a little differently than that younger Vince did, with a top-notch health insurance plan and a Christmas bonus in his pocket.
By the time Harry Bailey hoists his glass, everyone is hanging on his words, even the teenagers — just like some of them used to, when their little hands gripped mugs of hot cocoa that were too big for them to finish when they first watched it ten years earlier.
The movie ends, our guests smile, and the conversations that flow from those viewings over the years have been as variable as the times we’ve lived through — sometimes light and silly, sometimes deep and serious (like this year), but always valuable.
It’s A Wonderful Life reminds us that there is no shame in feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders, or even in calling out to God for a Christmas miracle when all other human options have failed.
When I think back on the friends who’ve shared that night with us, I’m reminded of the important lessons of the film: the connections we make with people are what matter most, and the part we play in other’s lives, even if they’ve floated away from us, will count for something in the end.
Fun fact: Due to its initial lackluster reception, It’s A Wonderful Life became public domain and the current licensing rights are complex. As a result, you can watch it several places for free.
Millennial Movie Monday is a fun, YouTube reaction series. Her reaction to It’s A Wonderful Life is as it should be.
Published in General
Here’s are words I wrote in another forum…
For me “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a dark movie, summed up in Stewart’s slow walk and bewilderment at the train station when he learns his younger brother won’t be coming home to take over the broken down building and loan. I had that very look when I learned third-hand that my mother had spent all her money, and that my wife and I were the only ones in the family who could pay her bills and handle all her medical care. In the end it brought me closer to her and my family — I’d always kept my distance before — and I learned that duty to others matters above all else.
Afternoon Cliff,
I am so glad that you were “gifted” the chance to get closer to your family and mother in a fashion you had not expected or entirely wanted at the time. My wife Mary and I had a similar experience with my folks. My brother called one day and asked if we could help with the folks cause mom just had a bit of heart trouble that knocked her off her feet. That lead to several years of helping out at the end of their lives. I learned more about them during those years than the previous 59. It was great to be with them is such a close way.
I think this movie illuminates more about the nature of man and his relation to God than any other I know. Recently I read some quotes on Instapundit by Capra. From the WSJ in 1984, Capra said, “ It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. The film has a life of its own now, and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to president, I’m proud…..but it’s the kid who did the work. I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I ran across it. I just liked the idea.” “In a 1946 interview, Capra, described the film’s theme as ‘the indiviual’s belief in himself’ and that he made it ‘to combat a modern trend toward atheism’”.
Just to take one topic, prayer, this movie illuminates the nature of man from the beginning, and the nature of faith in a modern world where faith is more part of culture than it is part of our thinking. In the very first scenes many prayers to God are being made in Bedford Falls noting trouble in George Bailey’s life. This is so sweet,folks praying to on behalf of someone else, we still do this for our family,children, many other folks. However, these human prayers presume that God is unaware of what is happening to George, God needs to be reminded that this is urgent; this is so hilarious, God needs our prompting. Another instance of prayer comes when George is in Martini’s bar and prays saying to God “that he is not a praying man (no joke here, just a typically modern guy) but he needs God to just show him the way”. He then gets punched by the teacher’s husband and George says “That’s what I get for praying”. Again, totally modern and ancient understanding of God. God is the vending machine, I pray for what I need and God delivers, and when He doesn’t deliver just what I want, jut when I want it I grumble, because it’s all about me. George would have fit right in with the Jews leaving Egypt, doubting God at every step.
Contrast George’s understanding of how God might show him the way with the “gift” God provides. I think for most of us life has not gone as we have expected, and we often think that if only this or that material need was met then life would be great. We wish God would give us that Mercedes-Benz, but God often structures our lives differently. After George and Clarence have been to the cemetery and seen that Harry died because George wasn’t born, Clarence tells George that he “has been given a great gift” to see what life would have been without him. George certainly didn’t think that he had been given a great gift. Again this is part of our shallow understanding of God and faith, we want blessings, we don’t want to die to ourselves and pick up our cross.
I think there is so much in this movie about faith in general and in a modern world that it is well worth study. I am sure that Capra didn’t think about the film in quite the way I have been presenting. There are two great aspects to this movie, first Stewart is an unmatched actor. He can make his face tell the story of this man in a way that reveals what the character is feeling and causes echoes in my mind. Second the script speaks to the conflicted heart of humans, when Potter is offering George a job and he describes George to himself, it is spot on. Potter notes that George hates the building and loan almost as much as he does. This is so close to how we have seen George’s heart through this movie. It is another curious aspect that God may grow us up by having someone we oppose illuminate the sin in our own heart.
Excellent analysis. Thank you!