A James Stewart Christmas Classic Gets Steven Spielberg’s Seal Of Approval

In 2024 Steven Spielberg was listed His 20 All -time Favorite Movie for Far Out magazineAnd many of them are permanent classics that may expect Spielberg to list. “Seven Samurai”, “Citizen Kane”, “Day for Night” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” are, of course, on the list, even though he also cast a few throat balls. James Gunn’s “Galaxy Guards” Mentioned, such as Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s 2011 film “The enthouchables”. He also chose Victor Fleming’s relatively obscure 1943 film “guy named Joe” as one of the best of all time, even though it follows; Spielberg renewed the film in 1989 under the name “always”.

However, Spielberg’s all -time film was a safe and reliable standby; He is a very fond of Frank Capra’s Christmas classic “it’s a great life”. But then who doesn’t like “it’s a great life?”

The story of Capra’s classic is possibly known to non -fillets. The film was only warmly checked when it was first released, and some critics complain about its excessive sentimentality and rigid theatricality; It did not take advantage of the public concerns of the audience at the time. It came seventh with a box office that year, but it lost a bunch of cash in its studio, RKO. It was appointed to six Academy Awards, including the best picture, the best actor and the best director, but It only won the technical Oscar’s counterfeit snow. The film had evaporated “the best years of our lives”.

Because the “gorgeous life” was a bomb, it disappeared from the audience’s eye for decades. The film was “rescued” only on television every year on television. It is now often considered one of the best films of all time – not just by Spielberg.

“It’s a wonderful life” was not really researched deeply after it left the Oscar debate in the late 1940s. Capra continued to make prestigious movies, but the “gorgeous life” was held at the end of the line after the series hits. The film was not arrested for many, many years.

In 1974, the “gorgeous life” was public, and local TV stations noticed that they could throw it for free and decided to do it during the Christmas season. It became an easy Christmas tradition for many TV stations, and the audience eventually began to attach to it. On television, repeated repetitions of “great life” not only gave it a new life, but let it explode in the public’s consciousness. Pretty soon it became a vital and necessary part of Christmas.

The film got a bold new critical re -enforcement, and critics began to understand it was one of the finest films of the decade, if not ever. AFI has listed it as one of the top 100 and was invited to the national movie register in 1990.

The film became so familiar that its starting points were constantly borrowed movies and sitcoms. It was cheated by “Saturday night live” in 1986, and Small toons made again Their 1992 special “it’s a magnificent little Toons Christmas”. “Married … with children” satire it. Heck, choose a random TV series, and probably had a “gorgeous life” episode -in other words, a story that gave the protagonist the opportunity to see a parallel universe where they have never been born. “It’s a great life” has become as mythical as Charles Dickens’s “Christmas carol”.

It is miserable to mention the story “it’s a wonderful life” given how well known it is, but to make a du diligence: “It’s a great life” is George Bailey (James Stewart), a pretty decent guy. As a child, he saved his brother from drowning, an act that left him incapable of hearing from one ear. He helped the local pharmacy and prevented him from making a serious drug error. George unintentionally inherited his father’s savings and loan companies and forced to lead it for years, despite many attempts to unload it and get out of his small town Bedford Falls. She marries her loved one Mary (Donna Reed), but still seeks to flee.

When one George’s Associates is accidentally placed, and the city’s greasy cat Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) refuses to give him any financial help, George runs in the bridge hoping to throw himself away. In considering spreading himself, George meets an angel (!) Called Clarence (Henry Travers), who tells him that life is worth living. George explains to Clarence that his alone is a burden on the world. Clarence proves him wrong by showing George’s parallel universe where he never was born. Everyone’s life is terrible in that world. It looks like George is an important song in the happiness of Bedford Falls. (The final parallel sequences of the universe take a surprising amount of movie driving time.) Finally George returns home to be happy and modified.

It is, of course, an uplifting message. We all have value. When we are depressed, we have a gloomy imagination to describe a world that is happier without us, and suddenly we have no imagination to imagine a world that is better because we are there. But it fits in that Spielberg, often a cinematic optimist, is pulled into this story.