# It's a Wonderful Life - Do you like it or not?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [December 17, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638 "2009-12-17T14:56:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/1 "2009-12-17T14:56:55Z")
I first saw it when I was 15. It’s schmaltzy, sure, and I can understand why a lot of people don’t care for it. But what can I say? I’m a sucker for that stuff. I’d probably rank it in my top 5 favorite Christmas movies of all time.
Anyway what do you think of it?
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### Author:  [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/2 "2009-12-17T14:58:17Z")
I’ve never seen it.
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### Author:  [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/3 "2009-12-17T14:59:32Z")
I like it. My favorite scene is right after they get kicked out of Martini’s bar, and George is just starting to get an eerie feeling that something’s not right. The spooky music, combined with the look on his face when he says to Clarence “Say, who are you?” gives me chills every time.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/4 "2009-12-17T14:59:57Z")
It must be destroyed! Every copy shredded, all digital versions wiped, and all memories of it zapped with that MIB thingie. Gods how I hate that movie!
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/5 "2009-12-17T15:00:50Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#):
>
> I’ve never seen it.
Well, thanks for your valuable insight.
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### Author:  [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/6 "2009-12-17T15:02:34Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> Anyway what do you think of it?
It’s one of my all time favorite movies and I don’t associate it with Christmas.
However, I don’t like Frank Capra’s socialistic message embedded in it.
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/7 "2009-12-17T15:08:59Z")
I’m _not_ a sucker for that kind of stuff in general, but I absolutely love this movie. At one point in my life I could practically recite the entire film verbatim from start to finish.
_That does it! Out you two pixes go, through the door our out the window!_
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/8 "2009-12-17T15:09:31Z")
Clarence was his sled, right?
I’m a sucker for it too. Easily my favorite Christmas pic and I also enjoy being reminded just how different things were then, not just when it was set but when it was filmed.
We try and catch one showing each year (not too difficult, that.) It wouldn’t be Christmas without it.
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/9 "2009-12-17T15:14:21Z")
> [@Ruminator](#):
>
> However, I don’t like Frank Capra’s socialistic message embedded in it.
15 years later, Capra would help orchestrate the forgery of a Hawaiian birth certificate for a baby boy in Kenya, and the rest is history.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/10 "2009-12-17T15:17:32Z")
I love it and I saw the Simpsons’ parody of it before I’d seen it. I used to quote it verbatim before I knew it was from that film.
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### Author:  [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/11 "2009-12-17T15:21:48Z")
> [@Wheelz](#):
>
> 15 years later, Capra would help orchestrate the forgery of a Hawaiian birth certificate for a baby boy in Kenya, and the rest is history.
I wasn’t making a political statement.
I could’ve said, “I don’t like Capra’s Judeo-Christian sacrificial lamb message embedded in it.”
Or I could’ve said, “I don’t like Capra’s Confucius-community-overrides-the-individual message embedded in it.”
Nevertheless, it’s still one of my favorite movies.
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### Author:  [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/12 "2009-12-17T15:24:46Z")
I think this is a great movie, although thanks to NBC and corporate greed, I haven’t seen it in years now.
And don’t forget, Bert and Ernie are in it.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/13 "2009-12-17T15:25:33Z")
It’s fine. It’s kind of cheesey and goofy but you can’t not like Jimmy Stewart.
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/14 "2009-12-17T15:28:25Z")
> [@Ruminator](#):
>
> I wasn’t making a political statement.
>
> I could’ve said, “I don’t like Capra’s Judeo-Christian sacrificial lamb message embedded in it.”
>
> Or I could’ve said, “I don’t like Capra’s Confucius-community-overrides-the-individual message embedded in it.”
>
> Nevertheless, it’s still one of my favorite movies.
**Ruminator** , I am sorry.
I was attempting to make a joke. You were not intended to be the butt of it, but I can see it kind of reads that way.
For the record: I do _not_ consider **Ruminator** to be a right-wing wacko birther.
Sorry for the hijack. We now return to your regularly scheduled IAWL discussion.
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/15 "2009-12-17T15:29:28Z")
I love it. It’s not really a _good_ movie, but it’s not Christmas to me unless I’ve seen it. That and the Grinch.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/16 "2009-12-17T15:31:37Z")
I absolutely hate it. Only to be top by having to hear or see some part of the Nutcracker.
The Sound of Music is a Christmas movie to me because it was always on for the Christmas holidays.
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/17 "2009-12-17T15:31:50Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> Well, thanks for your valuable insight.
Actually, I happen to think that is a valid point. I have seen the movie _parodied_ in various sitcoms, cartoons, and lampooned in probably a thousand different ways. I can quote huge chunks of it verbatim. And I have never seen the actually movie either.
It’s at a point where, I will never be able to take it seriously, and I don’t want to see it because it’s been overdone. I can’t tolerate any version of “A Christmas Carol” either because everyone and their brother has done their own take of Scrooge.
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### Author:  [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/18 "2009-12-17T15:38:37Z")
One of my favorite scenes occurs early in the movie, when George is walking Mary home after they fell into the swimming pool at the dance. A man startles them, and Mary runs into the bushes, losing the robe she was wearing. George starts to toss it to her, then stops.
George (with a smile spreading over his face): This is a very interesting situation!
Mary: Throw me my robe!
George: A man doesn’t find himself in a situation like this every day …
Mary: Shame on you! I’ll tell your mother!
George (thoughtfully): My mother’s way up on the corner there …
Mary: I’ll call the police!
George (still thoughtfully): They’re way downtown … anyway, they’d be on my side.
That exchange just tickles me no end.
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### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/19 "2009-12-17T15:41:05Z")
Like it. I’m a sucker for Jimmy Stewart - he’s genius.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/20 "2009-12-17T15:58:10Z")
I think it’s a decent movie, but overrated.
I come to this from a unique (in the original sense of the word) viewpoint. I am the only person living who read the story it was based upon, [“The Greatest Gift”](http://greatbutforgotten.blogspot.com/2008/12/greatest-gift-short-story.html) _before_ ever seeing the movie. Back in the 60s and 70s, it was just an obscure and failed entry in Frank Capra’s list of films, lost behind **Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can’t Take it With You** , and **Arsenic and Old Lace** , among many others. I was intrigued by the film because of the short story and finally, when I saw it was going to be shown on a local TV station at 11 pm (in August – which is why I was surprised at first when people started calling it a Christmas movie), I got a chance to see it (this was 1972, before home VCRs).
Lots of it are very good. The sequences up to when George meets Clarence are all well done. But what annoyed me from the start was George’s sloooooooooow reaction to what was going it. It was pretty obvious from the first that Clarence was telling him the truth (suddenly hearing in his deaf ear was a pretty good clue), but George has to be shown a dozen times before he begins to accept it. It gets annoying.
There are also some other issues. It’s clear the George is a doormat. He won’t stand up for anything other than the bank. When Harry decides not to run the bank, crushing his dream without even a hint of a preamble, George just accepts it. He doesn’t even try to say, “You had your chance. Take over the bank for five years so I can have mine.” He’s willing to give up Mary instead of telling her anything about his feelings.
Also, the movie made George so good and so wonderful that it’s impossible to believe he was in any particular trouble with the lost money. And things had been so good (and he had accomplished so much in his life) that it’s out of character that he’d contemplate suicide.
The story is much superior in many ways, most notably because George was not the head of the bank; he was just a clerk who never did anything of importance at all. Yes _still_ the community would have been much worse off if he hadn’t ever lived.
In any case, I watch the movie every few years, knowing of its flaws. But it’s not on my list of films to see at Christmas.
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