# 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:** 18
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/341 "2020-12-28T01:02:34Z")
I find it contrived and cliche beyond any reasonable measure. But perhaps that’s what raises it to the level of fairy tale, in a different category from “film.” I personally don’t ever need to see it again, and I don’t consider it one of my “teaching films,” that watch with friends imttrying to convert to cinephiles. But I don’t feel the need to share _The Cat in the Hat,_ masterpiece that it is. I think of it, when I think of it, as a Socialist parable.
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2025, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/342 "2025-12-23T23:13:06Z")
Bumped.
I still love it. Just came across this interesting article on the value of the money at issue in the film:
> **[How much money did Uncle Billy lose in 'It's a Wonderful Life'?](https://www.citizen-times.com/story/entertainment/movies/2017/12/21/how-much-money-did-uncle-billy-lose-its-wonderful-life/972756001/)**
>
> Adjusted for inflation, the amounts of money mentioned in "It's a Wonderful Life" are pretty jaw-dropping.
---
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/343 "2025-12-24T00:58:35Z")
I enjoy watching It’s a Wonderful Life, at Christmas every few years.
I saw it every year in College and young adult. Burned out.
I need a 4 or 5 year break before watching again.
It is an interesting story of deep despair and then hope for the future.
---
### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/344 "2025-12-24T01:16:16Z")
I still love it too. My wife still tolerates it. I tried incorporating it into the family lineup of holiday movies and specials that we watch every year, but my kids just don’t like it. So now I’ll probably watch it on my own while my wife does something else using the movie as background noise.
---
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/345 "2025-12-24T01:31:01Z")
It’s no _Scrooged,_ but I like it well enough.
I don’t remember much about it but I can get behind the message of hope and gratitude.
(My mind is like a steel sieve, especially for movies.)
---
### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/346 "2025-12-24T03:22:44Z")
I wouldn’t watch just anything that Jimmy Stewart did, but IAWL is among his best.
Not on full display here, but later in the Anthony Mann westerns, was Stewart’s portrayal of “barely contained rage.”
Not something that’s appreciated by casual observers, but notice how it’s absent from most of the great actors’ toolkits. Olivier mastered an undercurrent of menace, Burton could simmer and Rod Steiger seethe. But besides Peter O’Toole, not a lot of actors can command the ability to become a pressure cooker about to blow up like Jimmy Stewart.
(Maybe it took Arthur Kennedy to goad each of them to the limit)
---
### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/347 "2025-12-24T04:20:57Z")
Love it. Mainly because my Daddy made us watch it every year.
I did the same to my kids
They all groan if it’s on.
In fact I have it on right this moment. Bravo has it on.
---
### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/348 "2025-12-24T04:29:12Z")
I’ve seen it in bits and pieces, bu I don’t think I’ve ever sat through it in one sitting.
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/349 "2025-12-24T04:34:49Z")
Hope you will sometime, at least once! It’s deservedly a classic, I’d say.
---
### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/350 "2025-12-24T04:50:20Z")
I really can’t stand Stewart or Christmas cheese. My favorite Xmas movie is Bad Santa.
---
### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/351 "2025-12-24T11:15:54Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> I really can’t stand Stewart or Christmas cheese.
I like it because it’s actually a pretty dark movie much of the time. But if you don’t like Jimmy Stewart there’s not much you can do about that.
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/352 "2025-12-24T12:46:01Z")
I obviously must not have come back to this thread. This post is old, and I don’t even know if the poster is even around, but it _is_ written to me, so I think I’ll respond.
> [@Dropo](#):
>
> “Helping others is noble, but when it replaces your soul’s work, it’s codependent.”
This appears to be the thesis, or culmination of their point. And that’s the problem. That’s not what codependency is.
Codependency is not about one’s desire to help others. It’s about enabling self-destructive habits because you depend on the other person needing you in order to attain happiness.
This does not happen in the film. Even if we take Bedford Falls as his metaphorical partner, he does not at any point enable the self-destructive habits of its citizens. He is not dependent on any of them needing him in order to be happy.
To quickly address the articles: the first one touched on an aspect of codependency, but is really about a type of collectivism, and importantly never calls George codependent.
The second one is not online and the Wayback Machine is currently down. The third only mentions the quote I already refuted. People just misuse the concept of codependency a whole lot, when they seem to mean “too self-sacrificial.”
---
### Author:  [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/353 "2025-12-24T13:08:07Z")
I like its humanistic and populist themes, but hate its focus on the nuclear family. I appreciate the metatext of Jimmy Stewart of all people—a man who put his career on hold to fly bombing missions over Europe—being the mouthpiece (I’m considerably less impressed by the director, Capra, joining the Army to direct propaganda films) but hate the text explicitly telling all the people who did nothing and stayed home during WWII that they are the _real_ heroes as long as their heart was in the right place. It’s like that scene in _All Quiet on the Western Front_ where Paul comes home on leave and his dad is civsplaining to him not only how to win the war in an afternoon, but also just how incredibly hard they have it back home compared to those youths living it up at the front, getting all the best food and medals for bravery on top of it. Except where Paul’s father is clearly framed as clueless to the point of offensiveness, _It’s a Wonderful Life_ would have us believe he’s actually got it right.
Oh, and I absolutely hate the christian propaganda aspects of the film. James Stewart should have effing died by suicide and they should have tried to make their point at his g-damn funeral in a eulogy if they had to. The film might have had some genuine sting then, at least, rather than serving as a slap in the face to all the real life humans in despair, _none of whom_ (for reasons which should be obvious to anyone who isn’t a child) will benefit from the intercession of a guardian angel sent by a loving god. In fact, it is the religious overtones of the final act that ruin it for me and make it overall unpalatable (I could probably get over the rest, just by virtue of its genuinely pro-human and populist themes, but the gross and offensive Christian fantasy ruins it).
---
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/354 "2025-12-24T15:28:48Z")
I probably mentioned this in another thread, but…what happens _after_ the movie?
I think The Building and Loan will prosper in the post-war boom, Potter will be dead within ten years (sooner, if the SNL alternate ending happens!). Maybe George will finally get to tour the world after all. His kids can take over the business.
But…what about the fact he KNOWS with absolute certainty, that the Christian religion is right? There is a benevolent God, angels, miracles, and maybe even a plan for us? How will he go back to the mundanity of everyday life?
I mean, maybe he could convince himself that it really was all a dream. But it would still be nagging at the back of his mind. “Do the right thing, George. Live up to what God showed you.”
So then he’ll quit the B&L business, sell everything, and become an evangelical preacher. He’d take the same intensity and drive and neglect of his family and his self that he used in banking and transfer it to his new addiction of preaching. George would just have to save everyone. He couldn’t let it go.
Eventually, as George is a flawed man, he’ll end up in come compound with true believers awaiting the End Times, and they’ll all end up drinking the Kool Aid. George used up his one guardian angel, who now that he has his wings, is too busy hanging with the cool angels playing angel games, and God says “I’m not doing that again, he’s on his own this time.”
And all the while Uncle Billy is burning in the fires of hell, because George’s God is a cruel and vindictive God
PS I still love the movie!
---
### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/355 "2025-12-24T15:47:30Z")
ot: Aren’t most people familiar with the movie because there was a problem with the rights to it and TV stations were playing it endlessly for free?
---
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/356 "2025-12-24T16:04:24Z")
Wonderful Life used to run on several cable channels like TBS,WGN, and others. I think my local tv even aired it on the Sunday afternoon matinee.
No exaggeration, it was playing 5 or more times in Dec. That was the mid 70’s to mid 80’s.
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/357 "2025-12-24T16:06:12Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#):
>
> I wouldn’t watch just anything that Jimmy Stewart did, but IAWL is among his best.
My favorite is _Harvey_. How can you not love a movie with a 6-foot tall invisible rabbit?
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#):
>
> Not on full display here, but later in the Anthony Mann westerns, was Stewart’s portrayal of “barely contained rage.”
>
> Not something that’s appreciated by casual observers, but notice how it’s absent from most of the great actors’ toolkits. Olivier mastered an undercurrent of menace, Burton could simmer and Rod Steiger seethe. But besides Peter O’Toole, not a lot of actors can command the ability to become a pressure cooker about to blow up like Jimmy Stewart.
I’ve heard that some of the raw emotions in IAWL came from PTSD. Jimmy Stewart was freshly back from WWII and… had things to work through.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/358 "2025-12-24T16:12:20Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#):
>
> Aren’t most people familiar with the movie because there was a problem with the rights to it and TV stations were playing it endlessly for free?
That, and (like A Christmas Story), it’s very episodic, so you can have it on in the background in the odd little slices of time you have during the holidays, and reliably catch a few nice vignettes without feeling like you’re missing out on a complete story.
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#):
>
> I’ve heard that some of the raw emotions in IAWL came from PTSD. Jimmy Stewart was freshly back from WWII and… had things to work through.
Famously, the scene with him crying in Martini’s was originally a wide-angle shot, but it was so intense that Coppola wanted it as a close-up. “Can you do that again?”, and he said no, he didn’t think he could. So Coppola manually enlarged and trimmed all of those frames to turn it into a close-up.
---
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/359 "2025-12-24T16:21:33Z")
[Stewart was Awarded](https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-50005/) the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Second Award of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The actor we saw in Wonderful Life and the Anthony Mann westerns was totally different than the comedies in the 1930’s.
> **[Heroes And Leaders: Jimmy Stewart | Air & Space Forces Magazine](https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/heroes-and-leaders-jimmy-stewart/)**
>
> Major Stewart was promoted to Group Operations Officer and sent down the road 9 miles to the 453rd Bomb Group. When Airmen were told they were getting a movie star.
> [@](#):
>
> Stewart came home a changed man. His parents were upset by how much he had aged. He was thinner; his face looked tighter. The press asked about his gray hair. He said: “It got pretty rough overseas at times.”
>
> He moved in with his friend, Henry Fonda, home after three years in the Navy. They sat quietly, intensely building model airplanes out of balsa. Stewart didn’t make a movie for a year. He refused to glamorize his war service, refused to make a film: “The Jimmy Stewart Story. “I saw too much suffering. It’s certainly not something to talk about—or celebrate.”
---
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/360 "2025-12-24T16:47:29Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#):
>
> ot: Aren’t most people familiar with the movie because there was a problem with the rights to it and TV stations were playing it endlessly for free?
According to [the Wikipedia page,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Wonderful_Life) not quite free: the movie’s copyright lapsed due to a clerical error but [the author of the original story](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Van_Doren_Stern) – _[The Greatest Gift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Gift)_ – had to be paid.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638.md?page=17)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638.md?page=19)