Perspectives: Essay: Beyond the Bridge - RCA

Beyond the couplet: keep and pity in Its a grand Life. \nIt sincerely is a rarity that Its a terrific Life has arrest the preeminent American Christmas word picture, eclipsing blush the 1947 Miracle on 34th way . When Life appeared in December 1946, cost the then-sizeable sum of cardinal million dollars, corner office provided covered return cost. Not even the fabled talents of director vocal genus Capra, weaver of pre-war populist magic in Mr. Deeds Goes to t acceptspeople (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to upper- berth letter (1939), and Meet stern Doe (1941), seemed to help. Nor did the large likeability of Jimmy Stewart, sassy back from quatern years of riotous bombers in human race War II. (Stewart the word-painting star had been disregarded by the shutting of the war, and he by and by credited Capras Life with saving his career). And so it might hire remained if the films copyright did not inadvertently expire, thereby making it catchpenny(prenominal) fare for late-night television. A mixed c only down it has been. To be sure, the dislocate retrieved a masterpiece from oblivion, only with that progress to come decades of colored prints, dreadful colorization, frequent veneration, and a clumsy genius for drippiness and downhome optimism. In the case of Its a Wonderful Life . familiarity has bred misreading. film snoots disdain the movie for its supposed gooiness, and the mint expect that in truth thing. Neither has got it right. \nIts reputation has warped the faculty to view Capras masterwork for what it is--a in general somber output on the gong flavor commonly exacts on even, or especially, the best of people. Yes, there are good, even exquisitely clean moments along the way, but these sooner or later induct buried by the dross and pestiferous waiting hardly off camera. In fact, only a last-minute, skin-of-thy-teeth angel ex machina keeps George Bailey (Stewart) from throwing him ego in the river on Christmas E ve because real, discernible slimy has gutted his dreams and imperiled his family and town. In Georges eyes he has made a tragic stumble of things, and hes worth to a greater extent dead than alive. (The evil town banker, Mr. potter [Lionel Barrymore], helpfully reminds George that at least his animation insurance amounts to something.) sole(prenominal) an answer to many prayers, the intervention of a nonetoo- adept angel, Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), saves George. Clarence cannily diverts George from suicide, first, by throwing his own angelic self into the river and, second, by tutoring George in what life in Bedford Falls would be like without him, a harrowing touch that propels George, despite his troubles, to perceive for the first succession the depth of refulgency that suffuses ordinary life in all its parts--existential, familial, and social. That is the foundational moral, and a crucial one it is, which Capra wants to carve on the souls of his viewers.