Review of It`s a Wonderful Life: 60th Anniversary Edition

Introduction

Like turkey, snowmen and the Queen`s speech, `It`s a Wonderful Life` has become a Christmas tradition and is, without fail, broadcast on TV during the festive period. The story originated when Philip Van Doren Stern turned his unsuccessful short story `The Greatest Gift` into 200 Christmas cards, which he sent to friends and family. Thinking they could make a Christmas movie with Cary Grant, RKO bought the rights to the story for $10,000, but then shelved the project. Desperate to get rid of it, RKO sold the rights to Frank Capra, who had read `The Greatest Gift` and was eager make the film himself. Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, along with Capra, turned the three scripts that came with the rights into one screenplay which was polished by Jo Swerling and, on April 15, 1946, the filming of `It`s a Wonderful Life` began.

The film opens in heaven, where two angels are talking about George Bailey and how he`s about to throw away the most precious gift of all - something that their boss isn`t too happy about at all. They summon Clarence, an `angel second-class`, who has yet to gain his wings and prepare him for his mission on Earth by showing him the first stages of George`s life. The first half of the film shows how he changed from a happy-go-lucky young man who wanted to travel the world and do and see everything, to a bankrupt businessman on the verge of suicide on Christmas Eve.

On a freezing bridge above a raging river, guardian angel Clarence makes his entrance, preventing George from killing himself. After granting George`s wish that he`d never been born, Clarence shows him how the world would have been without a George Bailey: the grave of his brother; the nightmarish Pottersville; his pauper mother and beloved Mary as an old maid. When he sees how much he means to the community of Bedford Falls, George realises, in one of the most emotional endings every committed to celluloid, that it IS a wonderful life after all.

Overlooked at both the box-office and the Oscars, with the plaudits and money going instead to `The Best Years of Our Lives`, directed, ironically enough, by Frank Capra`s partner at Liberty Films, William Wyler. Due to its heart-warming nature and timeless quality, `It`s a Wonderful Life` has enjoyed a longevity that Wyler`s movie has not, and gains new fans every year.

Video

Presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and clearly re-mastered, this is the sharpest I`ve ever seen the film, with a crisp transfer and high contrast and none of the softness, grain and lack of definition that affected the other versions. Compare these screenshots to those on the R2 review to see how markedly different they are.

Audio

There are Dolby 2.0 Mono soundtracks in both English and French - I skipped through the film with the French dub and didn`t notice any problems, except the voices just sound `wrong`! The soundtrack is perfectly clear and ideal for this type of dialogue-dominated film.

Optional and well-presented English subtitles are available and, for French speakers, signs in English are translated to French.

Features

That American icon, Tom Bosley, hosts `The Making of It`s a Wonderful Life`, whilst standing in front of a roaring fire, with a Christmas tree, wearing a rather Christmassy jumper. The 23 minute documentary itself is fairly thorough, taking you from its origins, through filming, to its lack of success at the Academy Awards and box-office and its eventual recognition as an enduring favourite.

`A Personal Remembrance` by Frank Capra Jr. includes archive interview footage of James Stewart and Frank Capra and is a fairly revealing and enjoyable watch, despite Capra Jr.`s understandable bias.

These two features are both subtitled in French and English.

The original theatrical trailer is also available.

There is a trailer for `Last Holiday` that precedes the menu, fortunately this can be skipped. This is also available as a `Preview` in the Special Features section.

Conclusion

Frank Capra`s perennial favourite is a true masterpiece. Beautifully written, shot and edited, with tremendous performances by James Stewart as the socially awkward everyman George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary, the love of his life and Lionel Barrymore as the avaricious Mr. Potter; the supporting cast of character actors are uniformly excellent.

Every time I watch `It`s a Wonderful Life`, I`d love to be George Bailey, living in a ramshackle old house, married to the beautiful and faithful Mary, with their four lovely children, in Bedford Falls as "the richest man in town" (Does this make me a narcissist?). Frank Capra even manages to fit in social and political commentary, with the `Building and Loan` social model being preferable to the vice-ridden slum town that it would be under the greedy capitalist Potter.

If there`s one thing that Frank Capra does well, it`s finding the soul of his characters, from Jefferson Smith in `Mr. Smith Goes to Washington` through Longfellow Deeds in `Mr. Deeds Goes to Town` to George Bailey in `It`s a Wonderful Life`. By showing George`s descent into utter despair and taking us on an extremely dark journey, the ending is all the more rewarding and emotional.

There is no reason at all why I should like `It`s a Wonderful Life` - I`m an atheist, I don`t `do` Christmas and generally dislike overly sentimental films, yet this ultimate feel-good movie is one of my top three favourite films of all time and guaranteed to make me cry. It doesn`t have to be Christmas to watch this film, but it helps!

`It`s a Wonderful Life` is a timeless classic and a DVD collection is incomplete without it. This is the one to buy, either on its own, or as part of the 2-disc `Collector`s Edition`, which also has a colourised version of the film.