It's a Wonderful Life

[osprey_archer]

Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life - indeed, Frank Capra’s entire oeuvre - is often snidely described as “heart-warming.” Presumably these are the same people who deride Disney movies as sweet, fluffy tales, never mind all the manifoldly scarring moments in Disney movies: the deaths of Bambi’s mother and Simba’s father, the dragon in Sleeping

Comments

[goldenusagi]

Pinocchio was scarring, wasn't it? I don't really remember much about that movie besides the weird parts.

[osprey_archer]

I don't remember it very well either. I refused to ever watch it again, and we may have even gotten rid of the video.

[bunn]

We watched 'It's a wonderful life' for the first time this Christmas, expecting, as you say, a 'heart-warming' fluffy sort of film - nothing very serious, but everyone has watched this, maybe we should too...

We were a bit O_o - not just at Bailey going through the mill, but also his courtship, and his behaviour towards his wife and kids. I guess the bit where he steals the girl's clothes and she's hiding in a bush begging him to give them back may have felt more whimsical when the movie was made. Likewise the yelling at frightened children.

[osprey_archer]

I think we're meant to find his yelling at his children upsetting - the fact that they're so unnerved by it suggests to me that this isn't how he usually behaves.

The hiding in the bush thing is clearly meant to be whimsical, though. Blech.

[osprey_archer]

Isn't Jimmy Stewart adorable? He's also awesome in The Philadelphia Story, which also has Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant and is therefore pretty much the best movie ever.