Always makes me cry

This film always makes me cry. I love it. It's one of my favorites. This edition is a very good one and should be picked up by any fan of the film. I do love and value my life, just like George does at the end of the film.

I also hope my neighbors bring me a bucket of money, should I ever need one.

:)

A beloved Christmas classic

A man named George Bailey (a superb James Stewart) lives in a small town called Bedford Falls. He contemplates happy times and travelling with his love Mary (Donna Reed). But on Chrsitmas Eve, because of intense frustration and an impending scandal - he conemplates suicide. He is visited by an angel named Clarence (a lovely performance by Henry Travers) who shows him what the world will be like if he had never been born. It is at this point that the film becomes very dark (especially given what has gone before), yet the underlying message is simple and uplifting - "no one is a failure who has friends". George Bailey was a completely selfless man, who thought himself a failure, and yet didn't realise he was so loved by his friends and neighbours.

Now I'm not used to seeing older US films like this but its' still a lovely film, maybe even inspiring Simpsons jokes (some plot elements are taken off in the episode "When Flanders Failed", and the horrible rich businessman Henry Potter played by Lionel Barrymore, is like Mr. Burns in a way). Some ideas may be taken from A Chrsitmas Carol as well.

Throughout the film George is such a nice, honest, friendly guy, who will help all his friends out. This is shown in the scene where he gives his honeymoon money away to help them until the bank opens. Its' a very close knit community where everyone knows everyone else.

Yet, the last part in which we see Bedford Falls is now called "Pottersvile" after the Scrooge-like Mr. Potter is genuinely disturbing and shows Bailey's descent into sadness, anger and despair when no-one, not even his mother, knows him.
Everything is different and the whole town has a "bad" air.

But it is overall a beautiful film that is so warm and touching, and made me feel happy and sad all at once - an American classic.

Call me a sap, but this is genuine hollywood magic

I have watched this movie many times, and each time it makes me cry and feel overwhelmed with emotion. This amazes me, because it is so sentimental and in many ways contrived, at least as we see it through our jaded modern eyes. Sure, it was made for a simpler time, but there is no doubt that it taps into universal human truths and hopes.

Jimmy Stewart is wonderful as a good and talented man who allows his sense of responsibility to guide his life, which costs him hugely in his sense of frustration and thwarted ambition. You see it in him as a child, particularly the scene in the drug store, where he saves more than one life. (That scene chokes me up every time I see it. There is such struggle and caring in it, such courage as he sticks to his decision. It is one of the most powerful scenes I have ever seen in the cinema.) Of course, he has a terrible crisis that is resolved, with a renewed sense of life.

Donna Reed is also wonderful as his wife, a simple woman who loves him in the way we would all hope to be loved in marriage. Indeed, she embodies an ideal and yet is so believable that it makes me introspect on my own marriage. And Barrymore! The perfect capitalist ogre.

Like many, I watch this every Christmas season and feel awe at the power of a perfectly crafted hollywood story. While we get down on hollywood formulas, there are times when it works as well as one could hope. That is this film, one of the finest ever made.

Warmly recommended.