Posts Tagged ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’
3 items.
Nov29
IT’S A WONDERFUL THING TO LORD OVER EVERYONE ELSE
November 29th, 2004 |
(5 votes, average: 8.60 out of 10)
Sitting down to watch It’s A Wonderful Life to kick off the holiday season is probably a tradition most families share. That was certainly the case in Cami’s household. They treat is as the pinnacle of holiday entertainment. Cami even has several books about the movie and its history.
And while I’m a big Jimmy Stewart fan, watching It’s A Wonderful Life at my house just wasn’t as big a deal. So, since being married to Cami almost 5 years ago, she has included me into her tradition. While I enjoy it, the film still raises questions for me.
Like most Frank Capra films, there are too many convenient twists in favor of the protagonist. Things end a little too neatly. What happens to these characters afterwards? There is no resolution…
* THE REST OF THIS BLOG POST WAS LOST WHEN THEATER HOPPER WAS MOVED TO WORDPRESS IN JANUARY 2009 *
[ No Comments ]
Monday’s comic generated some interesting feedback. Most notably, this message which I received from J.B. Lee. I thought I would share it with you all.
Great strip, and I’m glad to hear there’ll be a little more follow-up. But to those who say to you “GET IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT,CURMUDGEON” remind them that It’s A Wonderful Life ISN’T A CHRISTMAS MOVIE save only peripherally. It’s a “What If” Fantasy that CONCLUDES at Christmas.
It doesn’t fit the rules of Christmas Movies, i.e. some Christmas-related miracle (Ghosts of Christmas, Polar Expresses, Santa, Elf, Reindeer, Magic Whatzits) falls into the midst of hard-hearted cynics and wins them over with its innocence and charm.
Clarence the Angel isn’t Christmas-related, nor is the disaster that befalls George Bailey, nor the alternate time line that Clarence reveals to him. The conclusion is not an illustration of Christmas Spirit, but of the strong friendships Bailey has made over the years among the people of Bedford Falls,and it should be clear that it would have ended that way had the villainous Potter done his villainy in July.
J.B. goes on to express his admiration and love for It’s A Wonderful Life saying “it may be my favorite flick ever.” When I asked if I could use his letter in the blog, he cheerfully replied “neither I nor anyone in my family are in the least bashful with our BELLIGERENT, OBNOXIOUS OPINIONS!” I got a real kick out of J.B.’s letter and it got me thinking about It’s A Wonderful Life in a whole new way.
I actually did a little bit of research about the movie on the Internet Movie Database and turned up this interesting nugget of information. Did you know we’ve essentially come to associate the movie with Christmas due to a clerical error that allowed networks to rebroadcast the movie repeatedly without any royalties going to the Frank Capra estate. It’s unfortunate because the film was originally a flop in it’s 1946 release.
Oh, and for those of you that are curious, I had a couple people get back to me on that $8,000 inflation question.
Patrick Jennings used this site to report that $8,000 in today’s money would be $75,488. Bryan Covington used this site to calculate the amount to be $78,191.03 – a difference of a little more than $2,700. In either case, it doesn’t seem like a large enough sum of money to hurl yourself from a bridge over. Didn’t George have, like… six kids? Selfish jerk…
Expect more It’s A Wonderful Life parody tomorrow!
[ No Comments ]
Dec01
Man, can you believe it’s already December 1st? Incidentally, my birthday is in 20 days. No reason to share that information. Just an FYI.
I remember when I was younger, it seems like after Thanksgiving was over it would take FOREVER for Christmas to get here. Now that I’m older and have a concept of time, I realize it’s a scant 3 weeks away.
Still having some fun with It’s A Wonderful Life. I don’t know why I feel the need to dissect a film from the 1940’s through the prism of contemporary attitudes other than it’s just fun to do so.
Cami was actually the one to point out Donna Reed’s character becoming an old maid when we watched the movie last weekend. It’s always bugged her. It is pretty sexist if you stop to think about it.
Basically, it reflects the attitude of the day that if you were a woman, you life would have no meaning unless you were married and had kids. These days we have Sex and the City which loudly celebrates a woman’s independence from such expectations. It’s interesting to see how far we’ve come in the last… oh 60 years. C’mon. Isn’t this all common sense to everyone by now?
By the way, our little online community is organizing a Secret Santa gift exchange relatively soon. I’ll be participating. The person whose name is randomly given to me will be given some original holiday-themed Theater Hopper art! I know that kind of ruins the surprise a little, so that’s why I’m not posting any pictures of the artwork. Never mind I haven’t actually completed the artwork yet…
I really have nothing else to add at the moment. Call it The Wednesday Blahs. We have an advertising spot available if you’re interested in getting the word out about your site. We’re also still taking pre-orders for shirts, baby doll tees and hoodies. Pre-orders end December 10th! Get your order in now!
[ No Comments ]
