It's a Wonderful Life at 75: I Want to Live Again

A few days ago, I took in a 75th anniversary screening of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life at The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge. I had planned to share my observations at the time, but when I exited the theatre I saw the long line of people snaked around Harvard Square waiting for a COVID test. The sight of that line put my thoughts onto more immediate things.

Under the circumstances, it is probably just as well that I left my observations to Christmas Eve when millions will watch It's a Wonderful Life will on NBC. I have watched It's a Wonderful Life nearly every year since 1987 when I was a teenager. It was around that time I started impersonating Jimmy Stewart which was in part inspired by Dana Carvey's impersonation which I first heard on SNL when they envisioned what would happen if Uncle Billy had remembered where he placed the $8,000.

I have to admit I always cringe when Uncle Billy puts the $8,000 into the newspaper and inadvertently gives it to Mr. Potter and is unable to recall speaking with him. But without Uncle Billy's absent mindedness and faulty memory we don't have George Bailey's world fall apart followed by Clarence Oddbody to show him what life would be like without him in the world. The part which has over time really gotten to me is when George Bailey flees Pottersville and go back to the bridge begging Clarence to take him back to Bedford Falls and says, "I want to live again."  George Bailey gets a new lease on life and rewarded for his choice while Clarence gets his wings. All is wonderful.

As time has gone on I have come to realize that George Bailey is a pain in the ass who is angry at the world and everyone in it which is peculiar when Mary Bailey (played so ably by Donna Reed) is devoted to him as are his children especially ZuZu. But Jimmy Stewart gives him enough decency to make him endearing. There is, of course, good and bad in all of us. Sometimes it's hard to see the good in some people especially in those who among us refuse to wear a mask, get vaccinated and otherwise appear not to give a damn about anybody else - at least outwardly.

With each passing year, I sometimes wonder what good I've ever done for anybody much less myself. I think this with the knowledge with each passing year that my times grows shorter. The shortness of time could be days or decades. But there will be an end and in the end I can only hope that I mattered to someone in some way even if it is only my impression of Jimmy Stewart.