Friday, July 10, 2015

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)


MIMDB score: 7.5
Current IMDB score: 8.7
Director: Frank Capra
Main Actors you care about: James Stewart, Donnie Reed

Why I liked it:
It's another one of those whole life movies.  I feel like I have a bias towards those because I think in the long term and very little in the short term.  Leads to a few problems in my life but also leads to a lot of good things.  As with most ways to live it's partly good and partly bad.  I'm getting sidetracked because I can't think of much of why I like this movie.

It's just good.  It's really only about this guy that puts everyone else before himself in life and doesn't ultimately get to do what he wants with his life.  Love gets him, helping others gets him, being a good person gets him, standing up to bad guys gets him, a lot of things just get him to not do exactly what he wants with his life.  I used to think that's how my life is but that's not true.  That's just how I want my life to be.  This movie gives you that sense that your life is really for everyone.  The ending scene makes you want to cry.  It's hard to watch the ending scene and not cry.  Everyone in the town that this guy has helped turns around and helps him when he is down.  It's beautiful in that way.  James Stewart is the golden rule personified in a person. In case you've never heard, this saying is considered the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you liked to be treated."

What stands out:
It's in black and white. It's old.  This is one of the first movies that every did the "what would life be like without you in it".  It interesting to think about whether you are a positive or negative influence on the people around you.

What I Would Change (if anything):  It could be done better I fell like.  Don't get me wrong it's good already.  I feel like modernization could be done to it and the story could really shine.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:  Ending Scene. Every time a person comes up to give him some money I tear up.  I start crying every time I see his wive's face when he looks at her at the end.  She seems so happy for him.  I'm sure after so many years of having a wife and having her do something like that would overwhelm me.  I'm usually staring at her face the whole scene because it's so good.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: Mr. Holland's Opus

"Side" note: They "remastered" the black and white version to make it in color.  It sounds like it will look terrible but it's actually pretty good looking.  I believe they painted (by computer hand) each object in the beginning of every scene and the computer was mostly able to keep that object the same color through a whole shot.  Pretty interesting.

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