It Really is a Wonderful Life
Don Feder has a great article contrasting the real message of the movie It's A Wonderful Life with the New York Times vision of it.
A friend told me: "Show me a list of a person's favorite movies and I'll tell you what he believes — including his politics." Another said he could pretty much tell how someone felt about America by his reaction to John Wayne movies.
I'm inclined to think that cinema shapes reality far more than reflects it. But the type of movies we are drawn to reveals our worldview — provides a map of our inner selves.
The left adores films that are anti-American, anti-faith, politically correct, paranoid, cynical and nihilistic. In the past few years, the critics have salivated over trash like, "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Million Dollar Baby," "The Departed," "Atonement," and - most recently - "Batman: the Dark Knight."
Movies that reflect middle-class norms and Judeo-Christian values are derided as dull, cliched, unrealistic, simplistic and saccharine.
An over-the-top example of the left's disdain for normalcy is the piece by City Editor Wendell Jamieson in the December 19 New York Times ("Wonderful? Sorry, George, It's a Pitiful, Dreadful Life") in which the writer takes a sledge hammer, a chainsaw and a flame-thrower to "It's a Wonderful Life."
The Capra classic is #11 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American movies -- just behind "Singin' in the Rain" and ahead of "Sunset Boulevard." It was Frank Capra's favorite film and Jimmy Stewart's favorite role.
Movie maven Roger Ebert observes: "What is remarkable about 'It's a Wonderful Life' is how well it holds up over the years. It's one of those ageless movies, like 'Casablanca' or 'The Third Man' that improves with age. Some movies, even good ones, should be seen only once. When we know how they turn out, they've surrendered their mystery and appeal. Other movies can be viewed an indefinite number of times. Like great music, they improve with familiarity. 'It's a Wonderful Life' falls in the second category." ...
Generations of fans have been charmed and inspired by its gentle humor, pathos, humanity and life-affirming story...
Jamieson -- and, presumably, The Times — finds "It's a Wonderful Life," "a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife."
In other words -- follow your dream, even if it leads you to a life filled with material success that's spiritually impoverished, and others suffer in the process?
The elite thinks bitterness and narrowness are the defining characteristics of small-town America.
If the hicks are mean-spirited and all that, why do the cities have much higher rates of homicide, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse and other social pathologies than the sticks?
For George Bailey, Jamieson tells us, "disappointments pile up." He's the "pathetic older sibling," who's "emasculated when his bad hearing keeps him out of World War II." Finally, "all the decades of anger boil to the surface" and George "explodes" with justifiable rage. Liberals are big on rage - anger being a sign of authenticity.
Jamieson would probably look at "Casablanca" and say, "It's a story about a disillusioned drunk who's manipulated by his ex-girlfriend, in the midst of municipal corruption."
According to Jamieson, Bailey's also a chump for sacrificing his happiness for those around him.
Not that the left is opposed to sacrifice in all cases. When it's for "racial justice," the downtrodden, spotted owls, the planet, the Kennedys — liberals are very much in favor of self-abnegation. It's sacrifice for family, friends, community and country that it finds incomprehensible.
Two things are worth noting about the way Jamieson sees Stewart's alternate reality - when George Bailey glimpses a world without him, and Bedford Falls transmogrifies into Pottersville.
The fate of George's family and friends is meant to show his positive impact on the lives of those around him. Instead, Jamieson draws a negative lesson.
The writer condescendingly observes: "Now as for that famous alternate reality sequence: This is supposedly what the town would turn out to be if not for George. I interpret it instead as showing the true characters of these individuals, their venal internal selves stripped bare." Thus "flirty Violet" becomes a tart, gruff but loveable Bert is maniac cop, and Ernie the cabbie is lonely and chronically depressed. How liberals love to psychoanalyze.
The Talmud tells us we all have two natures (the good inclination and the evil inclination) struggling for dominance. Sometimes all it takes is an act of kindness, or a good example, to push us in the right direction.
Jamieson's other bit of brilliance is when he smugly admits that he prefers Pottersville (a honky-tonk hell) to prosaic Bedford Falls.
Pottersville "looks like much more fun than stultifying Bedford Falls - the women are hot, the music swings, and the fun times go on all night. If anything, Pottersville captures just the sort of excitement George had long been seeking." Why then is he horrified by this vision? Our hero wanted to see the world and design buildings, not wallow in the gutter.
Apparently, it's irrelevant that George's wife becomes a mousey, spinster librarian, his mother is a bitter, dried-up hag who runs a dilapidated boarding house, Uncle Billy loses his marbles when the Building and Loan fails and ends up in the loony bin, the pharmacist, Mr. Gower, goes to prison for accidentally poisoning a child, and all of the men on a transport ship die in a kamikaze attack because brother Harry wasn't there to save them (because George wasn't there to save him when he fell through the ice as a child), and so on.
But then, what are a score of ruined lives compared to the babes and rock-around-the-clock action of Pottersville? By the way, it's interesting that a sophisticate like Jamieson finds gambling, fast women, bright lights and blaring music among life's most delightful experiences.
The great lesson of "It's a Wonderful Life": Each life is special. Be we ever so humble, there's no one like us. We actually can make the world a better place — or, in the words of the angel Clarence: "Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"
The great lesson of liberalism: There are no great lessons — no absolutes. Life is meaningless. Other than self-gratification and various causes (anodynes to make us forget our hopelessness) our lives serve no purpose...
This courageous, ultimately optimistic, little gem of a movie is a ray of light trying to penetrate the shriveled soul of modern liberalism.
Read the whole thing at JWR.