It's a Wonderful Life
5 Oscar Nominations·AFI #20·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
What critics thought
Initially greeted with mixed-to-dismissive reviews on release, the film found its true audience three decades later as a Christmas television staple, and is now regarded as a near-definitive holiday classic — though a persistent counter-reading insists the darkness underneath the sentiment is the whole point, making Bedford Falls as much a trap as a paradise. Critics then and now have split most sharply over Capra's sentimentality: is it a humane gift or a manipulation that condescends to the audience and papers over genuinely bleak material?
“the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it—its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow, they all resemble theatrical attitudes, rather than average realities.”
Bosley Crowther·The New York Times
“It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's inventiveness, humor, and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement.”
Time
“Often, in its pile-driving emotional exuberance, it outrages, insults, or at least accosts without introduction, the cooler and more responsible parts of the mind; it is nevertheless recommended.”
James Agee·The Nation
“It's a Wonderful Life will enjoy just that at the b.o. [box office], and eminently deserves to do so.”
Bert Briller·Variety
Genres
Drama, Family, Fantasy
Cast & Crew
DirectorFrank Capra
StarringJames Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers
ComposerDimitri Tiomkin
It's a Wonderful Life
5 Oscar Nominations·AFI #20·National Film Registry
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
What critics thought
Initially greeted with mixed-to-dismissive reviews on release, the film found its true audience three decades later as a Christmas television staple, and is now regarded as a near-definitive holiday classic — though a persistent counter-reading insists the darkness underneath the sentiment is the whole point, making Bedford Falls as much a trap as a paradise. Critics then and now have split most sharply over Capra's sentimentality: is it a humane gift or a manipulation that condescends to the audience and papers over genuinely bleak material?
“the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it—its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow, they all resemble theatrical attitudes, rather than average realities.”
Bosley Crowther·The New York Times
“It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's inventiveness, humor, and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement.”
Time
“Often, in its pile-driving emotional exuberance, it outrages, insults, or at least accosts without introduction, the cooler and more responsible parts of the mind; it is nevertheless recommended.”
James Agee·The Nation
“It's a Wonderful Life will enjoy just that at the b.o. [box office], and eminently deserves to do so.”
Bert Briller·Variety
Genres
Drama, Family, Fantasy
Cast & Crew
DirectorFrank Capra
StarringJames Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers
ComposerDimitri Tiomkin
Rent/Purchase