It’s A Wonderful Life: Faux Populism
It’s A Wonderful Life: Faux Populism
Somewhere I never saw a full version of this classic, Its a Wonderful Life, but here it is on Christmas Eve, an official Christmas classic. I was always suspicious of it, from all I had heard, but it looks less worth than I had heard. I mean, really, local bank owner gets into real estate problems? And the well-intentioned owner is somehow some great hero? He is offered total control of local monopolies. Heck, today’s WaPo noted that the real hero is the wife, played by Donna Reed, Indeed she saves the day in many ways, including the final money pile-on to save him.
OK, so now I have finally seen the whole thing, but, I think I got the bottom line already above.
Merry Christmas, you all
Barkley Rosser
Barkley,
[It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946 on the heels of the Great Depression and WWII. Jimmy Stewart was the every-man character actor of the day – an analog to our Tom Hanks – at a time when every man had anger issues, many from PTSD, and misogyny was normal behavior. In any case, Bailey Brothers Building and Loan was in trouble because Uncle Billy misplaced $8K in company bank deposits into the evil hands of Mister Potter. The Baileys had been so revered and respected in the community that Marry Bailey found plenty of willing to donors to help out her husband. It is my wife’s favorite Christmas film and she is far more representative of the general population than either you or I.]
“It’s A Wonderful Life”
Theatrically, the film’s break-even point was $6.3 million, about twice the production cost, a figure it did not come close to achieving on its initial release. Because of the film’s disappointing sales, Capra was seen by some studios as having lost his ability to produce popular, financially successful films.[5] Although It’s a Wonderful Life initially received mixed reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office, it became a classic Christmas film after it was put into the public domain, which allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees.[6]
It’s a Wonderful Life is considered one of the greatest films of all time. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made.[7] It was No. 11 on the American Film Institute‘s 1998 greatest movie list, No. 20 on its 2007 greatest movie list, and No. 1 on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time.[8] Capra revealed that it was his favorite among the films he directed and that he screened it for his family every Christmas season. It was one of Stewart’s favourite films.[9] In 1990, the film was designated as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress…”
One of those suffering from what we now call PTSD, but was then called Combat Fatigue, was Jimmy Stewart himself. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/jimmy-stewarts-not-so-wonderful-life-with-ptsd/
Thx.
Fee fi faux fumble :<)
When I was an undergraduate at Berkeley in 1960, I happened on a TV showing of Burt Lancaster’s “Crimson Pirate” one evening in one of the Engineering dorms. There seemed to be a consensus among the students that this wonderfully absurd swashbuckler was too stupid to watch because of the various physical impossibilities, particular Lancaster’s escape from under the sea by breathing the air bubble in an overturned rowboat while walking on the bottom. An engineering analysis of an old pirate movie can get you only so far in your understanding of our culture. A socio-economic analysis of Pottersville banking has the same limitation.
Well Don:
You were expecting something different from Hollywood?
That air bubble thing can actually work, though probably not as it was done in the movie. You’d have to be able to hold the rowboat under water which can be a bit of a trick.
Ron
i am curious to know what makes it great? i have never seen it. All my old favorites have not aged well. Or I have not. I used to be a romantic. Now I am an old grouch. Still like old fashioned romance, but with modern acting and directing styles. Or that’s as near as I can explain it. I’ll cut a lot of slack in the way of suspension of disbelief if they’ll tell me a story i want to believe in a way i can believe it at least while i am watching it.
[“romance” does not mean love story, though it might.]
Coberly,
Greatness is in the eyes of the beholder, but populism can only be crowd-sourced. Since It’s a Wonderful Life has been vastly popular for 75 years, then its appeal to populism really seems to be working. So, that says real a lot louder than faux. Rosser begins with a false premise headline and goes on to misrepresent the film plot. So, “local bank owner gets into real estate problems” misrepresents “Bailey Brothers Building and Loan was in trouble because Uncle Billy misplaced $8K in company bank deposits into the evil hands of Mister Potter.” Then “offered total control of local monopolies” must be a reference to George Bailey turning down an offer to turn over his company to Potter in exchange for a much better paying job.
Sure, I can be as much of an effete pseudo-intellectual snob as the next nerd, but I do not abandon semantics or all touch with reality in the process. My argument here is purely about the claims made against the famously popular film, rather than make a case for it as a great film. However, my Wikipedia excerpt included such a claim, so I will make the effort to place that claim in a realistic context.
Back when It’s a Wonderful Life was released our country had just gone through a lot, Great Depression between two world wars and all. Around the time of WWI the office of POTUS had a socialist challenger for election, Eugene Debbs. So, after Black Tuesday, then even the bankers and film producers took note of populism. Fortunately for them their butts were saved by FDR and his New Deal, so the pitchforks and guillotines were again closeted. Take note that George Bailey was good neighbor rather than a greedy banker, he did not foreclose whenever he could and he was responsible for many people owning their own homes instead of renting from the greedy Potter.
So, the original context should be clear. One should remember that others remember and those that went through harsh and difficult times remember a lot for a very long time. My parents lived through those times. FDR was a saint in our home, more revered than any man other than Christ. Over time then the popularity of It’s a Wonderful Life was maintained more by custom, habit, and nostalgia than its original context. Then came the 2008 financial crisis and it was deja vu all over again.
Both George Baily and Uncle Billy were flawed with ambition, pride, and vanity. In the US, none of those things have even been in short supply. So, those are populist failings in this place and time.
Only since I began dating wife number three in 1999 have I been watching this Christmas classic every year. Although I like Jimmy Stewart in general, this is not his best film. I do not even like the film, but I never doubt its popular appeal. My favorite film is Blade Runner, which makes me a populist in a world where everyone is a sci-fi geek, but not this world. However, awareness of reality is necessary to maintain a true perspective of ones circumstances. It is not required that one take an exuberant role in that reality, but one should know where they stand in that reality at all times.
Ron
I just hope I didn’t say anything that sounded like I was disagreeing with what you are saying here. I got lost in Rosser post about “faux” populism and “called” communist..neither phrasing means anything.
it’s good to be reminded of the good old days of J.Edgar Hoover and tailgunner Joe. If we recovered (more or less) from those purveyors of pure evil, maybe we can recover from Trump and the people calling themselves Republicans today.
[re party loyalty: my family were Republicans. what I can say for them is that they lived in Chicago in a time when the Democrats had power, so were the party of corruption. I never saw any signs of them joining the red scare, and by the time of Reagan my mother had given up on the R’s. I gave up on the R’s just in time for Johnson to bring us Vietnam (and yes I know Ike had a hand in that). I did not realize that FDR was a great man until I started understanding Social Security…and from that recognizing that he succeded at some other difficult things that a lesser man could easily have messed up…as we have seen since.
Now I cannot even be “non partisan” because “the true power always is.”]
Coberly Dude,
“…I just hope I didn’t say anything that sounded like I was disagreeing with what you are saying here…”
No sir, not at all. You were asking and we were just discussing as we do. My late best friend called such discussions “kicking the shit around” which we did often. So, mostly we just discuss rather than disagree, such that each of us ends up a wee bit wiser for the effort.
thanks. responses i get around here sometimes make me worry that i might not be making myself clear.
Coberly,
“…what makes it great?…”
[The short answer is that it is a story of large scale reflection and redemption, which is a heady thing for a people that have had great failings while fleeing their own pasts. Now back to boiling compote from fresh gala apples.]
Ron
thanks. it’s a good sign that that is what made it great. i thought it might have been inspired acting or innovative camera angles, novel cutting and
flashbacks. it is extremely reassuring that people would find a story of reflection and redemption great. maybe the populistm is not faux after all.
Cob,
Yep.
Yeah, shame on me for dissing this officially great Christmas classic, just a grouchy old grinch I am. Ironically at one point the movie was accused of containing “communist” ideas.
You can partly blame my grouchiness on the fact that my wife, Marina, has caught the Covid and having a hard time with it, although vaxxed and boosted. Probably will stay out of the hospital. I just got a test and am still negative.
@Rosser,
In re: the “communist” ideas:
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/12/its-a-wonderful-life-fbi-hoover-red-scare-communism/?fbclid=IwAR33SVSqjmiaW2mNDM3-R-lfOlwl8xG9kWrfS4VR_cuK43RjKXAjVP75V2k
Don
I saw that movie when i was about ten. don’t know what i would think about it now. but i feel sorry for people who can’t watch a movie without some willing suspension of disbelief.
my guess is that a person can’t do much of anything without being willing to take a few “facts” or denials of facts on faith, at least provisionally. but now i am sounding like them.
and continuing in that vein, i suspect most people couldn’t write their own biographies without believing a lot of impossible things.
Rosser
sorry about your wife.
Thanks, coberly. It is going kind of roughly. It can be bad even for people who are vaxxed and boosted, as she is.
Barkley:
My 38-year-old daughter has Covid also and she has been bed ridden for seven days now. She is a nurse at University Hospital in Denver where she teaches also. My oldest son and his wife have it in Chicago and appear to be getting better. Both of their two daughters have it now also. The oldest daughter is pretty ill. All are fully inoculated except the Granddaughters only have the two shots.
My wife and I are holed up for now. I am already compromised so this could be serious for me.
All of them I mentioned are far younger than I and consequently stronger health-wise.
Been thinking about you Barkley, just don’t know what to say.
I am angry at Republicans, the ignorant who believe them, SCOTUS, those who block every effort with lies to prevent people from being inoculated or convincing them it is all a hoax, others who threaten us when you mask up or laugh. I can say a lot there
It is when you are finally there, ill from Covid, or watching a loved one struggle. Then it hits home. Mostly, those of us who care, end up just watching . . .
Run (and Barkley)
I wish I could help..but those are empty words unless kind thoughts help.
But everything I say about this just makes you angry at me.
I aam just as Angry at Republican “thought leaders” as you are, and just as angry, in a different way, at the people who follow them.
But I think angry thoughts are even less help than kind thoughts.
Thanks, guys.
My wife’s situation has worsened. Her O level is on the verge of her needing to be hospitalized. She has serious heart and other issues. I see people claiming omicron is “just a cold.” Not for some people.
Barkley:
It was never just a cold. Its impact has been minimized. No one talks about the aftereffects of Covid for some. And for those who have other issues, it is a struggle. Sorry . . .
A big part of our secular humanist xmas ritual every year is watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ on DVD. The only choice is whether to watch the authentic B&W version or the colorized one. The latter is more entertaining & I prefer it.
Ignoring the quaint business of guardian angels and all that, of course.
Follow this up with one or more versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’.
For us xmas is an entirely secular experience, and these are our rituals.
Meanwhile, the wedge issue of all wedge issues continues
First They Fought About Masks. Then Over the Soul of the City.
Almost completely unrelated…
Dave Barry’s 2021 Year In Review: A variant of 2020, so to speak
Is there anything positive we can say about the year? Yes. We can say that it was marginally better than last year. Granted, this is not high praise.
And, there were ten other months, not all featuring Covid, but of course Delta & Omicron get mentioned (at the link above) and …
Perhaps understandably, no mention of the tragic South Florida condo collapse in late June.
The Surfside Condo Collapse – June 24
No single event defined 2021 in South Florida more than the tragedy in Surfside and even now, six months later, the community is still struggling to come to grips with it.
Ninety-eight people lost their lives on June 24th when the Champlain Towers South collapsed in on itself in less than 20 seconds. …
Fred,
Thanks. Finally read your Dave Barry excerpts and they were as amusing and ironically perceptive as usual. Happy New Year.
Additional History
“This year, I read more than the usual posts about the film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” One thing that was new to me was the suspicion the film drew by the FBI as being a work of socialist/communist propaganda. Even seen in the context of the Cold War and red scare politics, this idea seems absurd on its face. Both George Bailey and his nemesis, Mr. Potter are businessmen; Bailey is a banker and Potter is a landlord. If this were socialist propaganda, Bailey would be a government official. And the crisis in the film is resolved (spoiler alert!) when George’s wife rallies the citizens of Bedford Falls to voluntarily donate their own money to make up the bank’s debt. No taxation was involved. This is libertarian propaganda, not socialist propaganda.
What may have saved the film from J. Edgar Hoover’s depredations was that Frank Capra’s and Jimmy Stewart’s political credentials were impeccable:
‘While known for their work on populist ‘little man vs. the system’ features, most notably in 1939’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, both men were in fact registered and staunch Republicans. Capra himself had openly expressed admiration for the fascist regimes of both Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco. While he would work with known left-wing screenwriters such as Jo Swerling, Robert Riskin, and Sidney Buchman, he also worked to preserve his own establishment credibility and distance himself from the proclivities of his collaborators by serving as an informant for the FBI on his left-leaning contemporaries.'”
It’s a Wonderful Life vs. the FBI
When ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Was Accused of Being Communist Propaganda
When the movie first came out, it fell under suspicion from the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). …
Screenplay credits on “It’s a Wonderful Life” went to Frances Goodrich and her husband Albert Hackett, Capra and Jo Swerling, although a number of others took turns at different times, including Clifford Odets, Dalton Trumbo and Marc Connelly — not an unusual situation in Hollywood. But a 1947 FBI memorandum, part of a 13,533-page document, “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry,” first went after the writers Goodrich and Hackett. …
“According to Informants [REDACTED] in this picture the screen credits again fail to reflect the Communist support given to the screen writer. According to [REDACTED] the writers Frances Goodrick [sic] and Albert Hackett were very close to known Communists and on one occasion in the recent past while these two writers were doing a picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Goodrick [sic] and Hackett practically lived with known Communists and were observed eating luncheon daily with such Communists as Lester Cole, screen writer, and Earl Robinson, screen writer. Both of these individuals are identified in Section I of this memorandum as Communists.” …
Perhaps, a more nuanced view here:
When ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Was Accused of Being Communist Propaganda
The FBI had quite a dossier (13,533 pages) on “Communist Infiltration
of the Motion Picture Industry,”
Note, however, that while ‘bankers’ were evil capitalists, ‘building &
loan’ operators were considered benevolent philanthropists.
Note also that the FBI went down extremely hard on John
Steinbeck, particularly for the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ (book & filem)
J Edgar Hoover was not a fan.
FBI files on John Steinbeck
Fred,
Yes sir. Grapes of Wrath was much more my cup of tea than It’s a Wonderful Life, but not exactly the kind of nostalgic romantic Christmas film that my wife prefers.
Wentz
does this mean anything that means anything?
I realize I am late to this conversation, but I love It’s a Wonderful Life, although Jimmie Stewart’s overwrought performance is not one of my favorites. The movie affirms the worth of ordinary lives. George Bailey gives up the life he wants to live of adventure and travel because other people need him to do something else, at least for a while, and he cares about those other people. Eventually, for a while becomes a lifetime and he is stuck, but he goes on honorably anyway.
One of the places that need him is the Bailey S&L. It is a disservice to call this a bank. S&Ls used to be more like credit unions than commercial banks. They took in deposits from local working class people and lent it out for local home mortgages and small business. Although there are now big S&Ls that look like commercial banks, many S&Ls still operate on a small local scale. S&Ls suffered from financial stresses beyond their control (and yes there was fraud too) and they have been de-regulated and re-regulated and under attack since the 1980s when they first obtained permission to engage in commercial banking, but there are many S&Ls that still operate like neighborhood institutions. I bank at one and I love it. It calls me up when I forget to make my mortgage payment, or accidentally overdraw, and it doesn’t charge me fees if I promptly correct my stupid errors. I am a person to it not a profit center. Its employees would make more money at a national commercial bank, but they are polite and charming and competent anyway. If I had to give it some money to save it from being eaten up by Northwest Bank I would gladly do so.
There are lots of small local business, not just S&Ls, that love their communities and care for their customers. We have seen some of them during covid go out of their way to make sure people get what they need. And lots of us have gone out of our way to buy takeout from local joints or patronize local hardware stores just to make sure they have some money coming in.
Sure its hokey, but Its a Wonderful Life is a thank-you to all us ordinary people leading ordinary lives caring for each other in ordinary places.
Susan:
Just read your comment. Thank you for it.
You do have the history of the S&L banking down correctly (not that anything else is wrong). It has been almost 40-something years since I have run across the type of S&L you describe in your text. The banking system as a whole is changing much more rapidly from the personality you describe to more of a “just the facts mam” approach. It is all system and numbers and there may be no human reaction to accomplish what is needed for the moment.
Sometimes things real a point of where people say, “enough is enough” and things change as they take a step backwards to a personal touch. I wonder if it would still work on Mian Street America?
Thank you for your first comment here at Angry Bear.
Susan
thank you for this. it does myheart good to know there are still sane people in the world.
as for the hokey and overwrought: styles of acting and directing change over time.
it took a while for actors and directors to move away from what worked on stage to what took advantage of the intimacy of the camera. and critics still feel they have to establish thier intellectual credentials by turning their noses up at what brought out cleasing emotions to a less sophisticated generation.
That Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey had an angry dark side was pretty disturbing. Apparently ‘everybody’/’everyman’ has a breaking point.
Who would have guessed?
The first ‘bank’ to turn me & Mrs Fred down for a mortgage was a local S&L in our newly adopted town, having just left the Army after 5 years in service. No explanation, really, just ‘no’. The second was a different S&L in a different town about 4 years later, because ‘the builder was asking too much’. Fortunately, a third S&L from a nearby town took a chance on us, and we still live in that house we bought almost 45 years ago. Mortgage re-paid long ago. Thanks, S&Ls. (‘S&L’=’Savings & Loan’, very much like a ‘B&L’, some years ago.)
really, just ‘no’
It was something about not wanting to get involved in the complexities of VA mortgages.
Aside from some tuition assistance benefits here in MA, which got me some much needed & appreciated training in computing, I’ve never received any VA benefits at all, and due to ‘non-combat service’ I’m not really entitled to any. That’s ok. ‘Non-combat’ was benefit enough.
Fred
you gave them fice years of your time for very low pay. you could have spent that time earning more money to save for house, or getting that education that got you a better job. so it would have been more honest of us, the taxpayers, to include “benefits” as part of your compensation.
they can never compensate those who were in combat enough. it was hard enough…and maybe not done yet…to get them medical insurance without forcing them to prove their illness was “service related.”
enough injustice in this world, even America, to go around.
since this is a democracy we really have only ourselves to blame…and those we allow to “represent” us.
it is one thing to dwell on injustice to oneself (not good), but dwelling a little on injustice to others might be a good first step toward justice for all.
i never had any problem with my S and L. but i wonder if they contributed to the inflation that troubled us during that time. if i remember, the S and L caused economists to have to expand the definition of money.
(but when they came to explain inflation they blamed the workers for sitting around waiting for jobs that would pay more than they were worth.)
If you are suggesting that I’m complaining about something, I wonder where you got that idea. I came of age at a time when the draft was a constant threat – young men were even being drafted into the Marines. I was not able to go to grad school. I was willing to serve in the military, but once in the Army, i had a feeling I would come home in a box, and I figured out a way to avoid that, and I’m glad I did. That was a perilous time for many young men; many seem to have forgotten that, or are just unaware. So be it.
Fred
You did what you believed was right for you. Enough said . . .
Fred
I was suggesting no such thing. Quite the opposite if you read what I actually said.
Susan,
Perhaps late, but no less wonderful. Thanks. Welcome aboard. Bears need you.
Thanks for the encouragement
You have to look for good local S&Ls. I got fed up with big commercial banks changing their rules every couple of months in order to catch me up on fees so I went looking for a local bank that was competent and customer oriented and went through a few before I found the S&L I bank with now. And you have to defend them. My bank was a mutual bank so when another bigger bank tried to buy them up the customers had to vote on it. We voted it down. The big banks want to get rid of them. They don’t want the competition.
Put A Little Love In Your Heart
Your welcome.