re: It’s a Wonderful Life is a perfect movie

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I think you are supposed to get your satisfaction from knowing that no matter how much money has has/steals he will die an empty miserable old man where as George wins in the end because of the friends he has made/people he has helped etc... It's obviously the whole point of the movie, the ending is perfect/beautiful and imo there is no need for any comeuppance for Potter to be shown during it.

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I think you’re right, but I’d like to see punishment.

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best Christmas movie of all time

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My hot take… it’s not a Christmas movie.

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The scene after Harry gets back home from college and they’re celebrating his marriage. George is outside smoking and hears a train whistle leaving in the distance. You see him look up and he feels his dreams are also leaving the station too. Whole movie hits hard.

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The close ups of him at the train station and the one when he realizes what has transpired in Bedford Falls/Pottersville, I’ve always thought were about as real as you can get. Kudos for Stewart obviously, but also for Capra for capturing that realness.

Both men were recently home from extensive war duty - I’m sure it showed in the direction and acting.

I turned 66 today, can't believe it. I first saw this movie in the early 80's on a PBS telethon in Dallas. Had just moved there, we were flat broke, living on pancakes and coffee. I'd never even heard of it and the film hit me - and my then wife - pretty hard. Since then it's always been a part of my Christmas. I believe things, to a great extent, have the meaning we give them, and that appiles especially to films and, for me, to music. My parents came from that generation, and I see them sometimes when I watch this. So every year I make sure I have a handkerchief near and marvel at this story.

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Not actually good at all.

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Look at me everybody I have a contrarian take and think it makes me cool!!!

Movie is just so fantatsic. It is one I'm always shocked it bombed so hard at the box office when it came out.

I have seen a recent trend of people complaining about the alternate future version of Mary and how silly it was that George lost his mind seeing her as a librarian. Like damn people, way to completely miss the gravity of that whole scene and belittle how truly wonderful Mary is as a character.

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You're right, George lost his mind because Mary didn't know him, not because she wound up a librarian.

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Hell, it's not even that she didn't know him, ultimately. It was his realization that he truly was her soulmate and with him no longer there, she was missing half of her soul. The entire movie he jokes about her being able to be with anyone else, anyone in town or Sam or whoever. However, the first time we encounter Mary in the movie she flat out says that she will only love George for as long as she lives.

That is why he loses it. It is because he realizes that her entire world with him is perfect, in her eyes. He always saw himself as a failing her, but that wasn't true at all. Her steadfast love and devotion to him is not out of some obligation, but is as pure a love as someone can have for another, and with him no longer there, he has stripped that from her.

Here we go again

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It's usually pretty late at night and I ugly cry so bad. Don't nobody wanna see me cry like that!

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I've seen some ladies on Youtube react and ugly cry pretty bad. I've seen the full movie so many times that I now enjoy the reactions more than just watching the move.

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When George comes home and is ugly to his wife and kids because work is shitty, it makes me so sad. I’ve done that kinda shite before and it makes me guilty as frick.

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My wife has always refused to watch this movie with me. She hates B/W movies. Last year she walked in right at this point in the movie and said “Wow, that guy is a real a-hole”. I just had to chuckle and told her that George is actually the most likeable and decent character in any movie ever.