re: Negative thoughts on "It's A Wonderful Life"

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Although isn't Potter portrayed as outright dishonest at one point? Doesn't he discover something hidden in a newspaper that was left behind that he shouldn't have known about? I can't remember exactly.

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Yes, that did happen. It just further contributed to him being a symbol of the evils of big business, although IMO kind of contrived.

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anti-communist socialist

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I never understood that kind of stance, because by definition socialism is an intermediate step towards communism from capitalism, at least according to Marx.

According to Marx, capitalism is yet a step on the way to communism, so perhaps we shouldn't let ones enemies define them? Socialism predates communism. The anabaptists were proto-socialists but Sir Thomas More's Utopia is explicitly socialist and that was the 1500s, long before communism ever was thought of. I think it is completely wrong to define socialism in terms of communism. Communism is a branch of socialism, but one that has been thoroughly discredited.

I can't understand how one can define socialism in a communist prism without being communist themselves. Socialism long predates communism, it is not a subset of communism.

Anyway, Potter does not represent capitalism, he represents GREED. Greed is bad. That goes back to the Bible. Hell, George Bailey is a capitalist. Sam Wainwright is a succesful capitalist, and neither is condemned by the movie. To view the movie as a condemnation of capital ignores, well, almost the entire movie. It condemns putting money before people. Despite what Ayn Rand says, failing to care about your fellow man is not a virtue. In fact, that makes you a sociopath by definition.

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It's A Wonderful Life" is altruistic bullshite, borderline socialist propaganda.

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You are not focusing on the real message of the movie.

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'One man's life touches so many others, when he's not there it leaves an awfully big hole.'

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The newly-arrived Harry proposes a toast to his brother, "the richest man in town." Seeing how many lives he has touched, and the difference he has made to Bedford Falls (along with helping Clarence earn his wings), George Bailey realizes that he truly has "a wonderful life."

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Dear George:-, Remember no man is a failure who has friends.,
Thanks for the wings!, Love, Clarence

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If you want a wonderful life, no matter your race or social disposition.

If you treat your brother as yourself, you will have friends.

And if you have friends, then you are successful.

A community full of friends would make the best society imaginable.

This is the message of the movie.

Buncha assholes on this thread.

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but look at the unions of today, they are no longer focused on safety but self preservation.

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Most special interest started with altruistic intentions but they have all become an end in themselves instead of a means to an end. The balkanization of society caused by this is the source of a plethora of our social problems today but that is a topic for another board and thread.

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And then at the end we get to witness how without George Bailey sacrificing his own life for the betterment of others, the town becomes a cesspool of bars and girly joints and all the townspeople are miserable.

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Best part of the movie. It's actually pretty bleak for a film that's dubbed a Christmas movie. And I argue that it contains a lot of noir elements.

Despite the happy ending the movie is one big downer. Nothing goes right for George. He doesn't get to go to college, can't go fight in war, he's pretty much stuck in his hometown working for his fathers business which he hates. At the movies climax he grows so desperate that he tells his wife he wishes they didn't have so many kids and precedes to trash his house and run out on his family, gets drunk, punched out and goes to jump off of a bridge.


The aforementioned scenes where he's never born and goes to Pottersville are where the movie really takes on a dark tone. The town is a slum and everyone has a tough edge with lots of shadows and high contrasting B&W cinematography. The town is fully of Jazz clubs, Pool halls, Burlesque shows, and neon lights(in other words a fun looking town) Martini no longer owns his bar and bartender Nick is now strong armed with the customers. Mr. Gower is a lush who was convicted for poisoning a child. Violet is a hussy being arrested for pickpocketing her clientele. Bert & Ernie think he's crazy, Mary is an old maid and Harry is dead.


It's all pretty hard edged stuff but ends on a perfectly uplifting message that George overlooked his loving wife, family and all little things that really make life worth living so people forget about the rest of the movie.


To your point it's not a total socialist message as George isn't proposing tax payer funded housing and really the main gripe against Potter was his monopolization of the towns resources and institutions. But that kind of poor man against the rich theme was very big in the depression era 30s movies from which most of Capra's work came.