It’s time
to review another film on my list of 100 Classic Must-See Movies (That I’veSomehow Never Seen) and this one’s tough. I’ve had to watch it three times to
get this far because…
Urgh.
The first
time I watched It’s a Wonderful Life, I hated it. I
accidentally caught it on telly a few months later and thought, ‘Huh. Maybe it didn’t suck as much
as I remembered…’ But then Christmas rolled around and I watched it again wondering if I’d just overreacted the first time and…
Nope.
Still
fucking hate it.
I know, I
know. It’s a classic blah, blah, blah.
Still
fucking hate it.
Let’s get
a couple of things out of the way before you get all judgy…
Yeah, it’s
in black & white. That’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that.
Yeah, it’s
“of its time.” That’s… fine. I guess. Even I can choke back blatant racism, casual sexism, and
cringeworthy dialogue for a couple of hours.
No, the
problem isn’t that It’s a Wonderful Life is old or outdated or any of
the things that you’d expect me to hate about it. (But, just to be clear, I do hate those things about it.)
It’s that JamesStewart’s George Bailey gets the shittiest deal ever.
If you
don’t know what It’s a Wonderful Life is about (climb out of your cave
once in a while,) it’s Christmas and George Bailey is about to kill himself because
he’s been screwed over by the town’s richest man and the scandal will see him
bankrupted, out of work, and probably behind bars. The guys upstairs send down the most
inept angel to save him (Henry Travers’s Clarence,) which he does by showing
George a world in which he never existed.
Well, it’s
a pretty awful world for the people George loves so he decides not to kill
himself, Clarence gets his wings, and the town rallies to pull George out of
his financial hole. (For now.)
Big.
Whoop.
Here’s
what got me: all the way through, you see George sacrifice everything he wants
to make other people happy. All his hopes and dreams. Everything he desires.
Nothing he wants is ever as important as what other people want. And
that’s… it.
The
message of the film appears to be that no matter how unhappy it makes you, you should
sacrifice everything for other people.
Fuck.
That.
Argh! This
movie makes me want to scream so bad because OMFG. If George had ever stuck to
his guns… if anyone had ever put his needs first… if he hadn’t been
bullied and bribed and guilt-tripped into making other people happy, he
wouldn’t have been on the fucking bridge to start with!
Okay,
that’s my rant. I hate this movie and everything it stands for.
That is
all.
Rating: ⭐⭐ (2/5 stars)