i finally watched it's a wonderful life

Over 20 years ago, I said to myself that one day I'm going to watch It's a Wonderful Life. I finally did.

Yeah, that movie. The one everybody has seen at least 10 or 20 times if not more. The one where many make it a tradition to watch every year. It was not until December 2024 at the time I write this that I finally saw it. Yeah, I'm not kidding. I never saw the movie as a kid nor as a young adult. It took until middle age before I finally watched this.

Did I purposely avoid this movie? A little. Even though the flick was shown for free on television every year (and probably still is), I just didn't watch it whenever it was on. My thought was that it's a black-and-white thing, it's really old, probably really campy, and I probably won't like it.

Well, old this movie definitely is since its original United States release date of January 7, 1947. It was released in Poland first on December 20, 1946. Whether you consider it a '46 or '47 release, the movie was released over 75 years ago. Yeah. Old.

I had the choice of whether to watch this in black-and-white or color. Three colorized versions exist. One from 1986, one from 1989 and the last from 2007. I purposely chose black-and-white since that's the format it was originally released in.

Here's what I observed and what I got out of the film:

I like the way George Bailey's story was told. In particular, every time the movie starts getting sad, there's an imaginary emotional floor of sorts where things could go from sad to depressing. The movie never crosses that line. When sadness starts, the movie bounces off that line and gets back to feeling good again. Said another way, the pacing is excellent, nothing ever gets too sad nor too serious, and the great story keeps going from beginning to end. It's amazing.

There's really obvious war effort Americana in the film. That's totally understandable, since World War II ended in September 1945, just a few scant years prior to the movie's release. However, the fact that's there didn't shake the film off its rails at all, but instead added more interest to it as part of the overall story.

I was totally wrong thinking this movie would be campy. It's not. The emotional balance throughout the whole story is just plain good. Also, at no point while watching did I lose track of what was going on. Again, that's due to excellent pacing.

It's no wonder so many people love this film so much. I get it now. I know why the love is there.

Will I start watching this every year now? Maybe!

If you want to see what real Hollywood movie making magic is, see It's a Wonderful Life.

Published 2024 Dec 19