Culture

Frank Capra’s 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life is the best Christmas film ever made. Don’t worry, not in an oh-my-Jesus-I’m-so-hipster-I-can-only-appreciate-films-made-before-the-advent-of-the-toaster-oven kind of way, but in a highly-accessible-heart-warming-life-affirming way.

James Stuart, in the role of his career (I don’t care if I’m laying it on thick. You need to watch the film), plays George Bailey, who may just be the gosh darn nicest man in Bedford Falls. Throughout his life George has sacrificed his own happiness and dreams of travel to help others, to the point where one Christmas Eve, facing personal ruin through no fault of his own, George stares into the raging river of his home town about to commit suicide. Cue his guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers). Clarence comes down to Earth wearing a medieval nightie and bowler hat (I told you it was awesome) to try and change his mind, and takes George through an alternative Bedford Falls – one in which George had never been born. I’m not going to tell you any more, but godamn, you better bring your hanky!

Despite being a commercial failure that wrongfully confirmed the industry’s claim that Capra had lost his artistic marbles, It’s a Wonderful Life gradually went on to become one of the most loved classics in history. Ranked number 11 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Best American Films Ever Made” and number one (!) on their “Most Inspirational American Films of All Time” (I question the Institute’s decision to make the names of the lists slightly different), it has been unanimously decided that the film’s just bloody lovely.

Sure, there’s some casual misogyny and a borderline offensive depiction of an African American maid, but this film has a lot more right with it than it does wrong: some of the most famous film quotes of all time (“Zuzu’s petals!”), a dance sequence on top of a moving floor and a lot of sassy high-waisted pants. But most importantly, it could make the poorest, laziest, most unpopular sewage worker feel like they’re loved. Don’t wait till December to watch this bad boy, warm your heart today!