"It's a Wonderful Life" | Movie Review + Life Lessons | Life Lessons in Film

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] What's that? >> That's a Christmas present from a very dear friend of mine. >> Look, Daddy teacher says, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." >> That's right. That's right. had a boy climb. >> Buffalo girls, won't you come out tonight? Won't you come out tonight? Won't you come out tonight? Buffalo girls, won't you come out tonight in the light of the day? Dance. Welcome back to Life Lessons in Film. Hi. >> Today on the program, we will be making sense of life through It's a Wonderful Life. It follows George Bailey. >> He's having a hard time. We get a hint that he's about to unal alive himself. Then it cuts to several celestial beings. There is Clarence, a secondass angel who hasn't gotten his wings yet, and he gets his first assignment, and his first assignment is George, to help him out. Then the movie goes into George's whole life from childhood to the present moment. >> All the way through all these disappointments and sacrifices and compromises that George has had to make over the course of his life uh to the point where everything is falling apart and he has nowhere else to turn and he's lost all hope. >> And that's where Clarence shows up. >> George ultimately tells Clarence, >> "I said I wish I'd never been born." >> Oh, you mustn't say things like that. You Wait a minute. Wait a minute. That's an idea. What do you think? >> Clarence gets the bright idea that yeah, I'm going to grant you this wish. Afterwards, we see Clarence taking George around the town where George then sees what life would have been like if he wasn't born. >> And George realizes that he's actually had a wonderful life and he's done a lot of good in the world and that brings him back to uh his family and he gains a new appreciation and gratitude for his life. >> Why' you like it? It felt like it was done by someone who understands what it means to be a good person. >> It just feels so sincere, you know? Yeah. >> There's such a wholesomeness to that and it makes you feel like I just want to be good. >> I remember the basic premise, but I I forgot a lot about it, but I always remembered like, oh, this is a good movie. that's like 80 years old and it's still so easy to connect to all the characters and the themes and everything because it touches on universal relatable human the human condition the the life all the stuff that everyone goes through. >> I also like the fact of how good it was at building characters. It takes a long time >> fleshing out all the characters and >> it spends like more than half the most of the half the movie is just going through this is what happened to Georgia this time and then I got four years older and then now he's doing this that >> and I wasn't bored and it was really satisfying at the end of the movie you just felt like you loved these people very creative movie you could tell for like the 40s they were doing some very interesting things they're playing the clip and then they just freeze George and then they have the angels as if they're like watching the movie with us they're like who's that George Bailey and he's frozen there. You know >> what'd you stop it for? >> I want you to take a good look at that face. >> Who is it? >> George Bailey. >> Oh, you mean the kid that had his ear slapped back by the drugist? >> That's the kid. >> It touches on things that again you never get tired of. I never get tired of, which is just the importance of community, love, family, friends, struggles in life, and overcoming them. Humans don't get tired of that stuff, you know, and it feels like movies want to stray away from that. you don't need to reinvent the wheel. There was only like one part that we kind of felt like was a little dated in the humor and everything else I was like I can relate to the even all the the language is really fun because it is quite different the lingo and stuff but I mean that just kind of helped me enjoy it more cuz I love old timey lang lingo and and language but it was as if it wasn't 80 years ago it felt you know like could have been in the present time just >> characters we got George Bailey I like George he's a guy that's always trying his best, but he's a dreamer. A big fish in a small pond kind of feeling. There are some people that just, you know, it's not even that they they have what is it? Restless feet or itchy feet. >> Yeah. >> Um they they do, but I think there can be a good kind of itchy feet and a bad kind of itchy feet. The bad kind of itchy feet is where you're running away from something you need to deal with in your life internally. And then there's the good kind of itchy feet, I think, where you just want to live life to the fullest and explore and keep growing and you feel stunted or held back, I think, in the environment you're in. I think George felt stuck in the environment he was in and he's someone that if he can't keep growing and learning and experiencing it hurts him. >> He's very empathic. He is the kind of guy who would make very big compromises, you know, for the sake of other people. He's definitely someone you want in your corner. I think [Music] Welcome home, Mr. Bailey. >> Mary, >> I really like her. >> Mhm. >> You know, she's very grounded. I very much admire people like Mary. >> There she's the kind of person who knew what she wants wanted from the moment she was born. At six, she knew she wanted to marry George. Knew what house she wanted to live in. and she she knew that at home that's where my heart is. That's where I want to be. People like that fascinate me, you know, people who just know and they're quite they have no doubt about what they want. >> She has a strong intuition that she listens to where her mother is desperately wanting her to. She's like, "Hey, he's even calling you this this rich guy. Like, I think that would be a great I would want that for you. That would make a good life for you." You know, she always knows she's like, "There's something about this other guy, George. I need to be around this guy. This guy is smart. You can see his good soul just by looking at him, you know, like he just uh he exudes everything that Mary wants to be around. And she recognizes that she has a good sense of character and she trusts herself. >> I love that about her. >> She had her eyes focused on George cuz he was the the richest man in town in terms of >> his heart. His heart. >> Yeah. I like how um she's super supportive of George. They're both really the kind of people that you would want in your corner. >> Yeah. >> They were a good match. >> Yes. >> Mr. Potter, what makes you such a hard skull character? You have no family, no children. You can't begin to spend all the money you've got. >> Oh, I suppose I should give it to miserable failures like you and that idiot brother of yours to spend for me, >> Mr. Potter. >> We don't like Mr. Potter. >> We don't like his behavior. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. makes me find his behavior deplorable. >> Naughty. >> Yes. I think George's dad said it best when they're talking about Mr. Far. >> I don't know that one. >> You can't say song. You can't sing songs that I don't know. >> Oh, watching that old money grubbing Butter Island. >> Oh, he's a sick man. Frustrated, sick in his mind. Sick in his soul if he has one. He hates everybody that has anything that he can't have. Hates us mostly. I guess >> Mr. probably can have all the money, but he doesn't know how to have any enjoyment in life and have any real meaning beyond just accumulating material things in life. >> He doesn't know how to have meaningful relationships. >> He doesn't know how to have relationships. Doesn't know how to feel good about himself and and connect with other people. George's dad says he's like, I think he hates us most of all because we're the the the glue in the community. We're the ones that everyone feels the most connected to. The town's people like us the most, love us the most. Otter can't have that. He doesn't know why people like us or how he can do that, you know? and then he wants to nor does he know how to get it. >> I think he's an empty man. I look at people like that with curiosity in the sense of your inability to connect with other people. >> I think that that's that's such a sad life. And I remember that when George was like, you know, these are what did he say about the town's people? >> Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. >> And Mr. Potter couldn't like it didn't affect him whatsoever. There's some people who are impenetrable >> truly. They just don't understand it. And he's those people. >> Yeah. They're compensating. They're trying to accumulate because they're so poor uh in the things that matter, which is relationships, which is all life really is, is relationships. We're relational creatures. He doesn't have that. Doesn't know how to have that. So, he has to compensate somehow. Themes got a little bit. >> Oh, missed call. >> Miss call. >> No, not not a mis call. >> Beans. >> Oh, no. My glass is smudge punched. >> I smashed them because you looked at me and I put my cheek on them. >> Yeah. And then my my oily face, you know, got my oily face in them. Freshly oiled. >> Freshly oiled. You know it. >> Themes. Be grateful for what you have. >> Cuz if you're not grateful for what you have, you'll never be grateful for what you could have. [Music] >> Ah man. Amen. George the whole time he was always, you know, building a good life for himself and and he had a lot of people that loved him and cared about him, but he still felt like he wasn't living the life he wanted. You know, he he just couldn't see, I think, everything he had in his life. >> Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. And when he isn't around, he leaves an awful hold, doesn't he? >> Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine. >> That's a lie. Harry Bailey went to war. He got the Congressional Medal of Honor. He saved the lives of every man on that transport. >> Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them because you weren't there to save Harry. You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away? >> When Clarence showed George all the positive impacts he created >> Mhm. >> because of his life. Yeah. >> Exactly. Then that's when he realized really what he had >> cuz George is someone that re that also gained a lot of meaning in his life for how he helped others. Mr. Gower and and his cop friend and the taxi friend and the the pub owner, you know, and everyone is so much more miserable miserable without him. >> Yeah. And the town, too. Now the town is not Bedford, >> not Bedford Falls, it's Pottersville. >> Yeah. And >> I wonder if that's where Back to the Future 2 got the inspiration to have Biff take over the town and make it a horrible place to live. I don't know. Same kind. Oh, we have to watch Back. Watch where you're going. Crazy. You're a pedestrian. >> The town is not what it was at all. Like, it's not his town anymore. It's all like commercial, very commercialized because Potter got his way. Now it's just more like cutting each other down, more cutthroat kind of environment. >> Everyone's much more miserable because it's a lot more capitalistic and hedonistic. The town before used to be a lot more community- based, and then Mr. P turns it into just a money-making thing that makes people a lot poorer and more desperate and more miserable. >> Yeah. And so that contrast just really illuminates to George how precious a life he had as an individual. But the community, what an incredible community he has now that it's lost. You know, >> another theme, right? We're all connected in everything we do and how we live. We're all if we all affect each other. This movie shows George the butterfly effect of how these little things that he did without thinking. Whether it was saving his brother, it's like, well, of course, I'm going to dive in and and save him. And then, of course, that affected his ear. So then he wasn't able to go to war. Of course, he had another reason why he had to stay back in his hometown of Bedford Falls. You have to live life going forward, but you can only understand it looking backward. And Clarence helps George look back at all the things in his life and how they led to, you know, how they all connected to each other and and yeah, and gave him a good life. The third theme, the impact of an unfulfilled life. >> Yeah, I think it is fair that George had a lot of resentments. It makes sense that it was hard for him to not be very grateful for the present because he had so many dreams and hopes that were dashed because he is a good person that was living for other people. That's the challenge. That's the challenge of being a a person is you want to be that kind of person who is considerate of how your life affects other people, but you also want to be the kind of person who is considerate of your own desires. I think the balance there is supporting other people but not at your expense. There's a fine line there. I think that that's the thing though too, right? Like when you aren't fulfilling your dreams, you're feeling wrong. And then >> feels like an injustice. >> It does. And his life, you know, basically teaches us >> why it is that George ends up >> gets to the point of wanting to unalign himself. >> Like he's digging into me and you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's a bit of a balancing act because I think sometimes you got to be like I'm sorry to all the other people. At some point you have to say no to other people and do something for that you know that he earned for him and his family. But it also shows that like you don't necessarily know right in the moment what sacrificing something all the beneficial things that will come from that compromise or that delaying gratification or like putting things off. You know >> Harry I'll take my job in the building alone work there for 4 years and he'll go >> pretty young for that job. >> Oh no younger than I would. Glad you were born older, George. >> All right, >> I say you were born older. >> Some people are just born older. And that's something that that's something that George's father says to him. And I like that. I think you know what George's father means by that is there are some people that are born with certain gifts. I think and it's not that George is better than other people in the town, but he's born with a kind of maturity and like clairvoyance, a kind of forward thinking ability to tap into everybody else's needs and to plan things and kind of lead too and like help um strategize in a in a and be able to think more broadly and uh than than other people. you know, everyone else in the town had other gifts and other uh skills, but that was George's is kind of being able to almost be like a father for the town in a sense. So, be be a be a core member of the town. >> But the thing is, it's like a father for the town at a very young age. >> Yeah. >> It's it's it's such a tough thing when people say stuff like that. Like some people are born older. When I hear that a lot of times people look at it as a positive thing, but when people look at you as someone who's born older, sometimes I find that it's like they look at it as purely a gift. You have this gift >> and they don't actually realize that the other side of this gift >> is that I'm making sacrifices all the time. I don't get to live my life. Like even when he's a kid, he's facing big things like saving his little brother's life, preventing um old man Gower from >> poisoning >> from poisoning, you know, his kid a client his client and just like how he is like he has this wisdom at a very very young age and that >> I think is is a lot of pressure on him and I think people do look at him that way and so >> and they don't see the pressure. They just think he can handle it all. think he can handle it because he's born older. And just because someone can do it better >> and with an open heart doesn't mean that they have to do it all the time >> or that they even want to. >> Yeah. Or that they even want to. Sincerely, I do believe that to be born older is a gift in the sense of >> the wisdom it gives you. You know, you're more able to connect with other people, better able to connect with life. Um you're better able to help other people, which I think if you're a good person, you want to do that. You want to be supportive of other people. you have that kind of like leadership quality. These are gifts, right? But like all things gifts can be taken taken advantage of and there was a sense that of that for me where I was like man this poor guy it feels so unfair. It got me thinking about, you know, like with people who are born older, a lot of the helping others ends up um hurting them, >> which is the thing that they want to do, but ultimately it ends up hurting them because then people take so much. >> And I think here it's like so many people took so much. Oh, how about George? >> Mhm. Yeah. >> My god. >> They're like, well, he's the more resourceful, industrious one. George will figure himself out. >> Harry needs the help, the extra help. >> Yeah. And that's so unfair. >> Everyone needs help. Yeah. And everyone needs help. Yeah. And so that was I don't like that. So >> burning questions. >> Oh, yeah. Burning questions. >> What if uh maybe George could have done what he did up to a certain point? You know, obviously it's good to save Harry when he's a kid. Uh help Mr. Gower and then work at the building alone for a little bit, but then maybe then he could have gone traveling a little bit. You know, couldn't he have done some of it? Couldn't there been a bit of a mix? But then, you know, then Pottersville probably still would have happened. And then how do you how do you get Bedford Falls back to the way it was after? You know, was there anything he could have done to allow himself a bit more of what he wanted? They give Clarence in a sense kind of like angel abilities where he can disappear when like he's getting manhandled by the cop. But I like that he doesn't have like a way of like, you know, hypnotizing or like having any like effect on like, you know, freezing time or something so that him and George can escape the cops. He just has to bite the cop's hands. He's like, "Run, drunk." >> Listen, it's that fellow there. He says he's an angel. He's trying to hit him. >> I hate to do this to you, but George, >> he's got no like he has supernatural powers. He just literally has to bite the guy. Is there any other way that Clarence could have helped George get out of that situation? I like the way he decided to do it. That was the best way. >> Do you think that the town's people >> Yeah. met George halfway. >> Do you think George had a healthy relationship >> with the town's people? >> Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. >> Yeah. Don't know. >> Was it like a >> was it a give and take? Was it a mutual or or was it reciprocity or was he not really being seen for what he was doing, not being as being respected, appreciated? >> Yeah. How far >> maybe he wasn't appreciating his life because other people weren't appreciating him. >> Exactly. Maybe if people were appreciating him, he wouldn't be so resentful of the unfulfilled dream. >> What did you guys think? Let us know in the comments down below. Share your thoughts on our thoughts. Till next time, thanks for watching. I married Sam Way right than anybody else in town. >> I didn't want to marry anybody else in town. I want my baby to look like you. didn't even have a honeymoon. I promised you you're what? >> Hi, baby. >> You're you're Mary. You on the nest? >> George Bailey Lassel Stark. >> Lass is a Stor. What do you You mean what? What is it, a boy or a girl? >> Mhm.