100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #39: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Directed by Frank Capra. Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Henry Travers.

If there’s one movie on this list that all of our readers have already seen, it’s probably It’s a Wonderful Life. It combines a wonderful Christmas story with a beautiful romance and adds in a heavy dash of explicitly Catholic imagery, from the use of guardian angels to help people on earth to a house blessing given by the Baileys to an Italian family as they move in to the haunting use of the Dies Irae in the score as George Bailey contemplates ending his own life. It is regularly featured in lists of great Catholic films, including the Vatican’s own list for the 100th anniversary of film as a medium in 1995. There was no question that It’s a Wonderful Life was going to be our Christmas pick this year, just as there’s no question that The Passion of the Christ will be our Good Friday pick in the spring. Its omission would be an utter travesty.

There are many reasons I could cite for why It’s a Wonderful Life is such a wonderfully Catholic movie. It’s emphasis on the importance of every human life (especially a life well-lived) is in absolute concordance with Catholic values, especially those preached by St. John Paul the Great (who, coincidentally, shares a birthday with Frank Capra). It depicts a beautiful marital romance and family life, showing how love can make a family rich and comfortable even under frugal circumstances. Our hero, George Bailey, stands up to the evils of greed and limitless acquisition personified in Mr. Potter, arguing that wealth is meant to be used for the common good, not hoarded away as a means to grab power. All of these reasons have been mentioned time and time again in analyses of It’s a Wonderful Life, so much so that it might be tiresome to repeat them again.

Therefore, I want to highlight something I have not heard much in the many conversations I’ve had about this film: the redemptive power of George Bailey’s suffering. It is, after all, still advent for a couple of days; I can’t offer you unmitigated Christmas cheer just yet. As I rewatched the movie for this review, I could not help but see George Bailey as a Christ-figure, constantly suffering on behalf of his family, his friends, and his town. Every one of his choices and actions is completely selfless, even if his jaded attitude and dialogue is understandably frustrated and bitter. At each and every turn, even though he cannot see the greater fruit of his obedience, George Bailey says “Thy Will be done”, sacrificing his selfish dreams for the good of his family and community. And when he is pushed to his breaking point by the devilry of Mr. Potter’s, God finally pulls back the curtain and allows George to see just how wonderful a life of self-sacrifice and obedience really is.

George’s attitude of self-sacrifice starts in his very first scene. He jumps into the frozen pond to save his brother, unheeding the physical cost he might himself have to pay. He weathers the buffets of Mr. Gower, the druggist, to save a family from death and his employer from disgrace. As a young man, he forfeits a budding romance to rush to his father’s deathbed and then gives up his opportunity to travel and go to college, his main ambitions in life, to save his father’s life’s work from the clutches of Potter. He allows his younger brother to take his place at college and then to take a better paying job rather than running the building and loan while George finally had his chance at college. Each one of these decisions is painful; each requires a sacrifice. George has a line about “anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles” being the three most exciting sounds in the world; after he gives up his chance to chase them, hearing a train whistle brings only pain to his face.

However, it’s through this pain and suffering that George accomplishes great things, and changes the lives of all those around him. The pain of a good man suffering unselfishly is the pain of purgatory—or falling in love. The worth of George Bailey’s life is immediately apparent to us, watching with the eyes of the angels. We hear the prayers of his family and friends, we know the great impact of Bailey’s suffering and self-sacrifice; it’s only George himself who cannot see the fruit of his journey through this valley of tears. There are, of course, short bursts of joy: his wedding day; the intimate moment his wife tells him he is expecting a child; the triumph of his younger brother returning home a war hero. But without angelic intervention, George is not able to see the bigger picture, to see the immeasurable worth of his wonderful life, and so is brought to the brink of self-destruction.

After he looks through heaven’s eyes at his life, however, George can finally appreciate the impact he has had on his community. The worth of all his suffering and sacrifice is made evident to him, and his outlook on life radically changes. Clarence, his guardian angel, shows him all the suffering that would have been spread around the community of Bedford Falls had George Bailey not taken it upon himself. George is moved not by some suddenly inflated sense of his own self worth, but rather by the suffering and evil he sees affecting his friends and family. It’s the frail infirmity of Mr. Gower, the bitterness of his mother, the loneliness of his wife, that moves George to self-reflection and repentance. And with this time of purgatory over, George is finally able to see his home, family, and community as a kind of heaven on earth, a place redeemed by his suffering and constructed by his good deeds. With his outlook changed, George is able to see his life from the heavenly point of view we’ve seen it the whole time, and is given the love and glory that his wonderful life deserves.

As I was reading through Isaiah for Advent, I came to the passage about the suffering servant. Although it is clearly a prophecy about the coming of Christ, I think it applies well to George Bailey as well. I leave you all with this passage:

⁹And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him;
    he has put him to grief;
when he makes himself an offering for sin,
    he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;
¹¹     he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous;
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

- Isaiah 53:9-11

From all of us at 100 Movies Every Catholic Should Watch, may all of you have a merry, blessed, and truly Wonderful Christmas.

Christmas is only just beginning here at 100 Movies Every Catholic Should Watch! Be on the lookout for our exclusive Christmas series, 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas, where we recommend one great Christmas movie every day from December 25 through January 6! We will also have some new release reviews, more Underrated Gems, and our regularly scheduled 100 Movies posts coming your way! Thanks for all your support over this first year of our project, and have a very Merry Christmas!