The Film

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life was made for a world that had just come out of the greatest cataclysm of mankind's sorry history. It was made to point out that the togetherness and common purpose of the years of fighting could continue to rebuild all that had been destroyed and to protect all that was still at risk. Capra's story may have come to be seen as a cinematic Hallmark card, but it was actually a hymn to collective effort and imbued by that most unfashionable of ideas, community.George Bailey's story was one of meaningful sacrifice, of an extraordinary man whose life's work was to empower others. When his brother was drowning, he gave his hearing in one ear to save him. When he was having the night of his life, he rushes to his father's deathbed. When the building and loan that his father built needed him he gave up his travels and his dreams of independence. His honeymoon, his home - everything about George is selflessness.

Yet this is no simple martyr as George's efforts reward a greater good. The homes he builds house the people of Bedford Falls away from the avaricious and mean Potter. These people live secure lives and in his own words become better citizens and better workers because of it. They fight for their country, and, even if George can't, his brother is alive thanks to him and saves many lives because of him. George is the example that leads to community, common prosperity and charity, and without him Bedford Falls has quite another fate in store for it.It's a Wonderful Life allows George to see what would have become of his town if he had never affected it so. Bedford Falls without George becomes Pottersville, a town of simple profit and expediency. Pottersville has slums, neon, prostitution, mean spirits and the rife stench of unfettered capitalism. In Pottersville the people George helped don't get that chance again and fall to alcoholism, selling themselves, anger and miserable loneliness. What George sees courtesy of his guardian angel is a world robbed of community, care, and compassion - an individualist nightmare filled with violence and degradation.

George Bailey gets to see the two roads that his community could take and by extension the viewer gets to reflect on whether they want their world to be like Bedford Falls or Pottersville. The choice is obviously a loaded one, and quite rightly so, but it is interesting that in the Pottersville of a George Bailey-less world that there is no indication that the threat of Naziism has been defeated. This begs the question if the viewer lived in a world where they hadn't sacrificed like George did, now just what kind of world would it be?So the world Capra's film hoped for was one of fraternal reconstruction, of empowerment of the common man and woman, and as over sweet as the film may seem to people now, those hopes seem just as relevant today. Are the new glorious democracies of Afghanistan and Iraq symbols of the support of our fellow man or shallow efforts to fleece him and make a profit from his position? There I go again, getting all cynical when the point here is to believe and to give - and that is the film's most important legacy, to force reflection and to renew hope.

The message is therefore that it is indeed a wonderful life, but only if we work together to make it that way.

Technical Specs

These technical bits of reviews can get awful snobby but I am sorry I can't help myself when I say that anyone who wants to watch colorised versions of old films needs to be shot. The colorised transfer here is a thing of dread to me, skintones vary between greenish, pinkish and purplish and the effect on the whole movie is to leave it looking like something faded and twee. The colorised version weighs in at 25.2GB and the black and white transfer is 20.3GB. There's been quite a bit written about the transfer in terms of how it looks and whether it's an old DVD encode, yet it is pretty good. Sure it's been sharpened and edges don't always seem natural, as well as the grain structure, but the detail is impressive and the black levels are very good. Until a new encode is offered this will do nicely as the improvement from standard definition that it is.

Here's an example of the colorised version - hold on to your retinas:


Sadly the audio is not lossless and is offered at the bitrate of 256kbps as a single audio option. It's no kind of improvement on existing releases in this respect and more evidence that the sources for the transfer were intended for DVD rather than blu-ray.

Special features

This is an all-region dual layer blu-ray and both versions of the film are included on the main menu. Otherwise, extras are rather scarce here with a picture in picture comparison feature which allows you to look at the color monstrosity whilst squinting at the black and white version in a small box on screen. A frankly awful theatrical trailer which mis-sells the film is included and there is an option to watch the film accompanied by a trivia track which does include some things of interest along with... well, trivia.

I suppose the lack of extras is due to the decision to include the color version which someone clearly thinks is some kind of gift from God. I guess that someone works in marketing and is preparing the 3-D version as I write.

Summary

For one of the best written pieces on this website, I direct you to Eamonn's DVD review of this film which will give you lots of information about this film's pinko leanings and how suspiciously it has been seen by those in power. Here though, one of my favourite films has come to blu-ray in a version that will be improved upon but will keep me happy for now. Unfortunately, the color version is included too and it's an abomination.

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