There is one crucial criterion for a film to be considered not just a “classic,” but a film worth watching year after year, holiday season after holiday season. Roger Ebert writes it best: “Some movies, even good ones, should only be seen once. When we know how they turn out, they’ve surrendered their mystery and appeal. Other movies can be viewed an indefinite number of times. Like great music, they improve with familiarity. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE falls in the second category.”
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE a great movie. Is it Jimmy Stewart’s iconic performance as George Bailey? Is it the perfectly paced story? Is it director Frank Capra’s detailed visualization of a small town? Is it the film’s moral lessons stressing hope and gratitude? It could be all those things, but the film also contains an ineffable quality beyond aesthetic and narrative achievements.
One of the unifying traits of holiday media is a deep sense of melancholy. Singers croon that they will be home for Christmas, or wax poetic about loneliness and heartache. Films unite lonely lovers, or show the reformation of greedy and selfish characters. The holiday season, possibly because of its proximity to year’s end, triggers a retrospective look and anticipation of what life will be like compared to what it has been. Possibly no other work has ever been more in touch with the complexity of feeling the “joyful” holidays bring than IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. I couldn’t point to a specific scene or instance that proves this, but when you watch the film you can feel deeply how its world is real, despite being fictional. It’s this feeling that keeps me watching every year, despite knowing I will never solve the mystery of what makes the film so wonderful.
— Diana Martinez, Film Streams Education Director
