Sunday 24 March 2013

Film According to Mr Cinema review: "It's a Wonderful Life" 1946


“It’s a Wonderful Life” is Frank Capra’s 1946 immortal pantheon classic. The film focuses on George Bailey (played here wonderfully by James Stewart) who, through a series of events, has decided to kill himself by jumping off a bridge on Christmas Eve, however through the prayers of his friends and family he is visited by his guardian angel: Clarence (portrayed by Henry Travers) who shows George what life would be like for the people in his little town of Bedford Falls if he had never been born.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a lovely, lovely film that has truly earnt its title as one of the greatest of all time. This was the first film to make me cry since I was 5 years old. I am not the biggest person on soppy or sentimental movies for the majority of the time, but this film is just such a beautiful piece of work, it was just impossible for me to dislike it. The only criticism I make regarding this film (and it’s a very small one) is that Mary (played by Donna Reed) was put in the position of a weak female stereotype very much reflective chauvinist of attitudes toward females that were very much dominant at the time that this film was made.

Rating: 9/10

1 comment:

  1. Donna Reed was very much the "wife and mother" type on film; she had her own sitcom show, playing a housewife; it doesn't mean her characters were weak, just not the way they're shown now.

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