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The Existential Horror that is “It’s A Wonderful Life”
Life’s a bitch and then you die, George Bailey.
My family watches It’s A Wonderful Life several times throughout the holiday season because it never gets old for us. In between Frank Capra’s shoehorning of Catholic themes and motifs (George’s virtuous and chaste wife is named “Mary”), there is a familiar story about one’s life purpose as viewed by others. And it’s fucking horrifying.
So, okay, let’s ruin this classic because overanalyzing the lives of fictional characters is good for mental health or cognitive function or something. At least it’s better than getting wasted on eggnog. If you do that, you’ll be drunk and farty.
Anywhoo, this sad sap called George Bailey is played by James Stewart. Stewart previously headlined one of Capra’s films as a rich banker fiancé of some chick with a tax-dodging grandfather. But pawpaw’s “taxation is theft” conversation is a story for another time. This time Stewart plays a broke banker and the tax-dodging grandfather is now metaphorically Satan ruling over the suburban Hell that is Bedford Falls, New York.
The film opens in a Ferris Bueller-type of way with several people praying for George who is contemplating suicide. He’s far from the only broke person in town, but hey, why not pray for the guy who…