Required Christmas Viewing 2
2. It’s a Wonderful Life.
I am not sure how good this movie would’ve been without Jimmy Stewart.
Well, it certainly would’ve been good. It’s a good movie. Interesting idea for a plot. Entertaining. Great memorable lines.
But Jimmy Stewart makes the whole thing one thousand times better. That’s just the kind of actor he was. He didn’t seem at all like he was acting.
And that was rare to see back in the 40’s, when it seemed like the preferred method of acting was for actors to stand absolutely still; not gesture, or even move, really, except when they got to the parts in the script where it says “cross to stage right” or something. Then they were to deliver their lines as quickly as possible. Actors in the 40’s responded to each other’s lines before any real human brain could possibly have had time to process what had been said. As soon as the other guy’s mouth stops moving, that’s your cue to deliver your next line. Barely had the bad guy put the period on the end of his sentence before the hero was well into his remarkably witty and well-thought-out comeback. Forget realism. It’s about pacing.
But Jimmy Stewart just seemed like…well, Jimmy Stewart.
You may have heard someone make the complaint about an actor that “they play the same role in every movie”. Heck, it was probably me that said it. But if the actor’s Jimmy Stewart…well then this changes it from a complaint to an enthusiastic compliment. It’s just Jimmy, being himself. And this is a good thing. Watching him act is like watching a friend of yours, one of those really good friends that don’t come along very often, who makes you feel good about yourself and makes you think that maybe people in general aren’t so bad after all.
If Jimmy Stewart wasn’t a genuinely nice guy in real life, then I don’t know anything about anything.
So if he’s playing himself in all his moves, that’s just okay with me. An actor could do a lot worse in an acting career, and often does. (And of course I am referring to Keanu Reeves.)
So anyway, without Jimmy, It’s a Wonderful Life would’ve been a thousand times worse. But that is not to say that it wouldn’t still’ve been very good.
My cat, Brainless, got her very unfortunate name from a quote from this movie.
George: Make up your mind yet?
Mary: I’ll take chocolate.
George: With coconuts?
Mary: I don’t like coconuts.
George: Don’t like coconuts? Say, brainless, don’t you know where coconuts come from?
Now of our four cats, Brainless is the least brainless of all of them. So it’s not a reflection of how dumb the cat is, it’s just an indication of how dang many times I have watched this movie. Seriously, Brainless is a term of affection.
But anyway it’s my cat, go get your own cat and name it what you want.
I’ve watched It’s a Wonderful Life so many times that the following phrases are now part of my everyday vocabulary. Here are some examples of common usage of quotes from this movie. Perhaps you can adapt them to liven up your conversations, as well.
When someone is leaving:
“Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?”When someone has their hands full:
“Got a match?”When someone sings a song, or I sing a song, whether or not it’s good:
“Just like an organ!”When someone is saying something nice about someone other than me:
“Sentimental hogwash!”When someone is humming or whistling in an annoying way:
“You’re nnot phhaiidda be…a c’nnnary!”When someone is accusing me of being drunk:
“I didn’t have a drink!”When there is a very interesting situation (usually involving accidental nudity):
“This is a very interesting situation!”When I am sending someone out to do an errand for me:
“Off with you, m’lad, and be lively!”
When Sherrill mentions that she’d like to start with four or five kids and then go from there:
“You call this a happy family? Why do we have to have all these kids?”When I am throwing two people out of my house:
“That’s it. Out you two pixies go, t’rough the door or out the window.”When someone is talking about two trees, but two different trees than the two trees I’m talking about:
“You must mean two other trees.”When a guy is not kissing a girl and instead is talking her to death:
“Why don’t you kiss her instead of talking her to death?”When I am listening in on someone’s phone conversation and someone calls me on it:
“I am not!”When I am fighting with a business associate:
“One of us is going to jail! Well it’s not gonna be me!”When someone announces that something is from London:
“Oh!”And finally:
“Bill? This is Potter.”It’s kinda hard to work that last one into conversations, but by gosh I manage it.
Chris86 favorite scenes:
• Alfalfa. Yes, Alfalfa. The Little Rascal with the swell singing voice is all grown up, well, practically, and is now named Othello. He’s the one who, in a jealous rage, tries to drown George in the high school swimming pool-slash-gymnasium. In Alfalfa’s defense, he’s playing a character who is clearly schizophrenic and is being directed to kill George by one of the invisible people. …But, then, where did he get the key? (dramatic organ chord)
• The delightfully alcoholic Uncle Billy trying to make it home. In the bonus features of the DVD, they claim that the actor, after walking out of shot while singing My Wild Irish Rose, accidentally bumped into a table and knocked over $20,000 worth of sound equipment or something, then ad-libbed “I’m all right, I’m all right!” and continued without breaking character. I don’t believe this for even a split second, because it’s just too perfect and hilarious to possibly be accidental.
Chris86 not favorite scenes:
• George making out in the street with his elderly mother.
• Right before George & Mary rush out of the house to start off on their honeymoon, that woman from the Building & Loan sticks her face up against the camera lens and yells “Here they come!” Zoom out, camera guy. Zoom wayyyyy the freak out.
• A relieved and emotional George singing Auld Lang Syne at the end of the movie, in much the same way that a relieved and emotional mule would sing Auld Lang Syne at the end of a movie.
• When Clarence introduces himself as “Clarence Oddbody, AS2″, then goes on to explain that the AS2 means ‘Angel, Second Class’.
Now, clearly, if Clarence’s rank or whatever was ‘Angel, Second Class’, the code would be AC2 (Angel, Class Two), or ASC (Angel, Second Class), or something. AS2 could only mean ‘Angel Second Two’.
What the freak. If Clarence screwed up his line, then just reshoot the dang scene, Frank. The word you’re grasping for, I believe, is ‘cut’.
• The fact that after George becomes rich he does not use the money to pay an angry mob of villages to hike back downtown and torch Potter’s office.
Chris86 scenes that just make me a little uncomfortable:
• When George is going on about lassoing the moon. I suppose this is supposed to show how super-creative and amazingly imaginative the dreamer George is, but to me it’s just weird and kind of creepy when he talks about moonbeams shooting out of Mary’s hair and fingertips and whatnot. George may be an intelligent guy, but sometimes it just seems that he’s also not all that far off from being a serial killer or something.
• When Mary & George are on the phone with Sam and suddenly George accosts Mary and explains to her how basically he hates her and everything she represents, and angrily tells her he’d like nothing better than to leave town and her forever. And following that bit of foreplay, proceeds to make out with her while she sobs hysterically.
Now obviously I don’t know much about women, because it’s never occurred to me to try this particular tack on a girl. It is the sort of scene for which the initials ‘WTF’ were designed.
Not that Mary deserves anything better. After all, before that, when George is telling her his aspirations and noble ambitions and innermost hopes and dreams of being important and successful and making a difference, she responds by wishing directly to God that George will instead become a miserable failure and be trapped in Bedford Falls for all eternity. Because you see that suits her better seeing as she doesn’t care for travel.
So, sure, the film isn’t perfect, but it is still overall vastly primarily for the most part in the main generally a great classic unmissable movie, which you don’t have to limit to December.
But even after my compelling, impassioned, and persuasive argument, you still think you’d hate It’s a Wonderful Life, then maybe you’ll like this description of the movie better than mine. (Warning: much worse language than you get here.)
Next: Required Christmas Viewing 3
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