"THANKS FOR THE WINGS"

It's a Wonderful life

(1946)

Director: Frank Capra

Capra was a populist, and the simplicity of his narrative structures created a mythical America of simple archetypes who; with their wit, humor and casualness; evoke emotions in every viewer. Big social problems are represented through scripts in which an every-man, the man next door, fights the corrupt political bosses, mean industrialists and social villains in general. Capra was an immigrant who fought for his place in the film industry by believing that the movie can evoke passion and emotion of the workers, he wanted the newdeal-audience to like him and his movies. He usually moralized about political and economical problems but he always personalized those issues and associated them with a single everyman. Although these social problems were presented through one man; this was Capra's way of engaging the viewer and making the viewer identify with the character. This is how the issue was transferred from one man to the collective and this is what gave the issue a broader social dimension. 

In the film It's a Wonderful Life happy ending is enabled only with the interference of the supernatural which implies the doubt and the impossibility of the individual to keep the independence and one's own will in the society. That is why the protagonist of the movie (George Bailey) fits in the profile of a melancholic hero, the one who wishes to fulfill his dreams, but he is helpless from all the commitments, obligations and situations. This conflict leads the protagonist on the edge of committing suicide and supernatural motifs enable Capra to reveal the dark representation of a province as a peak of alterations between optimism and desperation that shape the movie.

The director of the movie took the title from a Christmas card which perfectly depicts his sensitive and fantastic way of describing the simple courtesy and politeness of the American provincial society. The movie represents the inner struggle between protagonist's dreams and ideals and the situation around him, it is ably shown through close-ups. 

Although some can describe the movie as sentimental rubbish, I consider that the movie is actually a beautiful combination of lovable, funny scenes and the ones that are touching and melancholic, with a happy ending and a beautiful message of the importance of the everyman. This is also a very clever criticism of the society and political corruption.

It's a Wonderful life is a beautiful realization of the saying What goes around comes around (in a good way here) with a perfect inscription "Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence."