Frank Capra\u2019s fantastical story of George Bailey (James Stewart)\u2014a model citizen driven to the brink of suicide by the cruel vicissitudes of life, only for his guardian angel to intervene and show him how bad off his loved ones would be if he\u2019d never been born, thus sparking a renewed will to live that culminates in the most cathartic Christmas Eve celebration ever put to film\u2014is an ode to selflessness, community, family, brotherhood, redemption, the indominability of the human spirit and goodwill to men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, the film is also a harsh look at the bastard force we call fate, one in which any man, no matter how respectable, no matter how straight-laced, no matter how good<\/em>, is one stumble away from criminality and damnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put another way: It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em> isn\u2019t just a holiday classic. It\u2019s also a classic film noir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em> is so ingrained in the public consciousness that it tends to get passed over by movie buffs who feel like they\u2019ve already seen it through pop culture osmosis. I know that was the case with me, and I\u2019ve heard or read similar sentiments from any number of others. As a result, people often assume it\u2019s an outdated piece\u00a0 of schmaltzy, cornpone Americana. More fool them. For as I came to learn when I finally did get around to it a few years ago , nothing could be further from the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even without getting into its noir bonafides, Life <\/em>reveals itself to be a tough and dark piece of work about, of all things, the frustration of failure. It\u2019s only because the picture it paints of George Bailey\u2019s neutered promise and his years-long journey from bright-eyed optimist to\u2014in the words of the villainous Mr. Potter, who might as well be describing the protagonists of any number of noirs\u2014a \u201cwarped, frustrated young man\u201d is so raw and potent that the final lines about how he is, in fact, \u201cthe richest man in town,\u201d land with such devastating redemptive force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third act pivot into fantasy, in which George finds himself a wandering spirit in a seedy and grotesque alternate version of reality, plays as powerfully today as it must have back when. Capra\u2019s command of cinematic language is on full display during these scenes\u2014rarely has the black in a black and white film looked so deep, while the shots of George\u2019s twisted grimace as he attempts to comprehend what\u2019s happening are perhaps the most horripilative close-ups ever deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, it\u2019s this section of the movie in which my noir argument finds its greatest purchase. The transformation of Bedford Falls, never necessarily idyllic (most of the action takes place during the Depression, after all) but on the whole a decent place for decent people, into Pottersville is exactly the type of modern day Sodom and Gomorrah you\u2019d expect to find all the hustlers, crooks, femme fatales and violent loners populate all the classic noirs of, say, Robert Siodmak or Edgar G. Ulmer (who billed himself as \u201cthe Frank Capra of Poverty Row\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, we do find some of them here. Loveable working stiffs Burt the Cop and Earnie the Cabbie are basically transformed into the titular antiheroes of Abel Ferrara\u2019s Bad Lieutenant <\/em>and Martin Scorsese\u2019s Taxi Driver<\/em>, while flirty but innocent town beauty Violet Bick, already on a downward slide in the \u201creal\u201d world, has become the full-on fallen woman that actress and noir queen Gloria Graham portrayed in the likes of The Big Heat<\/em> and Odds Against Tomorrow<\/em>. Loneliness, madness, bitterness, scorn and death: this is what awaits the rest of the once happy locals in this new urban hellscape. (Which, granted, does also look like a hell of a town to party in.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The influence of the dark thrillers and melodramas of the \u201830s and \u201840s, which would later be categorized as film noir, are evident on the style and themes of Life<\/em>, not least of all Capra\u2019s other <\/em>Christmas set drama about a suicidal everyman, Meet John Doe<\/em> (1940). It has, in turn, gone on to influence scores of noirs that came out afterwards, including the very next year\u2019s excellent and underseen Repeat Performance<\/em>, which takes the fantastical do-over plot device and winter holidays setting and fashions it unto a murder mystery; pretty much the entirety of TV\u2019s The Twilight Zone<\/em>; the gritty police drama Cop Land<\/em><\/a> (director James Mangold personally confirmed <\/a>that Life<\/em> was a \u201cNorth Star\u201d in the making of that movie); and the work of director David Lynch, particularly his surreal neo-noirs Lost Highway<\/em> and Mulholland Drive<\/em>, which may as well be through glass darkly versions of the Capra\u2019s vision. In the realm of literary noir, David Thomsen\u2019s essential Suspects <\/em><\/a>(1985) sets Life<\/em> at the center of its ingenious conceit, creating a new lens through which to interpret the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the noirness of Life <\/em>extends beyond these examples. It\u2019s at the heart of the story, of George\u2019s story which, up until the act of divine intervention that reverses its course, is the very exposition of film noir\u2019s great theme as summed up<\/a> by L.A. Confidential<\/em> author James Ellory: \u201cYou\u2019re fucked.\u201d As in Greek tragedy, film noir runs on fatalism. It\u2019s not sin that will destroy you\u2014note how Potter never gets his comeuppance (save for in SNL\u2019s \u201clost ending<\/a>\u201d)\u2014but desire. This could be desire for sex (and man, the phone seduction scene between Stewart and Donna Reed halfway through is as hot as those in Double Indemnity<\/em>), for money, or for power. But mostly, it\u2019s the desire to rise above one\u2019s fate, to beat The House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em> is, ultimately, a redemptive story with a happy ending. However, it\u2019s suffused not only with darkness, but with the understanding that there is no escaping one\u2019s fate. George Bailey does not beat The House. The House merely decides to cut the poor schmuck a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s a Wonderful Life” is streaming on Amazon Prime<\/a> and Plex<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/wonderful-life2-1024x667.jpg\")
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