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It’s A Wonderful Life
By Matt Margolis | November 28, 2004
It’s funny how people can see the exact same thing and come to different conclusions about it.
Blogger Adam Yoshida recently blogged a short list of great conservative movies, and on that list he had It’s A Wonderful Life. Adam says that “the values espoused by the film are profoundly conservative.”
Dutiful George Bailey shirks his dreams in order to do what must be done. The manager of the local trust company, he helps house much of his town. When his father suddenly dies, he puts off going to college in order to keep the Building and Loan running. Instead he sends his brother off to college. When a bank panic hits on his wedding day, he forgoes his honeymoon and uses his money to keep the Building and Loan afloat.
As he stands at the edge of the bridge, an Angel takes Bailey to show him what the world would be like without him. He comes to understand how his doing what had to be done, his keeping his place, has made the world a much better place than it otherwise would have been.
It’s truly an anomaly: a movie which suggests that the road to happiness lies in living up to one’s obligations, rather than running from them.
Interestingly enough, liberal blogger Oliver Willis also thinks highly of the movie, he says,”I can’t think of a more perfect film, and an awesome message.” However, the message he sees is completely different than Adam’s:
..nobody can tell me George Bailey isn’t a poster boy for Democratic ideals: “Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about. They do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they’re cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you’ll ever be.” [emphasis by Oliver Willis]
I can’t really vouch for the political undertones of the movie - I’ve never really watched it start-to-finish. I find Adam Yoshida’s case more convincing, and It’s A Wonderful Life even made National Review’s Best Convservative Movies list back in 1994. The quote singled out by Oliver hardly supports his claim that the character George Bailey is a “poster boy for Democratic ideals.” Adam atleast attempts to look at the movie in its entire context.
However, everyone has the right to take whatever they want from a movie. It comes down to interpretation. My guess is however that It’s A Wonderful Life appears on a number of lists of movies considered to be conservative. Of course I certainly wouldn’t doubt that a liberal would try to adopt something conservative as their own. Howard Dean once said that he was “more conservative with money” than Bush. John Kerry also repeated themes of fiscal conservatism, and who can forget his hunting trip photo-op and and his claims to be a man of faith. Who really knows exactly what Kerry’s position on abortion is today?
That being said, I’ll let other people debate the message of movie…
Topics: Conservatism |
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November 28th, 2004 at 3:49 pm
When you see the word “rabble,” doesn’t that just seem like a word that would flow right out of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s mouth, and not in a good way? (Like when she referred to “the common man” during the campaign?)
I wonder how Michael Moore would remake the movie.