Despite its fame as a heartwarming Christmas classic, it’s loved by each fans and detractors. Remind the audience This isn’t a great movie. For at the least two-thirds of its running time, it’s mainly the story of a person attempting to commit suicide.
We see that gentle George Bailey has his dreams dashed, his ambitions diminished and his business ruined. Then it gets worse. Over the course of nearly two hours, we see this poor, desperate man standing on a bridge outside his small town, crippled by anxiety, overwork, debt and depression, wishing he had never been born.
The proven fact that It’s a Wonderful Life stays such an iconic Christmas movie despite its potentially troubling themes highlights something price remembering each at Christmas and any time of yr.
We live in an age where suicide stays a number one cause Death for men under 50 years of age. There are anxiety levels ROCKETING IN YOUNG PEOPLE. The World Health Organization has recently announced the rise Loneliness is a global health threat. For a growing number of individuals, it sure doesn’t feel like a beautiful life.
Understandably, we wish to do all the pieces we will to assist our fellow George Baileys. We often try to consider ways to supply respite from pain and suffering through some pleasurable type of distraction. A well-meaning boss can organize a mindfulness class for his employees on company time. A friend can leave one other friend behind in welfare.
At least temporarily, it’d all work. Finding a spot to loosen up and escape your worries is essential, and the cinema has provided that to many individuals throughout its history. Yet, as many mental health professionals will attest, Distraction is not a long-term strategy For real health.
A simpler solution to suffering is to seek out a way out Seeing the world differently. Changing the negative narrative you’ve got built up about life with a more positive one is not easily done, however it’s possible. We can seek advice from experts, seek the advice of privately with our friends or family, or read self-help books to assist us on this exercise. Or, we will go to the flicks.
As well as helping us to temporarily forget, Cinema can help us live our lives. It’s a Wonderful Life is an important example of that.
When the film enters its final act, it has its most famous moment. At the peak of his despair, George is saved from jumping off a bridge by the arrival of a guardian angel named Clarence. At first, Angel engages George, cracking a couple of jokes and getting him to take into consideration something apart from his own perilous situation. But then Clarence does something miraculous, showing George a vision of what the world can be like if he had never been born.
George is ultimately saved by this profound strategy of therapy. By showing the world without him, Clarence doesn’t offer George a magical solution to his problems, but a possibility. Look at the events of his life from a different perspective.
Importantly, George achieved three things consequently. He learns to be grateful. By giving freely his achievements and privileges, George is in a position to remind them of them. He learns purpose. He sees that his life has not been a series of failures, but a series of actions which have helped shape the world around him.
And he learns about his deep and meaningful reference to others around him. As the climax of the film unfolds, we see those connections fade away, and learn that life is messy, messy, difficult, unfair, harsh, and unreliable. It’s absolutely amazing, for exactly that reason.
I’ve never liked “feel good” movies. I’m glad I went home. I do not think Andy Dufferson must have escaped Shawshank Prison. I do not like it when Bill Murray stops reviving Groundhog Day. But I like It’s a Wonderful Life, not regardless of its heartbreaking abilities, but due to them.
For me, the film isn’t a distraction. It isn’t designed to make us feel higher by taking us away from life’s difficulties. Instead, it is a deeply therapeutic film about life’s difficulties, which remarkably finds a positive message that captures much of what we’re finally starting to know concerning the basic principles that underlie human well-being.
Thank you sense of purpose contact. These are the things that can sustain us at Christmas time and within the years beyond. Cinema that’s profound isn’t merely “good.” It is usually a lifesaver.