It's a Wonderful Life

I just saw the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life for the first time last night. Hard to believe I had never seen it before in its entirety, but I guess when I was younger I thought anything black and white wasn't worth a look at.

But oh I was so wrong about this movie. This movie was excellent, easily one of the best movies I have ever seen. Aside from the conversation among the angels in the opening sequence, I was enthralled throughout.

Perhaps it's because the current financial situation and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan make it more relavant than when I was a child, when overseas wars were not very popular at all, or perhaps its because I'm old enough now to have had some disappointments in my own life and can relate to George better now, or perhaps it's just because I finally actually sat down to see it from start to finish, but whatever the reason, I really identified with this movie, even if the details of my life are completely different from those of George.

For example, George hates his hometown and wants nothing more than to leave; however, fate has something else in store for him when he becomes the head of the Building and Loan. He must stay in town. I hate to admit it, but I equally dislike the entire state that I'm from in America and always have since I was old enough to form an opinion on the matter.

I specifically remember in the second grade of elementary school an assignment to colour in a picture of a baseball player ready to bat on homeplate. The player of course was from the hometeam, and we were supposed to show our support for the hometeam by colouring it with bright colours and possibly writing in cheers for the batter. Most students did this dutifully, and the teacher was quite pleased.

I, however, didn't understand why I had to support this team for a sport I didn't even particularly like. Baseball was long was boring to my 7 or 8 year old way of thinking. Not only that, but the local team was part of the local culture, but it was a culture I didn't enjoy. To say more would be to give away the team, but suffice it to say that I saw no reason to support the home team because to me, it meant supporting a lot of food and culture that I didn't like before baseball ever entered the picture.

So what did I do? I wrote in as many "boo"es as the page would allow. My teacher asked me why I had done that after class, to which I responded,

"Because I don't like them."

My teacher then asked,

"Well then, who do you like?"

How should I know? I cared about baseball as much as I cared about slime moulds. Actually, I probably would have preferred the moulds given my age and gender. The only team I really even knew was the home team, and that was because my family were fans at the time. So I responded,

"The team that they're playing."

By which I meant to say, "any team other than them," but my teacher apparently took to mean the A's, who was their next opponent.

But the point was that I didn't like where I was, and although I didn't have a concrete idea of where was better, I just knew it wasn't at home.

George didn't know where might be better than his hometown, either. He dreamt of travelling the world, going to exotic locations, and then coming back to America to build things, but he never said specifically where he wanted to end up. He just knew it wasn't in the crummy town where he grew up.

George had to give up that dream, however, along with any other dreams had at the time, when his brother came back from college married and employed. At this point it became clear that George would have to stay at the Building and Loan, for his brother was in no position to take over for him. I remember seeing the look of disappointment on George's face as he realized that his dreams had just gone up in smoke, again. I remember feeling so very sad for him. I felt like giving him a hug and telling him, "I'm so terribly sorry for you."

I guess this is it. This is why I loved this movie so much. I knew exactly the same disappointment that George felt at this moment. When I return to America next year, I will be living my version of his life from that point on.

I just hope that it turns out as nice as his did in the end.