Christmas In July Blogathon: It’s A Wonderful Life

Today is July 25th.  Do you know what that means?  Six months until Christmas!  To celebrate, a few of my fellow movie bloggers and I reviewed our favorite Christmas movies for my Christmas in July (mini) blogathon.  First up, is Rob from MovieRob reviewing It’s A Wonderful Life.  Without further ado, here’s Rob.

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“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he? – Clarence

First of all, I want to thank Drew for letting me participate in this Christmas in July blogathon.

Those of you who know me well, know that since I am Jewish, we don’t celebrate Christmas but that doesn’t preclude me from enjoying movies that take place during the holiday season and usually have a feel good ending with a message about friendship, love and caring about others.

When I was deciding on a movie to review, many came to mind but to me the best movie ever made that has a Christmasy theme to it is It’s a Wonderful Life.

The premise of this movie has been copied so many times in the close to 70 years since it was made by Frank Capra, but none of them have the same impact as the original did.

It asks a simple question that is pretty impossible to ever truly answer: What would the world be like if you didn’t exist?

I’m not gonna go off on a butterfly effect or time travel tangent even though both theories would have lots to say about this scenario, but rather ill discuss it in a simple manner.

This movie takes the premise seriously and tries to show a man who loses all hope that even amongst despair and loss of hope, one should still look for the good that has come from your actions.

I seen many of Capra’s films and this has always been my favorite because if the way it was done.  We get to learn everything important about George Bailey’s life at the same time as Clarence and even though only a small part of the movie shows how the world would be different if he didn’t exist, we are impacted more because we now know of all the good he was able to do over his lifetime.

We want him to choose to be present in the world because we know all the hardships he has endured but see how he always managed to persevere even under those circumstances.

The ending is very satisfying because it shows that not all things in life are tidied up at the end, but we can still manage to find a way to go on even when bad things happen.

Rating – Oscar Worthy

Thanks again to Drew for allowing me to take part in this blogathon!

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You’re welcome, Rob!  And thank YOU for participating.  Can I be honest for a second?  Oh, man this is embarrassing… Ok, here it goes, I’ve never actually seen It’s A Wonderful Life. I know, I know, how criminal of me.  I’ve heard so many good things about it, but for some reason I just have never watched it.  I’ll be sure to change that this holiday season.  Next up will be Natalie with her review of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Look out for that shortly.