IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: Merry Christmas, movie house!~

google | bunnies | lost ending @Hulu | lost ending transcript =)Some rambling on a little old film that I've really come to love...

I got a late start getting to my 1pm matinee of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE this afternoon. Was a pleasant surprise to find at the box office that the movie hadn't started yet AND that Starbuck's was paying for the show! I talked to Ned at the concession stand for a little while and he explained that they sponsored one of the holiday screenings last year and wanted to do it again. I guess they didn't decide which showtime they'd foot in time for the Brattle to promote it as such. Kind of more holiday and gifty that way, I think. At least, I didn't catch any notice about it being advertised as a free show, not thru my usual, admittedly narrowband, feeds. At any rate, Huzzah for Starbuck's!

This morning I was on the fence about going. A lunch appointment yesterday put the kibosh on the Saturday matinee options, so I went to bed last night planning on catching it today. My sister's got friends visiting from out of town, and told me this morning that they were gonna hit the new ICA. Today was Opening Day for the museum in its shiny new location on the Boston waterfront, and the museum would be free to the public (I think I read that admission is to be $12). The building looks gorgeous and all, and it did look like it would be a decent New England day for a hike to and thru the waterfront downtown, but, well, as far as I knew, this would be the last chance to see LIFE on the big screen this holiday season.

I say "as far as I knew" cuz last year the Boston Common theater did a series of holiday films and LIFE was one of them, but I haven't seen any emails or ads pushing a similar series this year. Nuts.

Even though I went it alone, the experience of watching it in a nearly packed Brattle screening with a decent mix of ages, as well as apparent veterans and virgins, totally made it worth the hike.

That, and a medium bucket of freshly popped popcorn. =)

I was just a little bit sad because I missed perhaps my favorite line of the film. I waited in line for popcorn downstairs while the movie started up. With the crowd, and the number of kids, they had to push their popcorn machine into overdrive to keep everyone supplied.

It's when Mary drops in on George at Mr. Gower's pharmacy and gets some chocolate ice cream. After he gets away with calling the sweet little girl "brainless" for not wanting coconut (I'm with Mary on that one), he has to reach into the cooler to scoop out her ice cream, and Mary seizes the moment to lean in and whisper to him...

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Mary:	Is this the ear you can't hear on? George Bailey, I'll love you till the day I die.
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That. Is. Magic.

And he puts coconut on her ice cream, anyway—Eat it, Mary! =)

Another favorite line, not so magic, but perfect, delivered by Stewart's George Bailey...

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George:	[to Potter] In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!
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In this scene, Potter lures George into a trap with an apparently very generous offer, but a handshake with the spider snaps him out of it. George is physically repelled by the contact. He looks at his hand, then wipes it on his jacket! Would be a fun way to take the story if the devil or a demon was introduced as actively at work in Bedford Falls. Perhaps turning George and his story into more of a book of Job, eh?

And another favorite few words, definitely magickal, but descriptive, not prescriptive. A great little exchange between George and his uncle...

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George:	You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are?
Uncle Billy:	Sure! Breakfast is served, lunch is served, dinner is served!
George:	No, no, no! Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.
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How perfectly romantic.

I think they can both be correct, don't you? =)

*sigh* So much Goodness in that film. A real tear jerker. Seriously! Once the house lights went up, it was sweet to see that so many people had gotten caught up in the film. "Zuzu's petals!" The humorless bank assessor guy drops some money into the basket! The sheriff tears up the warrant for his arrest! "To my brother, George, the richest man in town!" Not even a Michael Bluth robot could resist the waves of smarm and joy! I could see it on the faces of the audience as they milled about and filed down the aisles... smiles, blushes, tears. Me, I managed to dry mine with some spare napkins before the final church bell ringing. Gotta maintain that tough guy image.

George Bailey is such a good-hearted guy, but make no mistake, he's still a guy. I always marvel at George and Mary's walk home from the graduation dance. Having taken an unplanned dip in the high school pool, they're strolling home in clothes that George has managed to pilfer from a locker room. They sing together, out of tune, they make their wishes and break some glass at the old Granville house, that guy hears George talking all romantickal but gets impatient waiting for them to finally close the deal and kiss—Youth is wasted on the wrong people!—and Mary evaporates out of her robe, like Obi-Wan Kenobi. And just like Obi-Wan, she reappears to our hero, heh. She's in the hydrangeas. He's got her robe, and he's *just* about to toss it to her, when he catches himself—What am I doing? This is a verrry interesting situation...

He thinks out loud about all the possibilities. "I've read about situations like this but never..." "Maybe I could sell tickets!" And when Mary threatens to tell his mother, "She's way down there on the corner..." And when she threatens to scream for the police, "They're way downtown... and they'd be on *my* side!" Heh. Brilliant. George gets to play at being a cad, but manages to pull it off as a charming. Perhaps that's just Jimmy Stewart. =)

It's so odd the things I miss and catch, or remember and forget. On seeing it last year, I realized for the first time that George isn't just playing dumb about where Mary went when he sees her robe on the sidewalk, he's actually playing as if she shrank out of sight, or disappeared into thin air, like one of Gob's illusions. He makes like Mary might actually still be under the fallen robe, y'know? A small thing, but ingeniously funny.

And speaking of catching... Was kind of a surprise to hear so many people (in the form of knowing chuckles) finally sort of "get it" when George says Ernie and Bert's names late in the movie. If you're not a fan or are unfamiliar with the film, two of George's friends in Bedford Falls are Ernie the cab driver and Bert the police officer. I've never gotten confirmation in any form that they are the reason for the names of the bachelor muppet roommates on Sesame Street, but once I heard their names and made the connection, I believed it.

I was surprised by the mob acknowledgement, first, cuz it seemed like it was from a lot of adults in the audience, and I figured anyone who's seen it a dozen times would remember that (or at least remember remembering), and second, cuz we first meet them both way earlier in the film and George calls them by name then, too.

Me, I don't think I made the Sesame Street connection until I really paid attention to a television broadcast while at home sometime in college. If there is a link between the characters of the same name, do the behavior of the cop and the cab driver inform the personalities of the muppet roommates'? Hrmmm... Ernie does kiss Bert in one scene in the movie, after serenading the newlywed Baileys with "I Love You Truly"... Ernie plants one on Bert's forehead... and gets his hat mashed in for his trouble.

Of course, it could be coincidence, right? Serendipity. But you know me, I want to believe. =)

I hope I get a chance to watch BACK TO THE FUTURE again soon, to see how much Zemeckis borrowed from Capra. I remember feeling the same way while watching LIFE last year. It's uncanny film deja vu... Views of the main streets of town, the welcome signs, maybe even George driving his car into the tree (the inspiration for Lone Pine vs Twin Pine Mall?), and that Michael J. Fox WTF? extreme close-up! Jimmy Stewart does it first! Although it's got a lot more angst in it than Fox's, heh.

I wonder what a TV series of the Baileys would've been like. Or how Paul Haggis (the writer who makes you so uncomfortable with CRASH and MILLION DOLLAR BABY) would write them, given all the premises of the story and the seeds of the characters. I mean, how long can George stand it, smothering his own goals and dreams to uphold his father's business, send his superstar brother to college, and then enable him to pursue his talents, and live in that drafty old house with a family that he loves, but keeps him from the new horizons he always dreamed of...?

Maybe it was of the era, but under stress, George does have a tendency to get physical with those near and dear to him. Granted we see him under the worst kind of stress in the highlight reel that Joseph and Clarence show us, but you can see how easily a writer could quickly take these characters into some awfully grey and dark areas, eh?

Geez. Why do I gotta think like that?

Something I noticed and remember from this screening that tickled me. Tommy, George and Mary's younger son... When George comes home with the dark stormcloud over his head of bankruptcy and jail, at one point he falls into a chair and little Tommy jumps him. The first thing he does is put his Santa Claus mask over his face and growl at his pop like a monster—Grrrrr...Rarrrrrr!—Mutant Enemy style, y'know? Monster Santa Claus! That, I love!

I wish I had a million dollars!

Hot dog!

=)

Keep on keepin on~