Frank Capra's |
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Starring:
This movie is shown mostly during the Holiday season, but in reality, is suitable for any time of the year. The only reason why it's catagorized a "Christmas movie" is because it takes place on Christmas Eve. The powerfull message of this movie is that everyone is special. No one is born a failure. No one is poor who has friends. This message is told throughout this two-hour long movie. The Story The movie begins with people praying for George Bailey. The story moves to Heaven where God hears their prayers and summons an angel who has not had much success at helping people in the past. To catch the angel (Clarence) up on the situation that George is in. God tells Clarence about how George, as a teenager, saved his brother's, as well as an older member of the community, life.
George marries the girl who loved him ever since they were kids, but instead of going on their honeymoon, George gives his honeymoon money to the town's citizens who have lost their money when the bank closed.
So, George runs home, happy to be alive, and the townspeople come to help George out, each giving money to George to replace the missing money. The movie ends with George realizing that, even though he doesn't have money, he's rich, and he is a valuable asset to everybodies lives. |
This movie was selected by the
American Film Institute as one of the 100 greatest movies
ever. This movie is one that will forever be remembered. 
As a
adult, George has plans of going to college and then
traveling the world. He wants to get out of the small
town that he grew up in. However, he decides to wait
until his younger brother gets done with college before
going to college himself, so he could help is father with
the town's Savings and Loan. Unfortunately, George's
father dies while George's brother is in college, and
George decides to take his father's posistion instead of
selling the Savings and Loan to a scrooge-like banker.
When George's brother returns from college, George is
suprised to find that his brother has married a young
woman, who's father offered the brother a job in his
business, leaving George to stay in the little town, in
charge of the Savings and Loan. 
George
always put others before himself, but when the Savings
and Loan's money disappears and investigaters come
questioning possible extortion, George goes off the deep
end. After snapping in front of his family, he leaves
home, trying to figure out what to do. After the remark
to him is made that, because of his Life Insurance, that
he'd be better off dead, he decides to commit suicide. He
goes to a bridge, planning of jumping off it, but instead,
Clarence (disguised as an old man), George's guardian
angel jumps in, forcing the better part of George to jump
in and save Clarence. Clarence tells George who he really
is, and, of course, George doesn't believe him. George
feels that it would of been better if he was never been
born, so Clarence asks God to make it as if he wasn't. So
George walks through his small town, seeing that
everybody was miserable, including his wife (who was an
old maid). When he realized his value in life, he asks
God to make it as if he had lived again, and God did.