Today’s letter on our Christmas Movies A to Z is I so we’ve chosen It’s a Wonderful Life.
The 1946 classic was bizarrely panned by the critics and didn’t perform all that well at the box office on its initial release. Now the film is considered to be the great Christmas movie of all-time and it’s on most people’s must-watch list every Christmas.
It’s a Wonderful Life is a life-affirming story centred on George Bailey (James Stewart) who contemplates suicide when life gets tough and he believes his family will be financially better off without him. An angel intervenes and George gets to see what life would have been like had he never been born.
The film features a career-best performance from James Stewart who is magnetic on screen opposite the equally amazing Donna Reed. A heart-warming tale, It’s a Wonderful Life takes you back to the days when communities came together to help one another and society wasn’t as cynical as it is now.
There are so many wonderful moments in the film that it’s impossible to single out a highlight. At just over two hours in length, It’s a Wonderful Life is brilliantly paced and surprisingly funny.
Do yourself a favour though and watch it in black-and-white rather than the awful colourised version.
Pick yourself up a copy of It’s a Wonderful Life on DVD or Blu-ray.
Come back tomorrow to find out what our choice for J is…
