I was having a new look at the movie "It's a Wonderful Life"
and remembering...
It was the late 70's , I was finishing my course work on my masters
degree the weather was colder that year and the campus had that feel of
the end of the winder term. Student were dressed in there coats and
warmer gear, then the usual light wear. My mother had just died from a
hart attract, she should not have been working at the hospital, and
knew she had a hart condition. My father was very sick and my mother could
not stay home with him all day and all the time. My ex-wife and I were having
problems at around this time, everything seemed to be going down hill in small
ways little by little as the sand moves under your feet.
Walking on campus, around the falling leaves I noticed a post
about Frank Capra the Director was having a lecture and would be
screening his film "It's a Wonderful Life", I thought this would be fun
for me and my wife, something we could do together.
My ex-wife is Jewish and me not, so Christmas and the holiday sometime would bring out some underlying feeling in each of us.
The Screening room on campus was in a small auditorium, that evening
around 7:30, and there across from me was Frank Capra, he was looking well
and with a smile on his face.
Frank Capra had a important and interesting life, from being a gag
writer to being one of the greatest film director of all times. Capra
was a populist,using the simplicity of his narrative structures,
in which the great social problems facing America were boiled down to
scenarios which were simple metaphorical constructs. Capra used myth and poetic
power of film to create proletarian passion plays. As with today's
culture the conflict between cynicism and the protagonist's faith and
idealism, a melancholy and baseless optimism is a powerful content.
As the lecture continued I was affixed on the person, as he
described his life and films, his introduction to the film we were
going to be shown was a surprise, instead of seeing his classic "It's
a wonderful Life" we were to see the classic "Meet John Doe".
I was not to be disappointed, some others seemed put out.
Until recently I did not fully understand why Frank Capra wanted to
show "Meet John Doe". The story of "Meet John Doe" is about conflict
and faith, in the film a man needing money agrees to impersonate a
nonexistent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest,
and begin a political movement.
As Capra explained, there was a problem with the ending and a
they had to call in a writer to rewrite the ending, filming the ending
in many ways, as he explained they had John go over the building,
than have him and the leading women both go over then just her. "Meet
John Doe" was make in 1941 just before the war. The story is about
the great depression and how people can over come life's problems by
simple golden rules, over the corruption of government. It's also
about the loss of faith, a story about redemption.
When the United States went to war in December 1941, Frank Capra
rejoined the Army and became an propagandist. Capra said he was against
"mass entertainment, mass production, mass education, mass everything.
Especially mass man. I was fighting for, in
a sense, the preservation of the liberty of the individual person
against the mass."
After the screening and talk Frank Capra said that we were know going
to hear the radio version of "It's a Wonderful Life" At this time more
that haft of the audience stood up and moved to the exit, as if the show
was over. Frank Capra stood up,now red in the face and irritated and told
them " you well never learn anything about films or life if you can not
learn to listen " most just keep going some stayed, I was still in my
seat. I sat and listened to the radio version of "It's a wonderful
Life" with Frank Capra giving me a eye and enjoyed it, Capra had
written and directed the radio version also.
I went over and got a hand sake headed home. Not to long after I went through a divorce my father died and I lost everything I had and was homeless, not unlike
John Doe.
Being a Educational media specialist and artist, looking back to what
happen there that night, hearing "It's a Wonderful life" made in 1946, just after
the war. I was seeing a continuation of "Meet John Doe" the story of a man fighting
against corruption, loss of faith and of redemption.
John Doe was to jump off the building Christmas eve and was saved, were as George Bailey jumps and is saved through this his redemption. If you see life or a film
but can not hear what the message is you can sometimes go out into the
night and not really see or understand what life is about, the conflict
between cynicism and the protagonist's faith and idealism, and about redemption
Timothy Dougherty
