why its not a classic to me

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2008)

So the premise is that one person's life affects dozens of people, far more than we could ever imagine and that all of us have value and purpose, and there are some religious aspects thrown in. I do agree that we affect people even when we don't think we do and even when we don't even want to.
I used to love this movie as a kid but I don't love it anymore as an adult. I don't respect George anymore because in my honest opinion, I think there should be a balance between helping other people and following your dreams. Making yourself a martyr at the cost of your life is not altruistic. At least not to me.
Also the movie seems to imply that if the right people don't show up to encourage people that people will give up. Like George is shown that Mary would have become a spinster without him being born. I believe that we should always be our best friends, because someone can't always be there to encourage us.
We really carry ourselves through life even though we may have family and friends in our lives, but we really do carry ourselves through life and we just can't give up on ourselves and our own lives just because the right person didn't show up to encourage us. Its great when others encourage us but all of us have been through horrible periods in our lives when no one was there.
Sometimes you have to be your own best friend. I don't believe that another human can be everyone's martyr and they show that its okay with the character of George Bailey. Sure its wonderful to help people but to be a martyr? I don't think so. No way. Also its implied that rich people are evil.
Why couldn't they have shown another rich person that was nice and decent, to balance out the point of view? Its not wrong to want to be wealthy and a lot of wealthy people contribute to charities. I mean look at Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and others like them. The wealthy contribute far more to charities than any income bracket. Not all of them are evil. There are good wealthy people too.