The Bailey Family Get What They Deserve!

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2019)

Let me just start by saying that It's A Wonderful Life is an amazing film.
Not because of the acting, plot or cinematography but because it has somehow managed to become everyone's favourite Christmas film despite having nothing to do with Christmas at all. At least 90% of the film doesn't even take place at Christmas and the scenes that do, barely make reference to it and the fact that it's Christmas Eve doesn't really make any difference to the plot. So just for this single piece of marketing alone, It's A Wonderful Life has to be respected.
So let's get into some of the story. As most people seem to have seen the film there's no need to cover the plot extensively except to say that everything that happens to George and the rest of the Bailey family is all their own doing. The film tries to make you feel sorry for George by painting him as the ultimate symbol of altruism and a victim of circumstance but the simple fact is that giving Uncle Billy a job at the Building & Loan is the dumbest thing anyone's ever done and they only have themselves to blame. Early on in the film he's tying pieces of string around his fingers to remind him of things he needs to do. Despite this amazing foolproof system he still forgets everything he's supposed to do. What a surprise! Yet they still keep him on and give him important things to do. The guy is a three bottle a day alcoholic but for some reason he's given the job of taking a tonne of money to the bank to be deposited. A quick google search reveals that the $8,000 he drops in Potter's lap is the equivalent of just over $100,000 in today's money. Clearly that piece of string round his finger didn't remind him to put the money in the bank first and then stop to have a gloat at Mr Potter about how great old Medal of Honor war hero Harry Bailey is. It's ok though because a squirrel gives him a hug. Let's not forget that earlier in the film when there's a run on the bank and building & loan, George has to come in and save the day because good old reliable Uncle Billy has locked himself in his office and is probably chugging whiskey with a crow.
Maybe it's not all Uncle Billy's fault. George has opportunities to do some more exciting things with his life but for some reason he decides not to. He's desperate to get out of Bedford Falls but everytime he's about to leave something (usually the actions of his uncle or his amazing brother) stops him. So fair enough he gets stuck living in the town he grew up in but come on George. Your best friend lives in New York. You can't go and spend a weekend visiting him? I know it's the 1940s but you don't have to be building bridges in Baghdad in order to get out of town for a couple of weeks. Maybe if you hired someone more reliable than Uncle Billy you could take a holiday and not have to worry about coming back to find the building & loan penniless and overrun with birds and rodents.
But it turns out that it was absolutely essential for the souls (and eyesight) of every resident in Bedford Falls that George Bailey lives his life trapped in a town and job he hates. When he wishes he'd never been born, the quaint little town is turned into Pottersville, a place full of gambling, drinking and policeman firing their gun aimlessly up a crowded street just to catch one guy. Though, despite all this debauchery, it is clearly indicated that there are no dogs allowed. You've got to have some rules. So it seems everyone in Bedford Falls suffers a worse fate in Pottersville. Old man Gower turns into a proper homeless drunk (although that probably doesn't matter as he's seemingly immortal. He's about 108 at the start of the film in 1919 but is somehow still jogging across the road at the end of WW2 to talk to George about his brother Harry). But even worse than that, Mary needs glasses. That's right, if George Bailey had never been born, Mary's eyesight would have just gone properly downhill. I can only assume that without George, she does end up dating Sam Wainwright for a bit and he pokes her in the eye during a classic "hee-haw". Still it's not bad news for everyone. It turns out that if George Bailey had never been born then Nick could have owned his own bar instead of having to just be bartender at Martini's. This would of course come at the expense of him never learning how to make mulled wine.
George sees all this though and realises he needs to live. So he does and off he runs back to his family who are all super excited to have him back even though (as far as they're concerned) he's just had a complete meltdown at all of them and left home on Christmas Eve. They don't make it completely clear how much time passes in Bedford Falls while George is checking out Pottersville but I assume it's not that long as the kids are all just at home chilling (Mary's just left them all home alone to go looking for George). At this point, George is assuming he's off to jail but it's ok because everyone in town stops by to drop a couple of bucks into a big ol' wicker basket and the building & loan is saved once more. Even little Zuzu makes a miraculous recovery after having been outside with her coat unbuttoned, which in 1940s north east America is basically suicide.
So what do you know about that? It turns out it's a wonderful life after all. And not only that but singing Auld Lang Syne in front of a tree means it's been Christmas the whole time and somehow the entire preceding 2+ hours of film need to be watched every yuletide.