It’s that time of the year when you hunker down on a cold, snowy night and watch a holiday classic. One of the most beloved is It’s a Wonderful Life from director Frank Capra. It has long been one of my favorites and it would be easy to go on and on about its message and how the final scene with the redemption of George Bailey makes me tear up just thinking about it.
But yesterday David Terrenoire wrote in his great blog, A Dark Planet, about how he secretly preferred Potterville, George Bailey’s bizarro world version of his hometown, to the original Bedford Falls. Potterville was a rockin’ town. Strip clubs. Hot music. Bedford Falls was, by contrast, a real snore.
He cited an article by Wendell Jamieson in the NY Times that made his case for the same thought. Jamieson even goes so far as to state that George Bailey would be facing prison time for the loss of the 8000 dollars, regardless of restitution.
Just before I had read these two articles I had come across a video entitled Bad Bailey. It’s put together as a movie trailer and using eerie music and a drastic realignment of the movie’s actual scenes make for pretty disturbing viewing, especially for lovers of the movie. It made me realize how much darkness there was in the film which, I think, probably made it so powerful. Just shows what a little editing can achieve…
Redtree Times 