It's a Wonderful Life - More Relevant Than Ever (Patreon)

In 1903, Frank Capra emigrated to the United States as a child. Over the years he worked his way up the ladder to become one of the most successful Hollywood directors and made a name for himself with films such as It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can’t Take it With You (1938).

After the attack on Pearl Harbor however, Capra voluntarily put his career in Hollywood on hold to serve his country by making promotional films for the United States Government’s war effort. He did so partially out of guilt as he stated; “I had a guilty conscience. In my films I championed the cause of the gentle, the poor, the downtrodden. Yet I had begun to live like the Aga Khan. The curse of Hollywood is big money. It comes so fast it breeds and imposes its own mores, not of wealth, but of ostentation and phony status.”

His journey is portrayed in the Netflix documentary Five Came Back which recounts the wartime contributions of Capra and four other prominent Hollywood directors. Capra’s effort resulted in a series of seven propaganda films to help justify America’s involvement in the war and, as Chief of Staff George Marshall told him; “to explain to our boys in the Army why we are fighting, and the principles for which we are fighting”. When the war was over, Capra returned to Hollywood to unexpectedly find himself a forgotten man. He remembers;  “We came back to Hollywood and we didn’t know anybody. People would introduce me to somebody and they’d say; ‘Frank who?’” 

It is from this experience of having the promise of freedom and being disillusioned with success, and from giving to others and feeling as if that sacrifice means nothing that his film It’s a Wonderful Life was born. Director Guillermo Del Toro has commented; “It’s a Wonderful Life is an incredibly genuine, incredibly brave film for Capra to undertake after World War II, because he has gone through an incredible experience where he has given so much for others in the way he sees his own labor. And he comes out of it and it’s inconsequential, in the same quiet terrible way that George Bailey postpones his trips, postpones his life, in order to serve a community of people that render him, in his perception, invisible.” 

To make matters worse; It’s a Wonderful Life flopped upon release and caused Frank Capra’s studio to go bankrupt. It wasn’t until decades later when the film entered into the public domain and television stations started broadcasting it that It’s a Wonderful Life became a classic and Frank Capra’s greatest and most sincere effort was finally redeemed.