It ’s a Wonderful Life — Frank Capra ’s ode to treasure what you ’ve get — chronicles the life and near - last of George Bailey ( Jimmy Stewart ) , an all - around well bollock who keep delaying his personal aspiration of break away Bedford Falls , the sleepy little hamlet where he was born and raised , in parliamentary procedure to aid the Ithiel Town ’s downtrodden denizens . He shoulder their burdens for year — financial and otherwise — until the free weight of them sends him to the bottom of a bottle and the top of a very tall bridge circuit .
After watchingIt ’s a Wonderful Lifeevery class for a half - century , America has gotten loopy about what ’s really going on in the story . You do n’t obsessively watch this matter yr in and class out without reaching for the corkboard and violent chain .
So here are 8 rather dark and twisted interpretations about the lamentable happy Christmas movie of all time .
1. Mary’s love for George is what caused The Great Depression.
In the most polar early view inIt ’s a Wonderful Life , Mary ( Donna Reed ) and George throw rock at the long - empty “ Granville House ” and make wishes . George wishes to see the world , but Mary keep her wish a enigma , only differentiate him after they ’re married and ensconce down thatthatis what she had hoped for that night .
So Mary ’s wish come in true but , as Redditor JiminKYpoints out , the reason they ’re still in Bedford Falls is because George sacrificed their honeymoon money when the Great Depression reach . So , technically , Mary ’s compliments produce an economic tragedy . George was so close to take to the woods the town that fate had to befuddle the intact nation a fiscal curveball to ensure that he ’d abide veracious where he was .
2. Mary’s secret wish was what caused everything bad that happens to George.
A handful of lover theories are passably harsh on Mary ’s wish in a let’s - blame - Eve kinda style — include anotherReddit gem , which is an extrapolation of the last one . In this case , the Redditor blame Mary ’s wish not just for the Great Depression , but for essentially every bad thing that later happens in George ’s grownup animation . In fact , aright after the wishing scene , George learns that his Fatherhood has had a fatal chance event that ends up keeping him in town instead of go aside to college .
George ’s wish to see the world does n’t come true , but Mary ’s secret wish kills George ’s dad , induce the 1929 stock market crash , and sends an angel down to prevent George from killing himself so that he can never , everescape Bedford Falls . Mary even helps raise the $ 8000 at the end of the flick that saves George from run low to jailhouse — presumptively somewhere far away from his hometown ( and married woman and nestling ) . Yet again , it ’s Mary who prevents another one of George ’s penny-pinching - escapes .
3. Bedford Falls would have been better off without George Bailey.
George ’s plea to his guardian holy man Clarence ( Henry Travers ) is to have never been bear , and the Scrooge - esque visual sensation Clarence concede him show the tragedy of his syndicate and the town . But Pottersville — the Ithiel Town that would have been Bedford Falls had George not stood in the way of greedy Mr. Potter ( Lionel Barrymore)—is really pretty great . It ’s got bars and theaters and all the expectant - city excitement George had been dreaming of his entire spirit .
That ’s why , in 2008,The New York Timeswriter Wendell Jamiesonsuggestedthat peradventure thingswouldhave been right had George Bailey never been born . Or at the very least , he should have leave behind the townspeople to Mr. Potter ’s devices .
Jamieson even talked with an economic expert to supply actual - world substantiation that a holidaymaker destination like Pottersville would have fared well than an upstate New York fabrication hub like Bedford Falls . Sorry , George .
4.Donnie Darkois a reverse version ofIt’s a Wonderful Life.
Donnie Darko , Richard Kelly ’s cult calamity of a young man amount to grip with his own day of reckoning , may very well be a mirror image retelling ofIt ’s a Wonderful Life . Redditor DaOverseerexplainedthat , or else of a middle - years human beings meeting an saint who convinces him that he should live , “ Donnie Darkois about a adolescent who gets visited by a ‘ demon ’ who tell him that the human beings will end and everyone will die if he does n’t snuff it first . ” The bunny girl wooing - wear demon convert him , of course , by designate him an alternative reality .
5. The film’s “happy” ending is actually incredibly depressing.
Everyone keep the final moments ofIt ’s a wondrous Lifebecause George realizes just how much meaning his animation does have , the townsfolk come together in a grand gesture of friendship , and an endearing little female child differentiate a cute story about angels getting offstage . It seems joyful and liveliness - affirming … unless it ’s an unmitigated disaster of depress proportions .
As That Film Theory point out in the video essay above , all George ever wanted to do was get out of Bedford Falls . And the motion-picture show ’s ending is yet further proof of his cosmic unfitness to do so . Everything from a talent from his brother ( who was capable to break loose their hometown and become a romanticise war Cuban sandwich , thanks to George ) to the horror-struck looking at on George ’s nerve prove that the ending everyone mean is happy is in reality profoundly tragic . Nothing , not even actual prison , will have him will the prison house of his monotony small - town creation .
6. George is a socialist.
Selfless , thoughtful , generous George ’s personal ethos borders onSocialism , argues one hypothesis . He need to give loan to everyone regardless of their employment necessity , builds affordable housing for his entire town , redistribute his own wealth when an unregulated banking industry causes a clinical depression , and generally represents President Roosevelt ’s New Deal idealism . Mr. Potter , on the other hand , represents the anti - New Deal Republicans of the pre - WWII era .
7. George is an ultraconservative.
Another way to look at the film : altruistic , attentive , generous George ’s personal ethos is of bedrockConservatism . Despite his personal wishes to explore the world , he hew so fiercely to a small community that his absence from it would have driven it into blasting unfairness . He volunteer himself outside the machinations of government to make his community better , work up a family life story wherein he draw a business while his wife tends to the youngster , gives Ernie the cabbie ( Frank Faylen ) a considerable loanword that would n’t have been allowed by advanced bank regulation , and operate within an overtly Christian model leading to a finale at a Christian holiday ( “ Merry Christmas , you terrific old Building and Loan ! ” ) . It turns out every side wants to take George Bailey as their own and Mr. Potter as the enemy .
8. George is stuck in purgatory after killing himself.
Of all the theories out there about this omnipresent holiday movie , I was surprised not to see this one , so I ’m offering it up as my own . George leap out off the bridge that evening . No one save him . As punishment in the classical , Dante mother wit , George experiences an transcendental vision of a cosmos without him that frightens him to his core , but his soul is already in purgatory . Which is why , when he returns to “ the material humans , ” he believes he ’s alive with a 2nd prospect at happiness .
But George Bailey ’s dead soul is in reality still being punished for committing suicide — stuck for good , and on repeat every year for our viewing sadism , in the very place he always require to leave : The Twilight Zone .
This story has been updated for 2020 .
