It's A Wonderful Life

1946.

#11 / #20

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards.

George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) has a pretty tough life. When he contemplates suicide, Clarence (Henry Travers) - an angel - shows George what his life would be like if he had never been born.

Eddie: I had never seen IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. I had seen the ending and the parodies, but never the whole flick. First, I thought the movie was terrifyingly slow. It takes a solid hour to recap George's life and another half-hour to fill you in on why things are so bad at the moment. It's not until ninety minutes in that we finally get to the bridge. Secondly, the score is terrible. The composer, Dimitri Tiomkin, has a knack for hitting a scene a little too hard on the nose, and I think it takes away from the emotion of the movie. The performances are so good, the flick doesn't need "Mickey Mouse" music to oversell its sentimentality.

Despite that, I thought it was great. It was a lot darker than I expected it to be, and I loved it. Stewart's performance is light years ahead of its time. This, coupled with THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, prove that there's more to a Stewart performance than just that iconic voice. He is the master of understatement, saving it for a big explosion. In the case of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, it comes when he barrels through his house, "Why did we have to have so many kids?".

In the end, the movie pays off all of the tension that it has wound up. When Harry comes in and offers a toast, "To my brother, George, the richest man in town," I wept.

Sarah: I hadn't seen this movie since middle school. I remember thinking it was a bit cartoonish. That is still true. Frank Capra's Bedford Falls is like a Norman Rockwell picture. Between Clarence the clumsy angel, and the Scrooge-like villian, Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore) (saying "you're a wizard Henry" never got old to me), this seems like it should be a kid's film.

But then the film takes a sharp twist to darkness and depression. These are scenes I didn't quite grasp as a kid. When you're young, you can't fully understand George Bailey's tragedy - giving up his own dreams in order to fulfill his obligations. It's startling to see this change, and though it feels a bit bi-polar, the scenes where George really starts to lose it are what gives the film its staying power. I was wondering how I went from watching a silly Christmas movie to watching a movie about a man reckoning with his disappointments in life. How had this annoyingly cheery film arrived here? But, that's what is fascinating about IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

And of course the end makes the whole film worth it. As the town pours in to support George and Mary (Donna Reed), I was becoming just as overwhelmed as they were.

Why You Should See It: We try to avoid clichés in this part of our review, but if we said anything other than the last reel of the movie, we'd be lying. The ending of the movie, starting with Bert discovering George on the bridge, all the way to Clarence getting his wings - it's pure gold.

From Here to Eternity

1953.

#52 / Unlisted

Winner of 8 Academy Awards.

Hawaii, December 1941. Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is treated harshly because he refuses to join the regimental boxing team. Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) has an affair with Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr), the captain's wife. Meanwhile, Prewitt's best bud Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra) is getting drunk and chasing girls every chance he gets, earning the ire of Sergeant James "Fatso" Judson (Ernest Borgnine). Then the Japanese attack.

Eddie: I have a few important confessions to make.

1. I missed a crucial title card at the beginning of this movie. I had no idea that it took place in Hawaii, 1941. For the first hour, I thought it was the most meandering, pointless war movie I had ever seen. Then, as I was growing bored, I read the back of the DVD box. "This movie's about Pearl Harbor?" I asked Sarah. That changed everything. I was far more forgiving of the film's wandering pace once I knew that it had a big bang waiting for me in the third act.
2. I hate Frank Sinatra. I don't like his music, and I've never had any desire to watch his movies. But his performance in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is jaw-dropping. He is natural and likeable. He fills the screen, and I found myself missing him when he wasn't around.
3. I expected a little more oomph from the famous kissing-on-the-sand shot. It comes about twenty-eight minutes into the movie, and by the time you realize it, the characters are done kissing. Major let down.

That being said, I actually enjoyed the movie a great deal. I had never seen Montgomery Clift before, and I thought his sad, puppy eyes were a perfect snapshot of the undercurrent of despair that pervaded the movie.

Sarah: Eddie only hates Frank Sinatra because of some silly feud that Sinatra had with Elvis. I'm glad this movie changed Eddie's tune. I like the film, but it is a bit melodramatic for my tastes. Everyone is so entrenched in their own drama and foolishness that I couldn't wait for the war to start, just so the characters would have something better to do. Of course, once the Japanese attack, the rest of the story seems insignificant. Perhaps this was the point?

I like old films and Eddie is right about the film's strengths, but I'm not sure why it is on the list. It's a little too sentimental.

Why You Should See It: The scene in the rain between Sergeant Warden and Karen is filled with tension. He's trying to seduce her, and she's trying to size him up. It's played with a subtlety common in 1950s films. You can tell that they're trying to circumvent the censors, and it worked.