It's a Wonderful Life, Birdbrain!

 

Christmas movies are a tradition in many families. I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a kid and remember thinking it was sweet. I showed it to my kids many years ago when they were young and remember being disappointed. They weren’t that interested, and I didn’t enjoy it much from an adult perspective. Please don’t take this personally.

These nostalgic movie disappointments happened often once the kids graduated from strictly animated movies but were too young for really engaging films like “Suffragette” or “What Dreams May Come.”

Many years ago, I was very excited to share one of my favorite childhood movies with my kids: “The Bad News Bears!” I guess I didn’t realize as a kid that Coach Buttermaker came to be the leader of the Bears as the result of a court order as punishment for drunk driving. The coach was drunk most of the time and downright abusive to the kids.

I hear a lot of folks say that “It’s a Wonderful Life” is their all-time favorite Christmas movie, so I gave it another try this past week. I did enjoy the last ten minutes of the film, but I was pretty irritated with the first hour and three-quarters. There were some bizarre and amusing elements: Why was there a crow living in the Building and Loan office? Why did Uncle Billy have an emotional support squirrel living in his house to comfort him after he lost the money?

One main issue I had with “IAWL” was with the pharmacy scene. Mr. Gower, the pharmacist, is very upset and has been drinking. Were there no laws against impaired pharmacists in the 40’s? That is just not OK.

Mr. Gower was very sad because he just learned that his son died from Influenza. Fun fact: the first Influenza vaccine was approved for public use in 1945. Death by Influenza was commonplace back then and it made people very, very sad. Get your flu shots, folks.

In his drunken grief, Mr. Gower prepared capsules for a family who had Diphtheria. Another Fun Fact: the first Diphtheria vaccine was approved for widespread use in 1920. Under the miserly thumb of Mr. Potter, the good citizens of Bedford Falls might not have had access to vaccinations. See all the problems this can cause? A robust public healthcare system is essential.

Unfortunately, the impaired pharmacist mistakenly filled the capsules with poison rather than, I suspect, an antibiotic. Here’s what I don’t get: Why did Mr. Gower stock a bottle of POISON in his pharmacy. It was a bottle of white powder marked with a skull and crossbones labelled “POISON.” That is just asking for trouble. Maybe pharmacies got occasional prescriptions for poison back in the 40’s. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know for sure.

Another issue I had with “IAWL” is that George Bailey was such a well-respected guy in his community, but he wasn’t very nice to his wife. I downright can’t even believe that a beautiful, smart woman like Mary would waste her time on this turkey. Take the scene at the pharmacy when George and Mary were young kids. George is making an ice cream for Mary and asks if she wants coconut sprinkles.

Mary: “I don’t like coconuts.”

George: “You don’t like coconuts? Say, Birdbrains, don’t you know where coconuts come from?”

HE CALLED HER BIRDBRAINS. Good Lord, can you imagine what fate would befall a boy who called my Audrey “Birdbrains??”

Did Mary shoot George Bailey a giant stink eye or run from this demeaning punk as fast as she could? NO. Instead she whispered to him, “George Bailey, I’ll love you till the day I die.”

And then George goes on to say, “Maybe I’ll have a couple-a harems. And maybe three or four wives. Wait and see!” Mary responds to this misogynistic statement with google eyes like a silly girl-simp.

AND THEN when George serves her ice cream, IT HAS COCONUT ON IT EVEN THOUGH SHE CLEARLY STATED THAT SHE DOESN’T LIKE IT.

Later in the movie after Mary returns from college, George visits her at home. Here are some things he said to woo her:

“When’d you get back?”

“Where’d you get that dress?”

“What’s the matter with you?”

“I just came in to get warm.”

And most romantically, *shaking Mary by the shoulders* “I don’t want to get married ever to anyone!”

The next scene is the wedding. 

These movie characters sure made it hard on themselves with all the unhealthy communication and manipulation. Toward the end of the movie, George Bailey was so emotionally dysregulated that he almost couldn’t pull himself together.

And while it was lovely to see his badass wife activate the whole community to save the Building and Loan business, George is going to need to get out of that business and follow his dreams of exploring the world before he loses himself completely. And Mary is going to need to establish some firm boundaries with her husband and quit being such a doormat. And Uncle Billy could do with a vigorous eyebrow trimming.

At the end of the movie, we all see the positive ways that George Bailey touched the lives of those in his community, Clarence gets his angel wings, and we all view George as a “good” guy. But what about the negative ways he affected others around him? Like that temper tantrum before he left the house, got drunk, and crashed his car? And what about the trauma to his family after his suicidality? Do those actions make him “bad?” 

We all affect people with our actions. Sometimes a single action can have a positive effect on one person and a negative effect on another. Like if there’s only one cookie left, one person gets a cookie, and one person is sad.

Or sometimes an action can have a short-term negative effect but a long-term positive effect, such as practically any effective parenting.

And we all have done things that we are not proud of. So does that make us good guys or bad guys? It’s my opinion that you are perfect EXACTLY the way you are. Everything about you is perfect for your experience in this world and every mistake is an opportunity to learn. We’re all connected to each other in this world in some way, so it’s up to us to help each other out.

Happy Holidays, Birdbrains!
Thank you for reading!