WONDERFUL LIFE: At this season, let us remember George Baily's defense of Progressive values....

[Nikki Stone1]

"Just a minute - just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was - why, in the twenty-five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what's wrong with that?

Why - here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You - you said - what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be. "

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/quotes

[Faygo Kid]

Nice. I'm with this George, not the other one.

[Faygo Kid]

1. dupe.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Kick the dupe up too. This can't be said enough.

Remind our party what they need to stand for.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. My favorite photo

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[CANDO]

4. My right wing brother just loves this movie!

I had to ask him if he knew this movie was thought of as communist propaganda by the government when it was produced. He didn't. It still mystifies me why he loves the message of this movie and yet doesn't make the leap and apply it to his own political ideology.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Cognitive dissonance: God and the angels can't be on the side of progressive values so...

he focuses on the angel and forgets the political message.

[DangerDave921]

6. The little guy

This was a great movie about standing up for the little guy. But as for George Bailey being a progressive, there are a whole host of other views he might not have been down with in the 1940's.

I love that movie. Jimmy Stewart is absolutely perfect at portraying the innocent, naive young George as well as the bitter embattled George. Just beautiful acting.

[kimmerspixelated]

7. Me, too.

I try to catch it every year. I fell in love with it when I was a preteen, and have cherished it every year since then. Bailey's words are poignant for any era.

[kansasblue]

11. I have a friends who is the same way....

talks about how the he's always getting screwed by businesses and every one is keeping the little guy down.

I told him he ought to listen to what Edwards is saying. 'hell no... fricken Democrats'

He's sticking to with the Republican.

[pnorman]

13. It was regarded in EXACTLY that light, by many whom we'd now term "McCarthyites".

I don't have time right now to stop and Google, but it can be confirmed easily enough. Ayn Rand held some sort of "consultative" position in the film industry at that time. Ever the "libertarian", she proclaimed her mission to be that of preventing such "collectivist anti-banker propaganda" from ever again appearing in US films. And for a very long time, that's how it worked out.

pnorman

[tom_paine]

14. He cannot. Simply cannot. "High" authoritarians have deeply compartmentalized minds.

It is one of their qualities which makes them so beloved by the tyrants who reprogram them at will and pull their strings.

Don't believe me? There's a Canadian Professor with two decades of research to back it up.

Click on the first link in my signature.

[DangerDave921]

17. A-political

This movie can be admired on many levels, and does not have to be viewed through a political prism. The movie has a wonderful message of hope, redemption, hard work, family, and the great benefit that comes from doing a lot of the small things right in life.

[Elspeth]

21. Not sure that anyone gets redeemed

It's about someone learning he has value enough to stay alive even when the evil, dishonest predator has more or less framed him for a crime. And his reason for living? To protect his little world from this predator. And the predator is preying on people financially with a system that allows him to do it legally.

Not political, my ass.

[Balderdash]

8. K&R

.

[Missy Vixen]

9. "It's a Wonderful Life" is my favorite movie

I was telling DH the other night while we watched it on NBC that Potter has an uncanny resemblance to Dick Cheney.

I start crying every year when little Mary leans over the drugstore counter and whispers into George Bailey's deaf ear, "George Bailey, I'll love you till the day I die."

Julie

[Dawggie]

10. Proud to give the 5th K&R

[Nikki Stone1]

18. Thank you!

:)

[avenger64]

12. Here, here...

A keen eye notes that he fought for the little man. Though I think in real life Jimmy Stewart was a wingnut.

[MedleyMisty]

15. Have you ever noticed that what people like in movies is what they vote against at election time?

Seriously - it seems like every after school kid's show had its episode about mean old greedy developers wanting to tear down some historic and/or beloved town landmark and the town pulling together and saving it.

I remember when I went to see Pan's Labyrinth that people cheered when the dude fought back against the person torturing him as opposed to cheering for the torture.

I think that really in their hearts most people are naturally good. I just don't know what happens when it comes to applying that good will. Propaganda? Ignorance? Inability to empathize with people who aren't right in front of them on a screen?

[Hekate]

16. A New Year's toast to George Bailey!

:toast:

Hekate

[Uncle Joe]

19. One of my favorite movies.

An excellent reflection of the ripples in the pond we all make in one form or another.

Thanks for the thread, Nikki Stone:thumbsup:

[Nikki Stone1]

20. You're welcome, Joe.

Clarence: Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?