An Interesting Twist On A Christmas Carol: Similarities Between Dickens' and Capra's Holiday Favorites

It’s a given during the holiday season. One way or another, you’re just not going to be able to escape viewing at least a snippet of that timeless holiday classic, It’s A Wonderful Life. And that’s OK, because this is indeed a wonderful film, despite the fact that upon its initial release on Christmas Day of 1946 it was a financial flop. The critics called it “too sentimental”, although we’ve come to love it as time has passed for that very reason.

We all know the story. George Bailey (James Stewart), all around nice guy and perennial resident of Bedford Falls, is trying to escape the small town to make it in the big city. But circumstances constantly conspire to foil his plans. When his father does from a stroke, George is tied down to Bedford Falls by the old Building and Loan business his father and uncle built together.

Later, George stays home to run the business while his brother Harry goes to college and after that takes a job in Buffalo. When he finally marries Mary (Donna Reed) and has a family, it seems he’s tied to Bedford Falls for good. George seems to accept this, that is until his uncle accidentally places a crucial Building and Loan bank deposit in the hands of the evil Potter (Lionel Barymore).

Facing bankruptcy and scandal, George decides to end it all and commit suicide, until the intervention of an angel named Clarence shows him just how he has touched the lives of so many, and what a difference he has made in the world.

To be sure, the parallels with Dicken’s A Christmas Carol are numerous. Potter himself seems to out-Scrooge Scrooge, especially since he never receives redemption as old Ebenezer does. More than that, though, is the aspect of the film concerning a life revisited. Just as Ebenezer received divine intervention at a key moment in his life, so does George Bailey.

But this is A Christmas Carol with a twist, because George Bailey is the antithesis of Scrooge. He just doesn’t know it. Scrooge’s spiritual visitation was intended to show him the error of his ways, how he has wasted his life focusing it solely on business and money at the expense of friendships and marriage.

George Bailey has done exactly the opposite. He has sacrificed his grandiose dreams of a big career for his family, his friends, and his hometown. But it takes an angelic visitation for him to realize this. As the Spirits showed Scrooge how the world would be so little impacted by his death since he had touched so very few lives, so Clarence shows George what a wonderful difference he has made by revealing Bedford Falls as it would be had George Bailey never been born. And like Scrooge, George too receives salvation in the end.

This film is a delight on many levels beyond the comparisons to Dickens classic work, however. Most of these have been adeptly explored in other reviews. But the film is even eminently enjoyable just upon a surface level too. It’s so much fun and so uplifting, and the incredible performances by Stewart, Barrymore, the very beautiful Donna Reed and just about every member of the cast help explain why A Wonderful Life is such a wonderful film.