It's a Wonderful Life!

"It's a Wonderful Life" star Jimmy Stewart described the film like this: "It's simply about an ordinary man who discovers that living each ordinary day honorably, with faith in God and a selfless concern for others, can make for a truly wonderful life."

This comment by Dr. Mercola is so beautiful that we thought to post it here:

Released in 1946, It’s a Wonderful Life still captures the hearts of new viewers over six decades later. This movie is also a wonderful metaphor for your power to change the world. It’s one of my personal all-time favorites.

In the film, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) spends his entire life giving up his big dreams for the good of his town, Bedford Falls. But come one Christmas Eve, he is dismayed and suicidal over a misplaced loan, and the plotting of the evil millionaire, Mr. Potter, who wants to take over the town.

Just when George’s spirit is about to be broken, his guardian angel, Clarence, falls to Earth, and shows him how his town, family, and friends would’ve turned out had he never been born.

The ending to this movie, if any of you still haven’t seen it, will bring tears to your eyes and remind you of how many lives YOU touch every day.

Why not start a tradition with your family, and watch this inspiring movie together tonight?

-Dr. Joseph Mercola

The whole town is praying for George Bailey, and he himself, though "not a praying man", had recently prayed, too, when the angel comes to help him by showing him what life in his town and loved ones' lives would have been like without him.

Jimmy Stewart later wrote an article about the film. Here is an excerpt:

"In one scene, for example, George Bailey is faced with unjust criminal charges and, not knowing where to turn, ends up in a little roadside restaurant. He is unaware that most of the people in town are arduously praying for him. In this scene, at the lowest point in George Bailey's life, Frank Capra was shooting a long shot of me slumped in despair.

In agony I raised my eyes and, following the script, pled, "God ... God ... Dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way. I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God ..."

"As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless, had reduced me to tears.

"Frank, who loved spontaneity in his films, was ecstatic. He wanted a close-up of me saying that prayer, but was sensitive enough to know that my breaking down was real and that repeating it in another take was unlikely. But Frank got his close-up anyway.

"The following week he worked long hours in the film laboratory, again and again enlarging the frames of that scene so that eventually it would appear as a close-up on the screen. I believe nothing like this had ever been done before. It involved thousands of individual enlargements with extra time and money. But he felt it was worth it."

Related Links:

Christmas Giving

Christmas Stories

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