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It’s A Wonderful Life is directed by Frank Capra and
stars James Stewart and Donna Reed. Paramount’s Blu-Ray
Disc of the film presents it in the original Black and White,
but also includes a colorized version on the second disc.
Once again, however, Paramount failed to provide us with
a review copy and I had to purchase the disc myself. ***
George Bailey is man who has always sacrificed himself
for the good of his hometown. He has a seemingly-good life
– a loving wife and several children. But a money issue
ends up leading George to contemplate suicide. As a result,
an angel is sent from heaven to help George by showing him
how the world would be if he hadn’t ever been born – and
if he succeeds, he will earn his wings. Will he convince
George that life is worth living after all? ***
Hailed as a great film and often parodied, It’s A Wonderful
Life is a true classic. The film remains consistently popular
6 decades after its theatrical release, and after revisiting
the movie for its Blu-Ray debut, it isn’t hard to see how
it holds up so well even to this day. ***
It’s A Wonderful Life brings together an all-star cast
of some of the greatest actors who were in the business
at the time, the most legendary of which being James Stewart.
One of the most versatile and talented actors in the history
of cinema, Stewart makes this one of this finest roles.
It’s a part any one of us can relate to – who amongst us
HASN’T been alone or distraught come the holidays at some
point? Director Frank Capra had collaborated with Stewart
in a number of films prior to this one, but It’s A Wonderful
Life is perhaps the greatest example of this actor/director
pairing. ***
Capra creates a believable world in this film, with
a real man facing real problems. And although a good portion
of the film centers around an angel coming to George’s aid,
the somewhat supernatural concept of his gaining aid from
above never detracts from the film feeling authentic or
heartfelt. Not once in Capra’s film does the story feel
like it drags on, even though it has a run time of over
2 hours. ***
Yet another way you can see the impact the film has
had on the world is that it has become one of the most frequently-parodied
visual works of all time. It isn’t at all uncommon to see
parodies of the movie, even to this day. If you were ever
wondering where all these “what would the world be like
if I had never been born?” storylines in various media came
from, now you know! ***
It’s A Wonderful Life is a quintessential classic for
the ages. You know a film has “made it” when it is this
well respected and parodied alike. James Stewart gives one
of the best performances of his career, and Frank Capra’s
direction makes for a solid film from start to finish that
doesn’t feel dated despite being over 60 years old. It’s
easy to recommend this classic. ---
Image and Sound:
The film is presented here in both its original Black
and White incarnation, and a colorized version. The black
and white version looks absolutely incredible – far better
than I would have expected a film of this age to look. The
level of detail is strong and the black levels are consistent
throughout. There are almost no major anomalies to speak
of in the picture, showing that Paramount has kept the masters
in excellent condition and done a solid remastering job.
The colorized version is surprisingly good (I can’t often
say this for colorizations of black-and-white films), but
does feel a bit awkward at times, and while watching it
as somewhat of a purist I found myself longing for the original
black-and-white version (which thankfully is here too.)
Audio disappointingly doesn’t get an increase to lossless,
and the dialogue seems a bit on the quiet side. Fortunately,
this isn’t the kind of movie that calls for big-budget sound
production, and this track gets the job done. Ultimately,
the film looks and sounds very good on Blu-Ray.
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