The Economic Relation of the It's a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra - Movie Review Example

A Summary of the Movie “Its a Wonderful Life” We all live our lives with dreams of one day becoming the ultimate success stories. Our days are spenttrying to achieve this dream that we have created for ourselves in order to find a sense of total self-fulfillment in an otherwise unsatisfying world. However, not everyone who has lofty dreams and ambitions will find their dreams becoming a reality. Sometimes life takes us down a path that we never thought of traveling on until that direction is thrust upon us.

Once we realize that life will not turn out the way that we planned, should we turn our backs on it and run? Wishing we had never existed instead because our life is a total failure in its current form? That is the premise of the movie “Its a Wonderful Life” by Frank Capra. First released in 1946, this Christmas drama was originally based on the short story “The Greatest Gift” by Phillip Van Doren. The movie starred James Stewart as George Bailey, a self-sacrificing man who is willing to put his own dreams on hold in order to help those in his town achieve theirs.

He inherited a money lending business from his father that, due to the economic depression caused by the war, was on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to prevent a bank run, George tried to commit suicide but is prevented from doing so by his guardian angel Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Influenced by A Christmas Carol themes, Clarence sets about saving George by showing him how the town would have turned out much differently if he and his business had never become a part of the lives of the townsfolk.

In the end, George realizes that his life has not been a complete failure and that his life is “wonderful” just as it is, specially with the town residents coming to the aid of his failing bank by contributing more money to save it. The Economic Relation of the Movie “Its a Wonderful Life” The movie in itself is a study of the history of the banking history. With no real banking system existing at the end of the 19th century, small money lenders helped the town business by accepting cash deposits from clients that could then be lent out to business owners.

This lending institution known as the savings and loan system would become the bedrock of the great American dream. However, it came at a great price. Remember the term “Bank Run”? It was first used in this movie to explain how the antagonist, Mr. Potter refused to open up the coffers of the town bank to the people in order to help them survive to their next paycheck by giving them loans or allowing them to withdraw their deposits. He is the representation of everything that is wrong in the banking industry.

He is the man who feeds off the investment of others without giving them anything in return. He is in other words, a typical Wall Street businessman who cares only about the end result of investments for himself, not for his investors. This is where the economic relation of the movie becomes quite evident. As George tries to stave off his own bank run on his S&L business, government regulations keep piling up in order to prevent him from being able to do so. However, the people who allowed George to invest their money and believed in his honest and willingness to pay back the money he lost for them came to his aid by giving him more money to invest in order to save the business.

Now that may not be sound business sense in modern times, what with our tax dollars being given out to banks that still end up declaring bankruptcy, but in the era of the Great American Dream, investing in a failing economy is the best way to save it.Works CitedIts a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers. Liberty Films, 1946. DVD.