It's a Wonderful Life (1947)

Undervalued on its initial release, this small-town drama has become a Christmas favourite, though its tearful affirmation is laced with darker emotions.

It’s Christmas, snow is falling, and James Stewart’s protagonist is contemplating suicide, driven to despair by financial misfortune. Those who know director Frank Capra’s film only by its reputation as a sentimental seasonal favourite are often taken aback by how unflinchingly it shows ever-amiable Stewart’s kindly local banker brought low by the machinations of a cruel world. True, the story involves a certain angelic intervention to show him that his travails have all been worthwhile, yet it’s only because this modern parable plumbs the depths so vividly that its vision of redemption proves so persuasive. Its enduring popularity may indeed derive from Capra’s insistence that friendship matters more than material gain, a telling message of solace in a secular capitalist society.

1947 USA
Directed by
Frank Capra
Produced by
Frank Capra
Written by
Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra
Featuring
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
Running time
129 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for It's a Wonderful Life

Critics

Sam Clements
UK
Rich Cline
UK
Jake Cunningham
UK
Louise Dumas
France
Cristina Formenti
Italy
Caden Mark Gardner
USA
Philip Horne
UK
Aleksandar S. Janković
Serbia
Christian Keathley
USA
José Luis Lorenzo
Argentina
Kevin Lyons
UK
Michael Newton
Netherlands
John Nugent
UK
David Pirie
UK
Pablo O. Scholz
Argentina
Kimberley Sheehan
UK
Paulo Henrique Silva
Brazil
Margaret Smith
Fabio Troncarelli
Italy
Sam Wasson
USA
Tom White
USA
John Wyver
UK

Directors

Giuseppe Pupi Avati
Italy
Pete Docter
USA
Daniel Kokotajlo
England
Alex Lehmann
USA
John Paizs
Canada
Benny Safdie
USA
Emma Seligman
USA
Nicolas Winding Refn
Denmark