Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or...

Crummy Little Town? Or Hidden Upstate Paradise?Frank Capra loved small-town America. George Bailey isn't so sure. On George's first date with Mary, he tells her about his ambitions and dreams, sayi...

Part Flashback, Part Real Time It's a Wonderful Life tells its story partly through an extended flashback and partly in real time. It starts at the point when George is contemplating suicide and th...

Feel-Good Movie, Comedy, Christmas Movie For a movie about suicidal despair, It's a Wonderful Life has to be the greatest feel-good movie of all time. It has a positive and redeeming message about...

As our story opens, George's life is the opposite of wonderful. In fact, it's so un-wonderful that he's thinking of throwing it away. It reminds Shmoop of Life Is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni's film...

Nothing like a near-death experience to make you see things differently. After Clarence finishes up his life review and George decides to live again, George runs home to find the bank examiner and...

GIt's a Wonderful Life is family fare. The Hays Code made sure of that. It does contain Mary's line, "He's making violent love to me, Mother!" But, the meaning of that line isn't the same as in mod...