{"id":2588,"date":"2024-05-07T20:29:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T02:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/?p=2588"},"modified":"2024-10-16T00:23:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T06:23:57","slug":"its-a-wonderful-life-and-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a Wonderful Life and Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

RKO Pictures via \u201cIMDb\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Here\u2019s a question. By the end of It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em>, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that Christmas Eve?<\/p>\n

The film famously tracks the life of George Bailey, whose boundless dreams and ambitions are only eclipsed by his generous heart and strong moral compass. Over and over, his life calls on him to set aside his own interests and wants in order to rescue his community, and those within it, from despair and ruin. The film sees him one Christmas Eve facing a personal crisis, one that has him at a river\u2019s edge wondering if maybe life just isn\u2019t worth living anymore. Cue: divine intervention in the form of a hapless angel named Clarence who grants George an unusual gift: the opportunity to see how the world would have been if he had never been born. Seeing the ruin left behind in his absence, George reconsiders the worth of a life well-lived.<\/p>\n

This is a really easy film to discuss through a spiritual lens. I don\u2019t just mean that it is a film that displays actual religious rituals being observed and validated (like George\u2019s prayer being answered by a literal angel). George himself demonstrates a lot of valiant, righteous behavior. In this way he emerges as a shadow of Christ himself.<\/p>\n

You also see through George the various means by which one can be an instrument of good. Sometimes it means speaking up for an underseen community or against an agent of evil. Sometimes it means sticking around for someone who needs you. Sometimes it means doing a friend a favor and asking for nothing in return. We see early on that from the start, George gave of himself in more ways than one. He not only stuck his neck out for others, he also gave away pieces of himself, like when he dove into the water to save his brother and lost his hearing in one ear as a consequence.<\/p>\n

RKO Pictures via \u201cIMDb\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another thing I also appreciate about this movie is that it does display the emotional cost this kind of unconditional selflessness afflicts upon the person who is doing the giving, especially toward the film\u2019s climax when George starts to crack. This is part of what keeps George accessible to the audience even as he functions as a Christ-insert (and I suppose, it also pricks the imagination\u2013did<\/em> Christ have quiet moments of despair that maybe weren\u2019t recorded in the scriptures).<\/p>\n

Part of what this also shows is that those people we think of as \u201cgood\u201d are not unbreakable. They are not inexhaustible. And I think there\u2019s a lesson there also. Sometimes we get to act in the function of George Bailey, and certainly we should aspire to. Other times we are the grateful recipients of their acts of generosity. And when we are, these people would probably do well to hear us express our gratitude for them long before they start aimlessly wandering the blizzarding streets on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

In George\u2019s case, he gets to realize that all of his sacrifices built to something, and something better than he could have found galivanting around Europe wearing fancy suits. The effectiveness of this arc also speaks to the quality of the film itself. We believe<\/em> it when the film tells us when George couldn\u2019t have been happier on his adventure than he was taking care of Bedford Falls because we have seen<\/em> him and his extensive family throughout the film, and we know for ourselves just how entertaining they can be, a jump the audience can only make if the writing, directing, and acting are all on point\u2013which they are. Even before George is literally rewarded with his friends and family pouring in to restore the lost funds for the bank (a sort of reversal of the bank run scene halfway through the film), we have felt the fruits of George\u2019s natural love permeate every corner of Bedford Falls in the family he has grown through love unfeigned.<\/p>\n

Anyways, I do hope George eventually got to go to Paris. (He\u2019s like maybe<\/em> 40 when the movie ends. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s missed the last boat.) But however long it does take him, I think he can rest assured that he\u2019s been a rich man long before he bought his ticket.<\/p>\n

RKO Pictures via \u201cIMDb\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a question. By the end of It\u2019s a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that Christmas Eve? The film famously tracks the life of George Bailey, whose boundless dreams and ambitions are only eclipsed by his generous heart and strong moral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4544,"featured_media":2603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,25,57,42,32,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classical-film","category-goodness","category-happiness","category-ministering","category-mortality","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's a Wonderful Life and Service<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's a question. By the end of It's a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's a Wonderful Life and Service\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's a question. By the end of It's a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sublime Cinema\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-08T02:29:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-16T06:23:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1414\/2024\/05\/James-Stewart.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zachary Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zachary Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/\",\"name\":\"It's a Wonderful Life and Service\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-08T02:29:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-16T06:23:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee\"},\"description\":\"Here's a question. By the end of It's a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"It’s a Wonderful Life and Service\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/\",\"name\":\"Sublime Cinema\",\"description\":\"Sublime Cinema assumes that there is light to be found in every good thing, including every good movie. Check out this blog to learn how we can find Christ, God, and goodness in films old and new\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee\",\"name\":\"Zachary Miller\",\"description\":\"Zachary Miller has been a believer and a lover of film all his life. He obtained his degree in Media Arts at Brigham Young University, and loves writing about how we can use film to draw nearer unto Christ. Read more of his writing on movies at Filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/author\/zmiller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It's a Wonderful Life and Service","description":"Here's a question. By the end of It's a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It's a Wonderful Life and Service","og_description":"Here's a question. By the end of It's a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/","og_site_name":"Sublime Cinema","article_published_time":"2024-05-08T02:29:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-16T06:23:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1414\/2024\/05\/James-Stewart.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zachary Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zachary Miller","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/","name":"It's a Wonderful Life and Service","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-05-08T02:29:24+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-16T06:23:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee"},"description":"Here's a question. By the end of It's a Wonderful Life, do you think George Bailey ever realized that so many people were on their knees for him that","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/2024\/05\/its-a-wonderful-life-and-service\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It’s a Wonderful Life and Service"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/","name":"Sublime Cinema","description":"Sublime Cinema assumes that there is light to be found in every good thing, including every good movie. Check out this blog to learn how we can find Christ, God, and goodness in films old and new","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/#\/schema\/person\/59c7a179ba3d98ae49f966cb1090c8ee","name":"Zachary Miller","description":"Zachary Miller has been a believer and a lover of film all his life. He obtained his degree in Media Arts at Brigham Young University, and loves writing about how we can use film to draw nearer unto Christ. Read more of his writing on movies at Filmsandfeelings19.blogspot.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/author\/zmiller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sublimecinema\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}