I was watching "It's a Wonderful Life" tonight.

[dgauss]

One of those rare movies I can watch over and over again.

I was thinking about the character of Mr. Potter, wonderfully played by Lionel Barrymore. This movie came out in 1946 and has been aired I believe every year since.

Every year, even up to now, Potter has been clearly seen as the villain in this story. Greed, dishonesty, self interest, malice, just ugly all around. Everyone gets it.

Yet now we have new, updated versions of Potter. The vulture capitalist Potters, the hedge fund Potters, the meddling billionaire Potters, the Libertarian Potters, the tech-bro Potters. And Trump.

And half the country, even after watching "It's a Wonderful Life" yet again and feeling all warm and fuzzy when George Bailey finally triumphs over the despicable Potter, still side with the new versions of Potter in real life.

Just depressing.

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. We were a different country, post WW2. And Dwight Eisenhower described it in the 1956 Republican platform.

I wonder who picked Richard Nixon as his running mate? Doubt DDE chose him.

[thebigidea]

4. We had plenty of assholes back then who hated Capra and the message of that movie

Hell, the FBI investigated!

Check out these pages:

https://archive.org/details/FBI-Communist-Infiltration-Motion-Picture-Industry/100-HQ-138754-1003/page/n297/mode/2up

"With regard to the picture “It’s A Wonderful Life”, [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a “scrooge-type” so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.

In addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. [Redacted] related that if he had made this picture portraying the banker, he would have shown this individual to have been following the rules as laid down by the State Bank Examiners in connection with making loans.

Further, [redacted] stated that the scene wouldn't have “suffered at all” in portraying the banker as a man who was protecting funds put in his care by private individuals and adhering to the rules governing the loan of that money rather than portraying the part as it was shown. In summary, [redacted] stated that it was not necessary to make the banker such a mean character and “I would never have done it that way”."

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. Yeah, the reactionaries have always been with us.

Somehow, the Capra message got through to a lot of us.

[ReRe]

13. Imagine how the audience would have reacted

had it been depicted the other way around. There would be no one in the theater at the end of the movie, as people would walk out the as the movie continued. Had the audience stayed, they would have booed and asked for their money back!
What? Pay for their advertising? Pft' ! Get outta he-ah!

[dgauss]

9. Interesting, thanks.

J. Edger Hoover became Director of the FBI in 1937. Now we get to have Kash Patel. A whole new set of investigations, just as misguided and damaging but with the added insult of stupidity.

[Docreed2003]

20. What's wild in those FBI statements is that they totally ignore the fact that Potter wasn't following rules

He stole the eight thousand dollars when he finds Uncle Billy's deposit at the bank wrapped in newspaper and uses that shortfall as an excuse to turn state regulators on Bailey Building & Loan. If that scene doesn't happen, George has no reason to consider suicide in the first place. If Capra had shown Potter as being a wealthy banker with upstanding morals, rather than a man who uses his position of power in the town to leverage more power and money for himself, there would have been no movie.

[Bluethroughu]

2. We watch it every year as a family.

We will win, they will lose.

Good always prevails.

[choie]

5. It does?

[thebigidea]

6. only in movies for children

Power prevails. It also changes hands, and then prevails again.

[Dulcinea]

3. I watch it every year.

It never goes out of style. And I believe good will eventually triumph over evil, even now.

[a kennedy]

7. Love this movie......but so sorry to say...Potter does win the next four years.

tRump = Potter.

[TheRickles]

10. Just saw it tonight at our community cinema and it still works.

The Trumpian overtones are pretty strong, though. One question - what happens to Mr. Potter? He doesn't appear in the happy final scene. I assume he's back at the bank, counting his money.

[johnnyplankton]

11. I've thought the same for years. I kept thinking that Potter was Dick Cheney

[dgauss]

12. Funny thing, I posted this image on another site long ago.

It was when Joe Wilson defied the Cheney claim of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and then Wilson was attacked but fought back.

I found this image and it just seemed appropriate with this description:

"Joe Wilson confronts Dick Cheney while Scooter Libby looks on."

http://tiny.cc/d191001

[sinkingfeeling]

14. I feel the same after watching 'A Christmas Carol'. How can anyone

not understand the moral of that story and not try to be more generous and caring of others?

[nuxvomica]

17. And I've watched "Casablanca" many times since I was kid

It used to comfort me that we live in a country where people don't have to show their papers

[ZonkerHarris]

15. America is Pottersville now.

[SocialDemocrat61]

16. The lost ending

[SleeplessinSoCal]

18. We watched the Legend version on Tubi tonight.

Inexplicably the Pottersville sequence was cut. It goes from Clarence drying off in front of the stove to George B!ailey shouting "Merry Christmas'"

We own the DVD. Thank goodness

[Paladin]

21. I couldn't handle watching it, this holiday season.

Not after the year we've had, and what we're facing. I'm in no mood for that much Hollywood cheeriness.

Maybe next year. Maybe four years from now. Maybe.

[mercuryblues]

23. That's what Ralph

said to little Timmy before the zombies ate him.