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

[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”."