Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Just as WONDERFUL !!! Today

In the December1st News & Views section of USA Today we find an article so preposterous and infuriating as to demand a rationale perspective.
  It comes to us in a baseless trashing of the classic motion picture “It’s A Wonderful Life.”  It is penned by an obviously very, very young lady way out of her depth of understanding.  It certainly isn't unusual to experience that loss of understanding among American
generations who have a woeful lack of historical knowledge and therefore a tainted or uneducated perception on our cultural evolution.  What is preposterous is learning that apparently no one on the USA Today’s editorial staff is any more mature or enlightened than the author. 

Erin Jensen begins by stating that she didn’t find the movie to be merry or bright although she concludes by saying that she did find herself getting choked up during the ending scenes of the movie.  It would appear we need a definition of merry and bright from this literary scholar.  

She has trouble with endorsing seventy-year-old visual effects.  Any person with an expectation of enjoying today’s modern miracles in a motion picture from that era would have to be delusional.  To allow the story line or overall message of the movie to be lost or dampened by such nonsense only suggests she was looking for any little disturbing nuance she could find to support a very weak argument.

Ms. Jensen is also very disturbed at George’s yelling and screaming at his wife and children when it becomes apparent he is on his way to jail.  Did she expect to see him dancing through the door of their home singing “Jingle Bells” when he is facing the same fate as Bernie Madoff?  

She is no less troubled by her contention that we needed more of a resolution as to Potters behavior.  This thought clearly indicates how very badly she missed the message of the movie and/or how unobservant she is as witness to human greed and dishonest comportment.  Is she living in La-La Land by expecting to see Potter make amends?  Ms. Jensen is obviously unaware that Wall Street never paid back a nickel of what they deceitfully absconded with.  Did she want to see his theft uncovered and Potter punished?  How many Wall Street executives were punished?  She is unable to appreciate that all of Potter’s wealth and greed has done nothing more than turn him into a warped, frustrated old man.”  But most importantly, none of this has anything to do with creating the message of caring, love, compassion and giving through a sense of strong community.  As Potter is void of any semblance of that kind of decency he will be left with a lonely existence while George and Mary Baily end up the richest people in town.  

Which brings us to Ms. Jensen’s motivation.  It’s not until her contention that “It’s laughable(that) Mary (Donna Reed) suffers the worst fate of all in a world without George.”  She is absolutely outraged that Mary needed the deep love of another human being (especially a man) to experience life’s greatest joys and success.  She seems to be oblivious as to our culture and lifestyle in the 1940’s.  Women didn’t have the opportunities they enjoy today.  Yet, they had the greatest impact on our society and culture as mothers and wives as the movie accurately depicts.  For it was primarily their love and devotion that was the backbone and very foundation of a society and culture that served us so superbly for decades. 

We all know that there has never been a movie made that appealed to everyone.  Value and beauty are always in the eye of the beholder.  Yet some sense of proper perspective and intelligence needs to be the basis for any argument, pro or con.  Ms. Jensen’s article has nothing to do with honestly or accurately evaluating a classic motion picture.  She rather attempts to further discredit a lifestyle that has long since evaded us.  Her major objective was to further her own point of view on a social issue.  In the final analysis she did nothing to diminish just how wonderful “A Wonderful Life” is or the fact that audiences will continue to love, value and find it merry and bright for at least another seventy years.
 

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