It's a Wonderful Life 1946
This is one of the most cherished movies in American cinema, finishing at number 11 in the first AFI ranking of best movies in 1998. However I had never seen it all the way through even though I was familiar with a lot of scenes and the story because of it being such a classic. I was able to get a 2016 blu-ray release on sale on Black Friday at Best Buy. But later that day I found out that Wal-mart had the 2019 4K version for the same price so I wound up getting that and taking the other back. The 4K version uses a much better scan of the movie made in 2017 from the original negatives (and other sources since the negatives had some damage). Probably don’t need 4K for this movie, but it can’t hurt.
The movie starts out a little rough. The blinking galaxy angels is a cheap effect, even then. While Jimmy Stewart is a great actor, he overplays parts of the very wide range of acting he has to do in this movie, which is as much the fault of the material as anything. Most of the movie is a look at this guy’s life as certain opportunities take a back seat to his own values and he is punished for his own convictions. I think that is great thing to show in a movie, that you don’t have to be a rich guy in New York City or a big time actor to be successful, it is enough to live your life well. That isn’t a message the movies generally show, but it is a very real part of most people’s lives. However, that means most of the movie is a setup for the final 30 minutes or so when things come to a head that you are told about in the opening of the movie. It took me a few days to get through all of that, though that is often how I wind up watching movies. The end is a nice payoff without being overly sentimental. I feel like some of the editing is a little off and I’m not sure if that was just a dated style or an effect of the restoration, but some cuts seem to just end. Those are quibbles with an otherwise very strong movie. I will still give the movie an A, but with a few reservations.
There are a couple of good extras included on disc. A fairly short piece about the restoration is great to watch, talking about some of the challenges in restoring the original silver nitrate negative 70 years after it was made. Not only is there mechanical damage, but the film itself shrinks over time to the point where you can’t spool it onto sprockets anymore and instead is fed through smooth rollers where no metal touches the film. The resulting arrangement of holes for the sprockets can actually be used to tell you how the film has distorted and what corrections are needed to restore it. As the original negative continues to degrade, it may never be possible to improve on this restoration. Another of the included extras talks about the making of the movie, including the fact that a lot of it was shot in June in California so the outdoor scenes with snow were actually sweltering hot days and most of the snow was fake stuff that wouldn’t melt. I did notice in one scene while watching that the “snow” looked more like soap, but otherwise they did an amazing job.
Written: 21 Dec 2019
Owned on: UHD, Blu-ray, Digital