Movie Review:It's a Wonderful Life[1946]

My Rating:(4.75/5)

I happened to know about this movie as it is in the IMDB top 250 movies of all time. Otherwise, chances are I would never have heard about this movie. Man, am I glad that there’s this site called IMDB where users/readers/members watch movies and comment on it and rate it.

IMDB rating:
IMDB rates the movie 8.6/10 and the movie is 31st on the best 250 movies ever. (As on date at-least)

Cast:

James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore are prominent figures in the star cast. I know James Stewart from a couple of Hitchcock movies I had watched earlier. (Funny isn’t it ? He looked much older in those movies of course and his acting seemed a little mellowed. His voice however remains almost the same.) As for Donna Reed, I am in love with this woman. Or at-least with the character portrayed by her in the movie. (Well, it’s easy to sit here and say almost 60 years later that such things don’t happen in real life. Maybe these things were that way 60 years back.)

The Movie:

Directed by Frank Capra, this is probably Capra’s best movie. It had the working title “The Greatest Gift”. The movie is in Black and White. It’s based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

I consider the movie one of the best movie I have ever seen. I just loved it. It probably trumps every other movie I have seen till date with the possible exception of Schindler’s List. What’s funny is, I have seen all the other 30 movies in the IMDB top 250. (This movie is 31st)

James Stewart as George Bailey is excellent. The character is amazing and very well portrayed. Donna Reed as Mary Hatch is absolutely lovely. Lionel Barrymore portrays his role with ease and it comes across as intended.

More than anything, this movie touched me in a way few other movies have. It had it’s share of faults, no doubt. For instance, James Stewart’s style of acting may be considered these days as overdoing it, some instances in the movie being predictable and a girl as pretty as Mary getting married to George.

It’s a must watch movie for people of all ages.

You can read the entire plot and more here (Wikipedia)

Notable Things about the movie:

(source: IMDB)

• In 2004 the BBC TV listings magazine “Radio Times” conducted a poll into the Best Film Never to Have Won an Oscar. “It’s a Wonderful Life” came second (The Shawshank Redemption (1994) was first).
• In 1947, an FBI analyst submitted, without comment, an addition to a running memo on “Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry,” recording the opinion of an industry source who said that the film’s “obvious” attempt to discredit bankers “is a common trick used by Communists.”

Soundtrack:

I loved the song Buffalo Gals(Won’t You Come Out Tonight) in the movie. I Love You Truly was also pretty good. I remember Auld Lang Syne from Sainik School days. We sang it for our seniors’ farewell as a part of the band/music club.

P.S: If someone can find the song “Buffalo Gal (Won’t You Come Out Tonight)” on-line or you own it, then I may want a copy of the song. Kindly lend me the link or the file itself. Many Thanks.
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Billboard Top 100-2007

I somehow think Billboard is a decent Indication of good songs. If you are not happy with the Top 100 of a year, there’s always specific Genre Charts that you can choose from. It’s something like IMDB for Music, a reliable source of what’s good and not so good.

I have been listening to the Billboard Top 100 of 2007 for a while now and some of the songs seem pretty good. One or two were really good.

Here’s the top 20 of the year 2007

# Title Artist Labels
1 IRREPLACEABLE Beyonce Columbia
2 UMBRELLA Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z SRP/Def Jam/IDJMG
3 THE SWEET ESCAPE Gwen Stefani Featuring Akon Interscope
4 BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY Fergie will.i.am/A&M/Interscope
5 BUY U A DRANK (SHAWTY SNAPPIN’) T-Pain Featuring Yung Joc Konvict/Nappy Boy/Jive/Zomba
6 BEFORE HE CHEATS Carrie Underwood Arista/Arista Nashville/RMG
7 HEY THERE DELILAH Plain White T’s Fearless/Hollywood
8 I WANNA LOVE YOU Akon Featuring Snoop Dogg Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown
9 SAY IT RIGHT Nelly Furtado Mosley/Geffen
10 GLAMOROUS Fergie Featuring Ludacris will.i.am/A&M/Interscope
11 DON’T MATTER Akon Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown
12 GIRLFRIEND Avril Lavigne RCA/RMG
13 MAKES ME WONDER Maroon 5 A&M/Octone/Interscope
14 PARTY LIKE A ROCKSTAR Shop Boyz OnDeck/Universal Republic
15 SMACK THAT Akon Featuring Eminem Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown
16 THIS IS WHY I’M HOT Mims Capitol
17 IT’S NOT OVER Daughtry RCA/RMG
18 THE WAY I ARE Timbaland Featuring Keri Hilson Mosley/Blackground/Interscope
19 FERGALICIOUS Fergie will.i.am/A&M/Interscope
20 CRANK THAT (SOULJA BOY) Soulja Boy Tell’em ColliPark/Interscope
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Pre Phillmy

Before starting this blog, I used to write reviews of movies on my other blog. First I thought I ‘d copy all those reviews here once more. But then, why duplicate data on the internet ? So I’ll just link you to some of the other reviews I have written on my other blog.

Movie Review - The Good German[2006]

Movie Review - Transformers[2007]

Movie Review - Swordfish[2001]

Movie Review-The Host[2006]/Gwoemul

Happy reading.
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Frank Capra Movies

After watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ by Frank Capra, I promised myself that I will dig for more movies by this director and watch them. If they were all going to be anything like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, it would definitely be worth the watch. So I set out to see if I could find the movies online. To my dismay I could not find any of the movies which he had directed after IaWL. I also found out that some of the movies he had directed were war time propaganda. So I shall be staying clear of those movies regardless of how good or bad they maybe. Read the IMDB article linked below to know more about Capra’s movies:

List of Frank Capra Movies

There are some 9 movies he has made after IaWL and most of the movies are highly rated as well. It’s a pity then that I could not find them online. Having said that, I did not search thoroughly. I did get a few of his movies like Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) , It Happened One Night (1934), Mr.Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Horizons (1937),Meet John Doe (1941),Mr.Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and You Can’t Take It With You (1938).

Of the above mentioned Movies, It Happened One Night (1934) is on # 138 on the top 250 movies ever and Mr.Smith Goes to Washington is on # 103. IaWL is rates higher ofcourse and understandably so.

Some of the movie titles were such that the search results yielded porn movies. Now how sad is that ? Thankfully either prefixes or suffixes to the movie name or in other cases the file size told the story immediately. Thank God I didn’t have to find out after watching them. If any of you could find other movies, you can post the links in the comments section. I thank you in advance.

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More Movie Watching, Less Time to Write

In the time since I created this blog, I have watched quite a few movies. However I have not been able to find time to write about them. This can be attributed to the fact that I am doing a lot of other things in life. So this post is more of a reminder to myself that I have to write reviews of the following movies:

• The Simpsons Movie [2007]
• TMNT [2007]
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [1990]
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Secret of the Ooze [1991]
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III [1993]
• Antz [1998]
• A Bug’s Life [1998]
• Madagascar [2005]
• Cars [2006]
• Animatrix [2003]

• As Good as It Gets [1997]
• 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]
• Taxi Driver [1976]
• Vertigo [1958]
• It’s a Wonderful Life [1946]

Almost all of the above movies were good. But Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life holds a special place in my heart. It truly stirred my emotions. And as one of my friend’s put it, ‘ if it made a stone weep, must be good’. Donna Reed as ‘Mary’ looked like an angel in the movie. How I wish I had a loving, caring absolutely gorgeous girlfriend like that.

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Music

After giving it some thought, I have decided to write music related posts on Fully Phillmy as well. Initially this blog was for movies, but then considering that I also listen to a lot of music, I had to stop posting about music on my personal blog as well. Moreover aren’t movies and music closely related ? We have so many OST’s which are great. If it weren’t for movies, I would not have come across so many good songs.

The music I listen to is mostly recent stuff. My taste in music is not all that well defined. I have not been classically trained and the only instrument I even played was a bugle and that too as a part of a band. (Not that I played it well either) I am not limited by genres, even if there are some genres I’d rather avoid. Mostly I listen to anything that comes my way and if I like the song, I listen to it a few more times. If I don’t, I chuck it.
Mood:
But having said that, music is much more complicated than that. The song you hate today, you might like afterwards. Music reflects your moods and thoughts even sometimes. And you always associate music with some event. The time you were in a restaurant with a friend or that Sunday morning when you were cleaning your car. Sometimes, you liking a particular song might also depend on the state of your mind.

So get ready to read some (not so hot) posts on music as well.
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Fully Phillmy-about

Phillmy is definitely not an English word. So don’t blame it on your bad vocabulary that you do not know it’s meaning. ( Don’t start feeling good about it either. )

Phillmy is a Hindi word that actually means something like ‘of or pertaining to movies’. Actually what it means to most people is ‘the things that can actually happen only on the movie screen.’ See, that’s how Hindi movies are made (mainstream at-least) and not just Hindi movies. All Indian movies to a large extent are made like that. Things that will happen only in the wildest of your dreams and never in reality. I am not saying it’s wrong. It’s infact the inspiration behind my Blog name. (As one of my friend responds to my criticism of bad movies - “All movies are not made with the intention of imparting knowledge or getting a message across. Some are meant for entertainment, where the improbable happens and you feel good about it, away from your real life miseries and problems” )

So, what’s the purpose behind this blog ? It’s just another Wordpress Blog isn’t it ? Well yes and no. For one, there is no real purpose behind this blog. It’s just a medium for me to write. And in this case about movies in particular. The thing is I watch a lot of movies and I have something to say on every movie I watch. Well you can any-day find better researched comments and beautifully written reviews on more popular sites. But as I said, this is for me. This is the place where I write about the movies I watch. People are welcome to comment and let me know of your opinions though.
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