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It's A Wonderful
Life is truly an American film classic. Shortly after the
American Film Institute named this classic as the 11th greatest
film on it's 100 films in 100 years list; this timeless classic
was given a makeover for the digital world of DVD. Initially
a box office bomb, It's A Wonderful Life has become a staple
of holiday broadcasting. For those of us that enjoy our films,
television and VHS is no way to watch a movie. Republic Pictures
has done a wonderful job remastering this title and returning
it to its original black and white glory.
The Story
Directed
by Frank Capra, It's A Wonderful Life begins with angels discussing
a man named George Bailey (James Stewart) and how they must
help him and prevent him from committing suicide on Christmas
Eve. An angel by the name of Clarence (Henry Travers) is chosen
to help George and to earn his wings. To show Clarence some
history on George and his life, key events in George's life
is presented.
Early on
in life, George saves the life of his brother Harry. As a
group of boys ride snow shovels over a frozen pond, Harry
rides too far and falls into the freezing water. George jumps
in the icy pond and pulls out his brother from death. Unfortunately
for George, he loses hearing in one ear as a result of the
accident.
Shortly after
the incident on the pond, George once again saves a life.
The local pharmacist, Mr. Gower loses his son. During his
mourning, he erroneously fills a prescription with poison
and has George deliver it. George realizes the error and brings
the prescription back to Mr. Gower. Gower is first furious
at George for not delivering the prescription, but George
explains the wrongdoing and apologies are made.
While George
was delivering the prescription, another important character
in the film is introduced. The coldhearted and greedy Mr.
Potter (Lionel Barrymore) is seen trying to put George's fathers'
Building and Loan company out of business in an effort to
completely own and control Bedford Falls. George defends his
father and sets up the rivalry that will last George and Potter's
lifetimes and become the key element in George's desire to
end his own life.
As George
grows up, it becomes clear that he wants to travel afar and
attend college in hopes of forever leaving Bedford Falls.
He believes his father's business is not a moneymaker. George
wants to make his own wealth. Many more events happen throughout
the story and George eventually stays in Bedford Falls and
runs his fathers Building in Loan. George, however, is not
miserable. He marries a high-school flame named Mary Hatch
(Donna Reed) and they create a large and loving family. George
also becomes the key figure in town and everyone's friend.
He also becomes Potters prime competitor, a competitor that
Potter must overpower and destroy.
Eventually,
Potter is given the perfect opportunity to crush George and
his Building and Loan Company. George becomes extremely depressed
and believes the only way to save the town is to sacrifice
himself so his family may collect his insurance policy. Clarence
and the townsfolk of Bedford Falls are the only ones who can
save George. The rest of the story follows Clarence and his
attempt at saving George by showing how much change one man
can truly make on the world around him.
Packaging
The packaging
is a very attractive Amaray case. Republic has released a
few "Silver Screen Classics" and It's A Wonderful Life is
one of them. The case artwork is done in good taste using
foil. The Black & White images of the film lend a great
presentation with the foil work and red and green accents
are used. A pamphlet is enclosed that lists the chapters for
the movie and a history on the film. A quote is supplied from
Roger Ebert &endash; "It's one of those ageless movies…
that improves with age. A celebration of the lives and dreams
of America's ordinary citizens." I think that about says it.
The packaging
is very accurate about the content of the DVD with one exception.
The running time of the supplements is listed at about 28
minutes. However, The Making of It's A Wonderful Life runs
at nearly 23 minutes and A Personal Remembrance runs at 14
minutes. This is about 9 minutes longer than the case states.
The first
pressing of this movie contained a free holiday ornament.
I was unfortunate with my copy of It's A Wonderful Life in
receiving one of these ornaments, but if you are lucky enough
to receive one, it is a nice touch to the DVD.
Video
Republic
Pictures has done a fine job of remastering It's A Wonderful
Life for DVD. They have done so by means of a new digital
transfer from the film's original negative. The film has also
gone through the THX standards to help insure a better quality
transfer. Throughout the film there are a small amount of
visible specs of dust and scratches in the print. It is amazingly
clean for a film of this age. There is almost no film grain
present through the entire film and no compression artifacts
jumped out at me while watching the film. For those interested,
the bit rate averaged from 3Mbps to 8Mbps, but usually ran
between 3Mbps and 5Mbps.
A few scenes
do seem to be slightly blurry and not quite as sharp as the
majority of the film. It seems that this would be a fault
of the original camera work, and not of the transfer. The
only way to really tell would be to see a pristine print on
the big screen. However, this does not seem possible, and
compared to the numerous times I have seen this wonderful
movie on the small screen (sans DVD), I can guarantee that
this is by far the cleanest print ever available for home
viewing.
The black
and white transfer is beautiful. There are absolutely no shimmering
lines or jagged edges that appear when an inferior D2 master
is used to create the DVD master. Additionally, the black
and whites are wonderfully vibrant. The shadows are deep black
and the whites are about as white as you can get.
There may
be some people that would prefer to watch the horrible colorized
version of this film. Even though the film is dated and is
presented in good old black and white, it is stunning. Through
watching the movie, it becomes very clear that Republic took
great care in bringing this film to the digital age.
Audio
The English
track of the film is presented in Dolby Digital 2 channel
mono. The foreign language tracks are presented in Dolby Digital
1 channel mono. Overall, the sound is very good. Personally,
I usually prefer mono sound out of just the center channel.
It's A Wonderful Life contains some of the best 2 channel
mono sound I have heard yet, and I found it preferable to
my usual switching over to Pro Logic mono sound of only the
center channel.
The sound
track is not as clear as the video. There are moments in the
film when the sound seems to drop out and become slightly
muffled. One very good example of this takes part during chapter
five at 12:46 in the film. George is discussing a suitcase
and there is a clear change in the audio quality. I played
this chapter through both a Sony DVP-S3000 and a Pioneer DVL-700
and witnessed this problem on both players. Whether or not
this is a problem with the original source tracks is unknown,
but I feel as if some better mastering could have been done
to keep the variances at a similar level without the dramatic
drop off.
As previously
mentioned the Dolby Pro Logic downmix is not nearly as good
as the Dolby Digital mix. This is at times present in 5.1
or 4.0 mixes of Dolby Digital, but I feel it should not be
as prevalent in stereo, mono, or 2.0 surround mixes. The Pro
Logic mix is listenable, but I highly recommend hearing this
movie through Dolby Digital. Even in mono, the film is fairly
impressive to the ears in its Dolby Digital presentation.
Supplements
Side B of
the disc contains the theatrical trailer and two documentaries.
The first documentary is The Making of a Wonderful Life. Narrated
by Tom Bosley of Happy Days fame, it is very interesting to
watch and gives good information about the film and what was
involved in making it. This documentary dates from 1990 and
serves as a good comparison of just how good the transfer
of the actual film is. The documentary is grainy and full
of artifacts. It is not terribly important for a documentary
to be crystal clear, but it is nice for comparison purposes.
The second
documentary is A Personal Remembrance. It is narrated by Frank
Capra Jr., and features interviews with James Stewart, among
others. This documentary is a year newer than the first and
is much clearer. Both documentaries are in one channel mono
sound. This second documentary is even more interesting than
the first and gives more personal insight into the making
of the film than the first.
The movie
lists for a suggested price of $24.95. It is fairly easy to
get the movie for around twenty dollars. I feel that the transfer
itself is worth the price. The extras are nice to have and
make the disc a better value. There is no commentary track,
however, it would have had to been by a film historian. There
is enough history in the film that a commentary would have
been nice to point it all out (Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie
were originally characters in It's A Wonderful Life). The
lack of a commentary track does not reduce the value of the
title. The only true complaint is the fact that the disc is
a two-sider. More and more dual layer discs are being manufactured,
and this title would not have required RSDL. The disc would
have been a much better value if it had been dual layer. Warner
Bros. releases many good dual layered discs (RDSL among them)
for the same price. Republic could have improved this package
by making it dual layer.
Summary:
This film is a story about how much one-life changes the lives
of many others. It does so in a very sentimental way and with
much emotion. This emotion is where the film truly does shine.
It's A Wonderful Life has a wonderful ability to bring tears
to a happy cheek. The story paints a wonderful picture of
humankind and what some of its better traits are. Though this
film is played during the holidays, it is a great movie to
enjoy anytime of the year. There are not many films that can
do a better job, or as good a job as It's A Wonderful Life
does in filling oneself with emotion. It is one of the masterpieces
of Hollywood and a timeless classic.
The DVD is
a very good value and if you love this movie you will love
it more after viewing this disc. If you simply like this movie,
it is still a worthwhile investment. The documentaries are
interesting and the transfer is visually stunning for a film
of its age and the soundtrack is above average for a mono
film. It's A Wonderful Life is a necessary addition for any
video collection.
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