Watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” on television. That film’s a big one in the moving image archiving field, because it’s one of those examples of a work that’s fallen into public domain, so any debate about copyright, orphan films, public domain, and even colorization, always mentions “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

But I’d only seen it once before, and that was quite a few years back, so it was interesting seeing it with new eyes. I mean, not from an archivists’ perspective, but just as someone who’s a few years older. And I think it’s even more poignant at a time like this, given the state of the economy and all that. But even on its own, the film is much, much better than you’d think it was, given its reputation.

Au contraire, it’s a dark, disturbing film, not nearly as schmaltzy as you’d think it was. It might get a little sentimental, but by the time the film takes you there, it’s well deserved. So it’s a film to watch from the beginning; if you were to tune in only in the last ten minutes, you’d totally think it sucked.

And thankfully, it’s in the PD, so it plays like, 80 times a week on various channels all throughout December.

Monday, December 22nd, 2008 @ 1:24 am movie
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