Why I love watching It's a Wonderful Life at GFT
'Tis the season to visit GFT and watch Christmas movies – and in Glasgow, one seasonal classic reigns supreme over all others
It's fair to say that Christmas favourite It’s a Wonderful Life is much adored, but for Glaswegians, this love is approaching obsession. We dig it so much that it’s been the number one box-office attraction at Glasgow Film Theatre for 13 of the last 17 years; only three Best Picture Oscar-winners (The King’s Speech, 2011; Parasite, 2019; and Oppenheimer, 2023) and a Wes Anderson film (The French Dispatch, 2021) brought in more cash in their respective years of release. Not bad for a 78-year-old box office flop!
This popularity can only be explained by people flocking back to see this 1946 classic year after year after year, and I’m one of these devotees. For me, attending a screening of It’s a Wonderful Life at GFT is as essential an ingredient to Christmas as Quality Streets, mince pies and candy canes, but part of the reason why Frank Capra’s fable has endured is that it’s in no way a sweet confection. The film may have a reputation for sentimentality, but it's not justified. Its story is a hard-edged one, about a good man (James Stewart's George Bailey) who’s been worn down by years of personal setbacks and on one particularly miserable Christmas Eve, he tries to kill himself. He doesn’t succeed, of course: an angel saves him and shows him how much poorer life would have been for the people of his sleepy hometown had he never been born. But it’s the sobering reminder that life can be fucking difficult that makes It's a Wonderful Life's feel-good ending hit home all the harder.
There's a pleasingly eclectic lineup of other Christmas films screening at GFT over Yuletide, like The Muppet Christmas Carol, Gremlins, Die Hard, Elf, The Bishop’s Wife, Eyes Wide Shut and the recent The Holdovers. All great movies, but none scratch the Christmas itch quite like Capra's bittersweet story of disappointment and redemption. If you see a man outside the GFT this December running down Rose Street shouting "Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Glasgow Film Theatre!", you'll know it's me, after indulging in too many mulled wines during my umpteenth viewing of this wonderful movie.
It's a Wonderful Life screens at GFT, Glasgow, 13-24 Dec. Tickets and info at glasgowfilm.org/christmas