George Bailey was an asshole, if you think about it

[Zomby Woof]

Always whining and sniping and carping, moaning about never being able to leave his podunk hometown. His aggressive moodiness with Mary the night she is back home for break, culminating in the weirdest marriage proposal in movie history. Then this same anger surfacing years later as a sociopathic outburst of emotional abuse heaped upon Mary and the children on Christmas Eve. Then he tried to kill himself like a cowardly chump.

Makes me wonder why anyone helped him. What an asshole!

[lutefisk]

1. You kinda have a point, there...n/t

[rurallib]

2. Yesterday on NPR they had a guy discuss this on Talk of the NAtion

I am listening to the replay right now before I send the link to my George Bailey loving nephew.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=121871188&m=121871182

[Patiod]

17. Thanks for the link

Missed the original broadcast yesterday, and just spent an enjoyable half-hour listening to that!

[RetroLounge]

3. Hee Haw!

Mary should have married Sam Wainwright and moved to New York where she would have snorted coke off Paris Hilton's ass at Studio 54...

or something.

:hi:

RL

[Zomby Woof]

10. Best answer in the thread!

I think he turns out to be like old man Potter. You see - after everyone chipped in to help him recover the $8,000, they all defaulted on their loans one last time - once Christmas bills and taxes came due. That was the LAST straw. Potter died the following summer, and with no more competition, George could finally run the B&L the way he always secretly wanted (had to save face and be the 'good guy' after that day he cussed out Potter in front of the board). Mary was so put off by the permanent surfacing of his latent evil and greed, that she ran off to NYC, where she carried on a torrid affair with Sam Wainwright. Bailey died a warped, frustrated old man, and Mary was last seen snorting coke at Studio 54 as you pointed out. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

30. Exactly!

:hi:

RL

[Fridays Child]

27. Whoa!

Excellent alternate ending! :toast:

[RetroLounge]

31. It should be the sequel

:toast:

RL

[peekaloo]

4. Very well may explain my aversion to watching it.

Intuition guides my asshole avoidance radar and that is a good thing.

[alphafemale]

5. I hope that after the kids were grown he and Mary finally got to travel the world. nt

[WCGreen]

7. I heard that Donna Reed loved to go "round the world"m nod nod Wink Wink

[gmoney]

8. She should have been one of the dancing girls in Pottersville

Donna Reed was gorgeous...

[gmoney]

6. He was an enabler of all the co-dependents in town...

Always putting the needs of others ahead of his own, even though that wasn't what he really wanted to be doing, so he carried a lot of resentment with him for those he was "helping".

Now, in real life, very few (maybe NONE) of those people would come to his aid in his hour of need (brought about by not making "Uncle Billy" bear responsibility for losing the money) with the possible exception of Sam Wainwright, who pitied George for not becoming a wealthy military contractor. Potter's speech to George about being a sucker was actually a crude version of the message he needed to hear. But he'd romanticized his enabling as some sort of "noble self-sacrifice" that he would be rewarded for at some point, even though it's more likely that he'll just carry a tally of those sacrifices around in his head, resenting those who he's "helped."

"It's all over town that you're giving money to Violet Bicks."

[KittyWampus]

15. So much for "The Common Good"

[Zomby Woof]

23. The OP is a JOKE

This thread doesn't need an infestation by the humorless scolds from GD, thanks.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. It really would have been best had he never been born. nt

[edhopper]

11. hmmm

[Zomby Woof]

22. Let's be fair

Cheney made Potter look like a SAINT. No comparison at all on the Billboard All-Time Evil Villain Charts. :D

[dysfunctional press]

12. i've always wondered why the guy who pushed potter's wheelchair around didn't rat him out...

over the 8 grand from uncle billy.

maybe potter gave it to him to buy his silence?

[KittyWampus]

13. I think he's a beautifully sympathetic portrayal of Everyman. Every one who ever wanted more

but had to learn to appreciate what really matters.

A very human character.

[tigereye]

14. oh, pooh. It's a hero's journey with a dark night of the soul

no one's perfect. :D

[debbierlus]

20. I'm with you. His father died, he doesn't get to go to college

And, his brother goes and becomes a football hero...

He takes on the responsibility of keeping open the savings and loan for other people because he doesn't want them to be enslaved to Potter.

Yeah, he is a real jerk for having any human feelings about these circumstances.

I like that he acted as a real life person and it wasn't glazed over like a lifetime holiday movie!

[Iggo]

16. That's why God shoved him into the river. (n/t)

[EastTennesseeDem]

18. Aww! I have never been more sympathetic to a fictional character. nfm

[texanwitch]

19. I can understand George.

He was the older son, the one to take over from Dad.

He had his mother to look after.

Somebody had to do it.

Sometimes you have to do stuff you don't want to.

I am doing something I rather not do but I if I don't it won't get done.

We do have to have the George's of the world.

[Ron Green]

21. If George Bailey had never been born,

there'd be lots more live jazz, and I wouldn't have to play gigs for so cheap!

[Zomby Woof]

24. LOL!

Thanks for taking this thread in the spirit with which it was intended.

I am surprised more humorless dolts didn't try to ruin the fun. Wankers.

[Call Me Wesley]

25. He even lied to his almost dying daughter Zuzu.

He didn't heal the rose she was given by her teacher. He stole the petals, made her believe that he made the rose whole again and ran off with a scantily clad angel second class to hang out in bars and scream around, harassing an innocent librarian. And he was friends with cops. That did it for me. Really. ;)

I have to admit, to watch 'It's a wonderful life' is my guilty pleasure on Xmas Eve. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

32. Same here...

an xmas eve tradition for many years.

"And he was friends with cops. That did it for me. Really"

:rofl:

:hi:

RL

[NNadir]

26. It was every man and angel for himself. Clarence didn't give a shit about George.

He was in it for the wings, basically because he thought flying would be cool.

Potter was the only honest person in the whole movie.

[jus_the_facts]

28. I'd say...it takes one to know one....

...fa lalalala la la HA!

[MotorCityMan]

29. Yeah, and what's wrong with the rag doll on Rudolph?

The one that's on the Island of Misfit Toys? She looked fine to me. The spotted elephant is also cute as hell and shouldn't be there.

And Santa is a major dick! The way he is to Rudolph when he's young, I'd tell him to get fucked when he needed his sleigh pulled.

It's amazing what you notice after seeing these things 20 million times....

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[SoxFan]

36. She's King Moonracer's concubine

[LoveMyCali]

42. Have you also noticed

that the elf doesn't give the bird an umbrella to float down to the chimney at the end? Why was the bird on the Island of Misfit Toys ... because he swam instead of being able to fly. Someone woke up to a mangled bird on their hearth on Christmas day.

[cynatnite]

33. True, but what makes it an even better story, IMO, is how he was compelled to change. n/t

[nytemare]

34. He was kinda Luke Skywalker before Luke Skywalker was Luke Skywalker

Except, he was a version of Luke who would have been stuck on Tatooine, dealing with Mr. Potter the Hutt and dealing with Jawas and evaporators.

[SoxFan]

35. Yeah, depression is for chumps and losers

Fail.

:eyes:

[LeftyFingerPop]

37. Shhhhhhhh......

Careful, you don't want to be branded as "humorless". As we all know, poking fun at diseases and suicide attempts is fair game here in DU land. :sarcasm:

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[REP]

40. Not inspiring at all.

I fucking loathe that movie. Capra just aint my thing.

[soleft]

41. So was Ebenezer Scrooge and Phil Connors

Even Jesus was a jerk in the Last Temptation of Christ.

[Iggo]

43. He was a jerk here and there in JC Superstar, too. (n/t)