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''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story "The Greatest Gift", which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and published privately in 1945.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AFI's 100 YEARS...100 MOVIES 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION )〕 The film is now among the most popular in American cinema and due to numerous television showings in the 1980s has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born. Despite initially performing poorly at the box office because of high production costs and stiff competition at the time of its release, the film has come to be regarded as a classic.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=It’s A Wonderful Life Sequel in the Works )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=It's a Wonderful Life )〕 Theatrically, the film's break-even point was $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: "Although it was not the complete box office failure that today everyone believes ... it was initially a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were."〔Eliot 2006, p. 206.〕 ''It's a Wonderful Life'' is one of the most acclaimed films ever made, praised particularly for its writing. It was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made,〔 placing number 11 on its initial 1998 greatest movie list, and would also place number one on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AFI's 100 YEARS...100 CHEERS )〕 Capra revealed that the film was his personal favorite among those he directed, adding that he screened it for his family every Christmas season.〔Appearance at University of Chicago Law School Films, 1978.〕 ==Plot== In Bedford Falls, New York, on Christmas Eve 1945, George Bailey is suicidal. Prayers for him reach Heaven. Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George in order to earn his angel wings. To prepare Clarence, his superior Joseph shows flashbacks of George's life. At age 12, George saves his younger brother Harry, who fell through the ice on a pond, costing George the hearing in one ear. Later, he catches a potentially deadly mistake made by his boss the druggist, who was distracted by the news of the sudden death of his son. George waits for Harry to graduate from high school and replace him at the family business, the Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, a longtime irritant to Henry F. Potter, the richest man in town. On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George discusses his dreams to build things and travel with admiring classmate Mary Hatch. Suddenly, George's uncle, Billy, informs him that his father had a stroke. Following his father's death, George postpones his plans in order to sort out the firm's affairs. He talks the board of directors into rejecting Potter's proposal to dissolve the company, but they agree only on condition that George run it. He gives his college money to Harry for his education. When Harry graduates, he brings home a wife, whose father has offered Harry a job. Although Harry vows to decline the offer for his brother's sake, George cannot deny him such a great opportunity and keeps running the Building and Loan. George marries Mary on the same day as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and is forced to use the money saved for their honeymoon to weather a bank run. George starts Bailey Park, an affordable housing project. Potter, losing tenants, tries to hire him away, offering the 28-year-old a huge salary and the promise of business trips to Europe, appealing to his yearning to travel. George angrily rejects the offer. George is unable to enlist for World War II because of his bad ear. Harry, however, becomes a navy flier and is awarded the Medal of Honor. On Christmas Eve morning 1945, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry. Uncle Billy goes to Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan. After bragging to Potter about Harry, Billy absentmindedly leaves the money behind, and Potter keeps it. When Uncle Billy remembers, he and George frantically search for the money. After berating his uncle for endangering the Building and Loan, George goes home and destroys his corner of the living room. He apologizes to his frightened wife and children, then leaves. Desperate, George appeals unsuccessfully to Potter for a loan. Potter tells him his life insurance policy makes him worth more dead than alive. George gets drunk, then crashes his car into a tree. He staggers to a nearby bridge to commit suicide. Unbeknownst, Clarence has been watching him from the shadows. Before he can jump, Clarence jumps in the river and pretends to be drowning. George rescues him, but does not believe Clarence's claim to be George's guardian angel. When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence shows him what life would have been like without him. Bedford Falls is named Pottersville and is filled with cocktail bars, casinos, and gentlemen's clubs. The old druggist went to prison for manslaughter (because George was not there to catch his mistake), and his father's business had failed due to Uncle Billy's incompetence. George attracts police attention and flees to his embittered mother's home, now a boarding house. She reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the stock market crash. In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George discovers the grave of his brother, who drowned without his intervention. Consequently, the hundreds of servicemen Harry would have saved are also dead. Mary is a timid spinster working at the library. George runs back to the bridge and begs for another chance. His prayer is answered, and he runs home joyously, but the authorities are waiting there to arrest him. Mary and Uncle Billy rally the townspeople, who donate more than enough to cover the loss. Harry toasts "the richest man in town." A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls the story that it means an angel has just earned his wings. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「It's a Wonderful Life」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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