FILMMAKERS OF FAITH
It's a Wonderful Filmography
From Mr. Deeds and Mr. Smith through George Bailey and his Wonderful Life, the films of director Frank Capra show goodness triumphant in a brutally fallen world—with faith as the key.
Frank Smith | posted 12/05/2006
 1 of 5
A man is hunched at a bar, alone in the midst of a raucous holiday crowd. Tears trickle down his cheek; his sweaty hands are restlessly locking and unlocking. He bows his head and prays for help. But when that help takes an unexpected form he angrily rejects God's messenger, and bitterly proclaims that it would have been better if he'd never been born.
Very few scenes in movie history are as powerful—or unforgettable—as this one from Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life.
Voted the Most Inspiring Film of All Time by the American Film Institute, the movie tells the story of George Bailey: a big dreamer in a small town who has watched life, as he perceives it, painfully pass him by. Sacrificing his dreams as he looks out for others, his hopes ebbing as the years slip past, George ultimately reaches a dark night of the soul in which both his hope and strength fail. But when all seems lost, God miraculously intervenes. And an hour (and a lifetime later), George's eyes have been opened to the countless ways God has touched his life—and other lives through him.
Master of the eucatasrophe
Few directors have touched as many lives as Frank Capra, who was raised Catholic and never failed to attend Mass on Easter—"to contemplate the miracle of the Resurrection," as he once said. Capra's vision was of goodness and innocence victorious in a selfish and calculating world, of the "little guy" triumphant—not because he was little, but because he represented all men everywhere.
Never ducking the facts of human suffering or the everyday struggles of life, Capra often placed his characters in situations of trial in which their faith was sorely tested. Then he would make things right with what J. R. R. Tolkien would later come to describe as eucatastrophe: a miraculous salvation in which good is victorious, faith is rewarded and God's wisdom affirmed.
Tolkien wrote that eucatastrophe "can give to child or man that witnesses it a catch of breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears"—and this renewal of hope, this inner strengthening that affords a new grip for our tired hands, was Capra's goal, a goal he believed he'd been given by God.
In his autobiography The Name Above the Title,Capra recounted how he'd been visited by a stranger while hospitalized with tuberculosis, shortly after his first big hit. The little bespectacled man—who he was, Capra never learned—made no introduction. He simply sat down across from the director and, after a moment or two of silence, accused him of cowardice.
Before the sickly (and flabbergasted) Capra could react, he continued: "Do you hear that man in there?" From a radio in an adjacent room issued the voice of Adolph Hitler. "That evil man is trying to poison the world with hate. But to how many can he talk, and for how long? Fifteen million? Twenty minutes? You, sir, can talk to hundreds of millions, for two hours—and in the dark. The talents you have, Mr. Capra, are not your own. God gave you those talents; they are His gifts to you, to use for His purpose."
Browse More Movies
CT Movies Home Page | Now Showing | New on Video | All Reviews
Coming Soon | Discussion Guides | Interviews | Commentary
News & Misc. | Special Sections | About Us
Your Feedback | About Us | CT Mag Home Page
| |
|
