Hi Henry,
My mind runs too on the creation of ritual through repetition. But I am
not so sure that is 'frightfully obvious'. I think of the parallels in say
sports broadcasting. In my time the cricket commentator John Arlott's
career spanned I think 5 decades. He was part of the summer and when he
retired there was a genuine sense of loss. I believe Richie Benaud now
performs this function of the seemingly endless continuity. I myself think
that this is our attempt to create an intimation of immortality.
On another level we have to take seriously the message of _It's A Wonderful
Life_. The film's appeal is firmly based in the truth, whether we like it
or not, that life is not at all wonderful for most people.
In the Manifesto, Marx describes very brilliantly the impact of capitalist
modernity on tradition. Take the famous quote "All that is solid melts
into air, all that is holy is profaned...". This has often distracted
attention from the rest of the sentence - "...and man is at last compelled
to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations
with his kind". I think that history shows that man will do anything to
avoid facing up to his real conditions of life and his true relations with
his kind. It is here that he seeks the heart in a heartless world. And
what better vehicle for this than Capra's film with its message for the
sighing oppressed that there is a caring god?
Before I came to Australia in the 70s, in Britain Brian Hurst's _Scrooge_
(1951) performed the role that _It's A Wonderful Life_ does in Finland year
after year. But Australia is a very modern and increasingly an aggressively
secular nation, where no Prime Minister dare utter the words "God bless you
and God bless Australia". So it is perehpas not surprising that there is no
filmic text that plays the role assigned to _It's A Wonderful Life_ in Finland.
The result of course is that tv here at Xmas time is simply irrelevant in
this vale of woe.
regards
Gary
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