Go Steve!<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m glad First Things<\/em> is publishing this, since they offered the incredibly wrong-headed and misbegotten piece a couple of weeks ago attacking the film on amazingly specious grounds.\u00a0 (Although the wrong-headedness of the critique was at least in favor of saving Bedford Falls and not in exalting Mr. Potter as the moral lunatics of the postmodern Left are wont to to do.)<\/p>\nI simply cannot grasp the mentality that would dislike this film.\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of Auden\u2019s remark that he could not trust the literary judgment of anybody who disliked The Lord of the Rings<\/em>.\u00a0 I think of Chesterton\u2019s comment somewhere to the effect that there is, in every human heart, a thing that likes sunshine, fresh air, the sound of wind in the trees, and the laughter of children.\u00a0 That thing, he said, loves Dickens.\u00a0 He took it as a basic sign of health.\u00a0 I regard love for \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d in much the same way.\u00a0 Is it s a flawless film?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 But the instincts of the film (and frankly, of Capra\u2019s moral vision in all his films) is just basically healthy and oriented toward the Good.\u00a0 To dislike it seems a lot more like a judgment against the critic than against the film<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Go Steve! I\u2019m glad First Things is publishing this, since they offered the incredibly wrong-headed and misbegotten piece a couple of weeks ago attacking the film on amazingly specious grounds.\u00a0 (Although the wrong-headedness of the critique was at least in favor of saving Bedford Falls and not in exalting Mr. Potter as the moral lunatics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-41164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-at-the-movies"],"yoast_head":"\n
Steve Greydanus Defends "It's a Wonderful Life"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Go Steve! I'm glad First Things is publishing this, since they offered the incredibly wrong-headed and misbegotten piece a couple of weeks ago attacking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2013\/01\/steve-greydanus-defends-its-a-wonderful-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steve Greydanus Defends "It's a Wonderful Life"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Go Steve! 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