It's a Wonderful Life: The Story Behind America's Favorite Christmas Movie w/ Eric Smoodin
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2024
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Eric Smoodin, film historian at the University of California- Davis and author of Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity and American Film Studies, 1930-1960, joins Bob and Ben for the history of the people, the industry, and law that made Frank Capra's 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life into one of America's quintessential Christmas films.
This is a rebroadcast of episode 292 which originally aired on December 11, 2023. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 0:08.5 | The holidays are upon us, guys, and this week we're sharing one of our classics. |
| 0:12.8 | Our conversation with Eric Smootin on the Christmas Classic, It's a Wonderful Life. |
| 0:17.1 | We hope you guys enjoy this. |
| 0:18.4 | We'll be re-airing a couple of our Christmas favorites the next two weeks, |
| 0:21.4 | and then we'll be back with a brand new year-end wrap-up after that and many more episodes to come. |
| 0:27.5 | We're grateful to all of you for listening now and throughout the year, and we hope you're doing well. |
| 0:32.2 | Take care. |
| 0:37.1 | I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:38.5 | I'm Ben Sawyer. |
| 0:40.4 | And this is the road to now. |
| 0:43.0 | Ben, every Christmas Eve, when I am snuggled up with a glass of wine watching It's a Wonderful Life on television, I say to myself, man, we need to do and it's a wonderful life episode, |
| 0:56.3 | but I remember this on Christmas Eve. This year, I remembered before Christmas Eve. |
| 1:02.4 | And so here we are. We're going to talk about It's a Wonderful Life. Can I just give you some |
| 1:06.3 | background to the film? So in case someone out there listening hasn't seen the movie, we can all be up to |
| 1:12.2 | speed together? Yes. Go for it. It's a 1946 Frank Capra film, Frank Capra, one of the most |
| 1:21.0 | incredible American directors of the 20th century. The film has made a lasting impression around the world. It's over 70 years old and it's now |
| 1:33.0 | become, it's a Christmas classic that is transcendent and it's inspired multiple generations |
| 1:38.3 | with its message of forgiveness, self-denial, and the importance of serving others. |
| 1:45.8 | It's a wonderful life, Ben. |
| 1:51.7 | It's a secular film, but it seems to be deeply rooted in a Christian worldview that plays on biblical thematic material. |
| 1:55.1 | The film evokes religious, political, and social themes. |
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