An evergreen Christmas movie

A flop when it was first released, It's a Wonderful Life became an icon of the Christmas season. Why does the film continue to move us?

How popular is It’s a Wonderful Life?

It’s widely beloved. The American Film Institute has named it the No. 1 “inspirational” film of all time, as well as the 11th best film ever. It came in fourth in a Chicago Tribune poll of favorite movies, behind Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and ahead of Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz. At one point in the 1980s, the film was being shown by more than 300 TV stations across the country. “It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” its director, Frank Capra, said in 1984. “The thing has a life of its own now.”

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