I have a soft spot for schmaltzy movies and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favorites. I must have seen it a zillion times, but in case you haven't, it's available on Amazon Prime, among other places.
The hero of the story is George Bailey, a genuinely decent person who has lost his way, after his uncle Billy has misplaced a large deposit that their Building and Loan needs to continue to operate. George takes responsibility for Billy's error but then despairs as there seems no way out of this thicket unless this money is found. Clarence is George's Guardian Angel. He helps George work through the various dilemmas, initially by almost drowning so that George has to save him. Ultimately, it is George's wife Mary who does the heavy lifting, calling all of George's friends to ask them to chip in and help George out. They do and then some. George then has his faith restored and Clarence "earns his wings" for helping out this good soul to get on the right path again.
In this story, Mr. Potter is the bad guy, the richest man in town, but totally uncaring for the others who live in Bedford Falls. He is stingy and manipulative, a complete contrast to George. The story I vaguely have in mind would take that at as a starting point, but then via the various happenings that the story depicts, Potter goes through a transformation. He is unmarried and has no children. What should he be caring about when he enters the afterlife? The selfishness might be best understood if he expects to live a considerable while longer and the power he wields gives him personal satisfaction. In the story as told, he doesn't have to confront that question. How would his personality change if circumstances forced him to realize the end of his natural life was imminent? Some alter ego would be needed to help Mr. Potter work through the moral dilemmas and reconcile himself both with his future in the afterlife and his earlier natural life. Clarence's older cousin, also a Guardian Angel, is in position to do this.
* * * * *
I have no skill as a screenwriter, so beyond this very brief sketch I am not going to attempt to write this sequel. I welcome any and all to give it a try and consider what you come up with as an original work of your won, not a derivative of this post. I want to encourage your creativity, not stifle it. While we always need interesting new ideas, we especially need them now.
Instead, I want to make two brief points and then close. One is that this idea of a highly significant life event fundamentally altering one's perspective is not novel. Indeed, over the past two days I watched the mini-series, Prime Target (it's on AppleTV+) where the protagonist goes through such a transformation in the ultimate episode after a horrific experience in the penultimate episode. (For the sake of those who might watch this, I don't want my post to be a spoiler. I will say I thought the series was okay but not great.) I wonder how many other mini-series or movies feature a similar personal transformation in the lead character.
The other point, in case it is not obvious, is that Mr. Potter can be taken as a placeholder for some current day plutocrat. We might then ask whether such a personal transformation might happen with one of them and what would that take? Could it be orchestrated by others? If so, how? In my previous post, I briefly mentioned coercive means whereby a host of plutocrats change their perspective and thereby enable a credible impeachment of Trump. But such coercion amounts to a kind of warfare. Not feeling that necessary as of yet, one wonders whether there is a more benign alternative that might achieve such results.
I don't want to try to answer that here. I simply want to encourage others to be asking similar questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment