Bedford Falls or Pottersville: We must decide

I had watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” many, many times before I saw what I now think is the most important shot of the movie - its first shot: the sign “YOU ARE NOW IN BEDFORD FALLS.” With that shot, Frank Capra, the director of the movie, is announcing that the journey George Bailey is about to make is our journey - in the here and now.  Capra is calling us (or perhaps pleading for us ) to decide to stay and live in Bedford Falls, not Pottersville.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” was designed to open our eyes to the Holy Spirit being active in our lives and to the danger of not trusting in God’s love. Capra knew that most people were like George: good people who loved and sacrificed for their families, but who failed to see that they were doing God’s will. Capra wanted to give his audience the courage and the hope to persevere through times of doubt and darkness and by doing so make the world more like Bedford Falls and less and less like Pottersville.

Bedford Falls is a place where God’s love is poured into the hearts and minds of the people who live there, who in turn love and care for each other. It is no coincidence that the town is named after a waterfall, because water has been an eternal symbol of God’s love and the source of life. Living in Bedford Falls means being in the midst of God’s love flowing through the community.

By contrast, Pottersville is named after a person, the banker Henry Potter, who desires to possess the town and everyone in it. Potter does not seem to age (nor grow/learn) throughout the movie - he is the status quo personified. Potter represents the banality of evil, ever present and hiding in plain sight among us. Pottersville is a transactional world where money is what matters. Pottersville, therefore, is a dead end, a fixed and empty place like Potters Field, a graveyard. 

Although by the end of the movie George sees the stark difference between Bedford Falls and Pottersville, his journey is the story of how he learns to see this more and more clearly.

George’s choices go deeper than the superficial ones offered by a secular culture, like the ones that Potter offered throughout the movie. George decides (not always deliberately) to follow his conscience, which is the voice of God within him, that helps him discern right from wrong and good from evil. By following his conscience, George stays connected to God’s love and brings God’s love to others, although he is unaware that he is doing so.

We can see George’s decision to follow his conscience most dramatically in the boardroom following his father’s death. George is about to embark on a world tour before going to college. In this scene, he stands in front of a photo of his father and faces Mr. Potter who is ready to take over the Building and Loan. Potter presents his case to the board for selling the Building and Loan to his bank. Potter picks up Ernie Bishop’s mortgage and announces how Ernie was undeserving because he didn’t have enough money. Ernie’s value is reduced to a dollar amount on a piece of paper. When George hears this statement, he can’t not speak up - he defends Ernie, his friend. George’s impassioned defense of Ernie and of his father’s mission to provide each person with a home, ultimately wins over the board and they decide to reject Potter’s offer, but with the condition that George stay and assume the leadership of the Building and Loan.

As George heads out the door and hears the board’s one condition for saving the Building and Loan, it stops him in his tracks. George is stuck between achieving his dreams or following his conscience. In his heart he knows what is at stake with his decision. There is a closeup of George’s face - a mirror moment for the audience. What would we do  in a similar situation: stay or leave? George chooses Bedford Falls to prevent it from becoming Pottersville. Would we make the same choice?

I don’t think it is a coincidence that George’s father’s name is Peter, the name of the first Pope. Therefore, the Building and Loan could be considered the Church on earth, the Body of Christ, which prevents Potter, who is symbolic of evil, from gaining dominion in the world. George must accept the call to continue the work of his father and God the father.  

By the end of the movie, George has followed the way of Christ and lived a good life. Yet this fact does not protect him from the adversity that occurs in life. Uncle Billy accidentally drops the entire savings of the Building and Loan into Potter’s lap. Despite a frantic search, the money is nowhere to be found. As a result of a random mistake,  everything that George had worked for seemed lost. George starts to doubt his choice to live in Bedford Falls and regrets the times he turned down Potter’s offers.

In the midst of his despair, he returns home to his family who are celebrating Christmas. Love is all around him but George is oblivious to it. His wife Mary, sensing his torment,  but not knowing the reason for it, asked, “What’s the matter?” George replied that nothing was the matter and that everything was all right. Ironically, everything he needed was right there waiting for him to ask for it. George runs away from the love being offered to him. He goes to Potter who had, what he thought, would be the only solution to his problem: money.

George tells Potter, “You’re the only one in town that can help me.” Potter responds by condemning him and declares him worth more dead than alive. George believes Potter so he goes to the bridge (the way out of Bedford Falls) ready to sacrifice his life so his insurance money could save Bedford Falls.

How could George not see the difference between his home and Potter’s office? How could he rebuff Mary’s help and instead plead with Potter ? 

Despite this blind spot and confusion, God’s love would relentlessly follow George to the dead end of the bridge, where he stands on the brink of throwing his life away.

So without having to ask for them, the prayers of his loved ones, set in motion by Mary, are heard and answered. Clarence, an angel, intervenes and gives George the necessary and painful gift of experiencing Pottersville, a place devoid of the love he fostered. This is the final lesson that George needs; it opens his eyes to the light of God’s love living and flowing in Bedford Falls, his home.

Filled with the joy of this vision, George runs through town proclaiming Merry Christmas. He returns home to finally accept the gift of love that had been with him from the beginning, that had always been with him and that was waiting for him.

George needed his epiphany of seeing this truth, before he could embrace Christmas: the celebration of God’s love incarnate in the world, manifested by, in and through his family and friends. 

So at Christmas time, when we are gathered with our loved ones to watch this classic movie, (although the commercials are telling us to live in Pottersville) let’s decide to stay and live in Bedford Falls where indeed our lives are wonderful.

Dillon’s book “The Gospel of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life:’ A Spiritual Journey Through the Movie” is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and LifeRich Publishing. Dillon, a resident of Niskayuna, is scheduled to do a four-week session on the book titled “Four Weeks to a Wonderful Life” at the Dominican Retreat and Conference Center in Niskayuna on Jan. 4, 11, 18 and 25.