It's a Wonderful Life looks better than ever in this gorgeous new 4k transfer featuring Dolby Vision.
“Frank Capra’s heartwarming masterpieces has been embraced as a cherished holiday tradition by families around the world! George Bailey (James Stweart) sets aside his dreams of world travel to run his father’s small community bank, and protect the people of Bedford Falls from greedy businessman Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). When a costly mistake pushes George to the brink of despair, a visit from a kindly angel (Henry Travers) will show George how the life of one good man can change the world forever. Now you can watch the holiday classic like never before, newly remastered from the original film negative and more vibrant than ever in High Dynamic Range!”
Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is still one of the most heartwarming tales in cinema history. For such an inspirational story, it has a lot of depressing moments that lead up to the satisfying conclusion when George Bailey realizes all of the pitfalls he’s gone through in his life had a huge impact on those around him, finding out by revisiting his hometown after wishing he’d never been born to see what life would be like. Much like A Christmas Carol, George is shown these truths through an otherworldly being, in this case, an Angel named Clarence who is sent down from Heaven, run like a corporate entity and bucking for a promotion, to save his life when he is about to throw himself off of a bridge. First, Clarence needs to get a bit of a backstory to the life of George Bailey in order to save him, thus beginning our journey into his life and how all of his dreams become crushed along the way.
This being the most important theme of the film, George goes through his life with grandiose plans to see the world and make his mark on it, but doesn’t realize the mark he is making at home to all those around him. He constantly sets his dreams aside in utterly fantastical selfless acts that forever change the lives of the people of Bedford Falls, despite the greed and meddling from Mr. Potter, who wants to own everything in the town, getting rich off of the backs of hardworking citizens.
Revisiting the film after years one think struck me almost immediately: although this is always thought of as a Christmas film, Christmas barely has anything to do with it! For two thirds of the film we learn about George and his life, none of which takes place during Christmas, until the very end of the film which falls on Christmas Eve when George is planning to kill himself. If this can be considered a Christmas film for about fifteen minutes of that type of setting, then so be it, but the absence of that throughout the film is definitely noticeable.
Although Jimmy Stewart has had much better roles, I still find his George Bailey one of my favorites. Although he was 38 at the time, playing a College bound man dancing with high schoolers, this character goes through some drastic changes over the course of the film, and Stewart does a fantastic job embodying the spirit of George Bailey. His range of emotion and humor is at its best in this film.
Video
It’s a Wonderful Life is presented in 4k 2160p Ultra High Definition 1.33:1 featuring a newly remastered transfer from the original camera negative complete with Dolby Vision. The benefits of 4k, HDR and Dolby Vision usually equate to better color range, but in a black and white film that doesn’t apply. With this newly remastered print in UHD, you see more detail, brightness and greater contrast, all which I surprisingly found quite noticeable from the previous Blu-Ray release. Not only does it contain a much more detailed and clear picture, but the blacks and contrast look incredible.
The Blu-Ray disc only includes the colorized version. I’ve never been a fan of the fad of colorization of black and white films, but am glad there is an option in this set. I would have liked the Blu-Ray to have the option of colorized or black and white, so if I watch this somewhere without a 4k player, I’d be able to do so.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD Mono. For the mono track, it still holds up quite well. From the great dialogue of the film, the singing, the score, all come together nicely that adds a lot to the film. This mix is the same from previous Blu-Ray releases.
Special Features
This set contains some new bonus material for the disc. These include:
- Restoring a Beloved Classic in 4k
- Secrets from the Vault: It’s a Wonderful Life
- It’s a Wonderful Wrap Party
Although these new extras are welcomed inclusions, some supplemental material was left off from the previous Platinum Edition Blu-Ray, including The Making of It’s a Wonderful Life. If you already have this version and having everything possible is important to you, like myself, think about keeping that edition as well.
It’s a Wonderful Life looks absolutely stunning in 4k, a worthy upgrade for fans of the film. It’s great seeing classic films like this get such a great treatment and upgraded to a new medium. When everyone insists physical media is dead, releases such as this lead me to hope that will never be the case. Pick this one up.
