Isn't Life Wonderful

Not as mind blowing as "Intolerance", as Epic as "Birth of a nation" or beautiful as "Broken Blossoms", this film still holds up very well in Griffith's catalogue. Some great stuff, and many masterly sequences. Funnily, this was made at a time when Griffith's influence and credibility was waning, but in many ways this film is as influential as any of his others. "Isn't life wonderful" takes social realism to a new heightened level, and had immediate impact on G.W. Pabst when he made "Joyless Streets", which in turn influenced the entire Italian Neo-realist movement! This film confirms Griffith's position as the most important director of them all.

Well, after seeing this D. W. Griffith film, it seemed very odd to me that the same director who apparently despised Black people had a very sensitive place in his heart for the German-speaking people following WWI. By the way, if you don't believe me about the "despised Black people" comment, try watching his films BIRTH OF A NATION and HIS TRUST. In both films, the Black actors are in fact Whites wearing makeup. In BIRTH OF A NATION, Blacks are shown as being evil and lazy and out to rape the White women if left unchecked by the wonderful KKK. In HIS TRUST, a Black slave acts like a lapdog in his devotion to his White "betters".

So, despite this awful baggage, it was shocking to see how favorably the former enemy were treated in this film. The main characters are Germans who had lived in land previously part of the old Germany--now part of Poland. They moved back to their ethnic homeland and settled into an impoverished Berlin. This sensitivity towards America's former enemy actually mirrored the change in attitude in general in the US, as people were now reassessing their role in the war and many felt, in hindsight, that we should have just stayed neutral.

The film shows the daily privations of this family as they just try to survive. Starvation and the difficulties of existing, interestingly enough, do NOT destroy or diminish their humanity--though it does do this to some of their fellow countrymen. This abiding faith and goodness in the face of adversity is why the film is entitled "ISN'T LIFE WONDERFUL". And, despite Griffith's tendency to often use "schmaltz" and heavy-handed melodrama in his films, this is a pretty restrained and beautiful movie.

Isn't Life Wonderful is the type of small-scale drama that Griffith excelled at, and this particular one, though a bit too stretched out, still managed to be effective (and affecting). The basic story is of a family of Polish refugees in post-WWI Germany who do their best to survive economic uncertainty. What keeps them going, and is the main theme of the film, is their love for each other. While that might seem trite or cliched on paper, hardly any of it is overplayed. In fact, I see the basic themes in the film still having resonance today, even if the cultural specificity is a little outdated. Of note to me was the simple way that this was photographed, with camera movement reserved for the most dramatically intense moments. I also responded to the score, which was arranged for piano and violin from the original 1924 score. The best part was how different recognizable folk tunes and classical pieces were used as motifs throughout. And while most of the most emotionally impactful moments occurred in the first half, this was overall quite an uplifting drama that represents the best aspect of what Griffith had to offer cinema.

Director D. W. Griffith was with United Artists since its founding in 1919. However, by 1924, after a year of not producing any blockbusters, his partners decided the film pioneer and their UA studio should part company. The irony of the departure's timing is Griffith directed in what today is considered his last great masterpiece, November 1924's "Isn't Life Wonderful."

As great as the film is, "Isn't Life Wonderful" had a difficult time finding an audience. The public just wasn't interested in seeing a Polish refugee family painfully trying to exist in an economically dysfunctional Germany. The postwar country was experiencing an inflationary monetary system never seen before, with its marks currency escalating literally by the minute. Fatigue, hunger and crime greeted its citizens after its defeat against the Allied countries, especially France, demanding Germany keep up with its reparations for its invasion in 1914. Griffith, reading Geoffrey Moss' account of the German's life in his series of 1923 short stories, decided to produce a movie based on one of them. To make his production appear even more authentic, he took his crew and actors to film in Germany and Austria .

The often-criticized actress Carol Dempster, a favorite of Griffith after Lillian Gish left his fold, has been particularly praised here as showcasing a credible performance as the orphan Inga. Her fictitious character had grown up with the Polish family before their immigration to Germany. Griffith changed the citizenship of the film's central figures from German to Polish, knowing American viewers would be more apt to sympathize with them than the German populace.

The movie's male love interest, Paul (Neil Hamilton), suffering from a mustard attack in the war, has a twinkle in the eye for Inga, even though he's hobbled by the injury. In the one dramatic scene that "Isn't Life Wonderful" is known for, Inga stands patiently in a long queue in front of a butcher's shop after pooling the family's money for some long-desired meat. As the minutes tick by, the store owner repeatedly steps out to the blackboard and changes the escalating price of the meat, so much so that the money Inga has in her hand becomes inadequate. Incidentally, actor Hamilton, who had a long career in over 260 films, is recognizable today as the police commissioner in the 1960's 'Batman" TV series.

...but I like this one better than even some of his more celebrated movies. I connected more with the story here, which to me is paramount. Nothing in this movie seemed melodramatic or implausible; even the happy ending shows that the characters still live in simplicity, not luxury. Also, he doesn't rely nearly as much on his sentimental titles; although some are present, it's not enough to be annoying. Even though it's not as groundbreaking as his earlier work, I found it very affecting and real in the best ways. Plus Carol Dempster gives a stellar performance, one of the most moving that I've seen from any era of film.