Year: 2024

Authored by Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov via Headline USA,

Conservatives recently criticized Amazon for editing the iconic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, removing the crucial part of Frank Capra’s work.

In the movie, the main character, George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, tells his guardian angel, Clarence, that it would’ve been better for everyone if he had never been born. After that, Clarence shows him the dark and depressing world without Bailey to show him that his life matters and positively affects many people. After that, Bailey abandons the idea of committing suicide and returns home to his family and friends.

In one of the movie versions available on Amazon Prime for streaming, the part where Clarence shows Bailey the world without him was removed, eliminating the film’s entire point.

Breitbart reported that the abridged version of the movie was presented because the suicide scene was “too dark.”

The news source also revealed that the movie “has been beset with copyright issues after Capra apparently used the short story The Greatest Gift as the basis for the removed scene and never credited its writer for its use.”

“If you want to know what’s wrong with the world, Prime Video has an ‘abridged’ version of It’s a Wonderful Life that removes THE ENTIRE POTTERSVILLE SCENE where George sees life if he wasn’t born. That’s all that abridged. The best, most crucial part of the movie. Just. Wow,” Germain Lussier of Gismodo wrote. “Just beyond awful.”

Just beyond awful. pic.twitter.com/sGNdLOQCpI

— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) December 24, 2024

Lussier then wrote that Amazon Prime offered both black-and-white and colored full versions of the movie, noting that the fact that this edited version exists makes watching it “weird.”

By the way, yes. Prime does have the real version too, in B&W and color. This is just one alternate option.

And plenty of people in the replies have explained why this even exists. But – doesn’t make watching it any less weird!!

— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) December 24, 2024

“It’s a Wonderful Life has been reduced to a Not-So-Wonderful Hour. It may be because Congress continues to daisy-chain extensions of copyright periods. As Clarence said,  ‘Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives.’ The same can be said of copyrights,” law professor and legal analyst Jonathan Turley wrote.

…If A Wonderful Life has been reduced to a Not-So-Wonderful Hour, it may be because Congress continues to daisy-chain extensions of copyright periods. As Clarence said, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives.” The same can be said of copyrights.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 26, 2024

Self-described “grumpy American cartoonist” George Alexopoulos also mocked Amazon by remembering the ultra-woke Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power.

100% unacceptable, that’s like making a Lord of the Rings prequel starring Galadriel as an action hero

— George Alexopoulos (@GPrime85) December 25, 2024

“100% unacceptable. That’s like making a Lord of the Rings prequel starring Galadriel as an action hero,” he wrote.