“What is remarkable about ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is how well it holds up over the years; it’s one of those ageless movies, like ‘Casablanca’ or ‘The Third Man,’ that improves with age. Some movies, even good ones, should only be seen once. When we know how they turn out, they’ve surrendered their mystery and appeal. Other movies can be viewed an indefinite number of times. Like great music, they improve with familiarity. ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ falls in the second category.”

“It’s a Wonderful Life” turns 65 this month, but it really is timeless. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it. If you’ve seen it and didn’t like, I don’t think we’d have a lot to talk about.

I love the little things in this movie – the off-screen crash as Uncle Billy staggers home and runs into a trash cans, the finial on the stairs that never gets repaired. I love the big things, too, the big ideas about wanting something your whole life and never getting it and looking toward the horizon for so long that you can’t see what’s smack in front of you.

Watching the movie again the other day, in this, the year of the Wall Street protester, this scene in particular stood out and made me realize just how timeless the movie really is.

It comes about a third of the way into the movie. George Bailey’s father has died, and George (James Stewart) has been forced to cancel his long-dreamed-of trip to Europe to help straighten out the building and loan his father ran with Georgie’s Uncle Billy. George is about 22 and about to finally leave for college, but Potter (Lionel Barrymore [Drew Barrymore's great-uncle]) has just proposed dissolving the Bailey Building and Loan and turning over the assets to himself.

It’s a few years before the start of the Great Depression, and Potter, the town Scrooge, accuses the Baileys of making a string of bad home loans to friends who can’t afford to pay.

“You see?” Potter tells the board, sarcastically. “If you shoot pool with some employee here, you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class, and all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir ‘em up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas.”

George has been biting his tongue but finally snaps when Potter criticizes his father:

“Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. Just a minute. Now, you’re right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante building and loan, I’ll never know, but neither you nor anybody else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was … why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn’t that right, Uncle Billy? He didn’t save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me, but he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what’s wrong with that? Why … here, you’re all businessmen here. Doesn’t it make them better citizens? Doesn’t it make them better customers?

“You … you said … what’d you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even though of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they’re so old and broken down that they … Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they’re cattle. Well in my book, he died a much richer man than you’ll ever be!”

Like I said, timeless.