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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 12, 2009 13:13:19 GMT -5
I watched my favorite Christmas movie last night and again this morning. If you don't cry when George Bailey comes home.....well I choose to think those people don't exist
Anyway I had a few observations
1. At the begining of the movie when Harry falls into the lake George is 12 and Harry is 9. The year is established as 1919. So by the time he was in the war Harry would have been 33 or 34. Isn't that bit old for a fighter pilot?
2. In the bank scene shortly before he misplaces the money Uncle Billy tells Mr. Potter that George couldn't go to Europe because "Not all the heels were in Germany" This is the first time I'd heard the expresion outside of wrestling. Anynow how the word heel came to mean villian outside of pro wresting?
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Post by toddpolt on Dec 12, 2009 13:35:08 GMT -5
(1) Might have been part of a platoon that was short-handed in pilots, and well he mustered in to fill out the shortage.
(2) A popular symbology for the facists in Europe at that time was that of the heel, i.e. the hele of the steel boot which was stomping over Europe outside of Germany in Mussolini's Italy, and General Franco's Spain and the Estado Novo in Portugal (neither didn't fight in WW2),
Or for that matter, South America had the fascists Brazil and Argentina governments, who did fight on the Allies' side.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 12, 2009 13:40:40 GMT -5
So the term heel came into popular use after it had been used in propaganda against Facist nations? That does make sense but I believe the term was being used in wrestling back in the Golddust Collective (trio?) days, which predated WWII.
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Post by toddpolt on Dec 12, 2009 13:52:12 GMT -5
So the term heel came into popular use after it had been used in propaganda against Facist nations? That does make sense but I believe the term was being used in wrestling back in the Golddust Collective (trio?) days, which predated WWII. But I doubt the filmmakers watched wrestling, much less knew the term. Or common folks for that matter, which Frank Capra (to praise and scorn) appealed to. |
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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 12, 2009 13:54:08 GMT -5
Right. I think that means that term was used to describe someone evil before both WWII and its use in wrestling. I'm trying to find the origin of the term.
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Post by Drillbit Taylor on Dec 12, 2009 14:33:38 GMT -5
1. At the begining of the movie when Harry falls into the lake George is 12 and Harry is 9. The year is established as 1919. So by the time he was in the war Harry would have been 33 or 34. Isn't that bit old for a fighter pilot? People like Ted Williams fought in the Korean War, and were born in 1918. And he was a fighter pilot at the age of 34 . Well a Gunner for John Glenn who was also in his 30's |
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Post by Jay Peas 42 on Dec 12, 2009 14:48:25 GMT -5
According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Heel can also informally mean "a despicable or unscrupulous person; cad." The term is clearly older than wrestling.
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Post by B.B.M on Dec 12, 2009 14:51:40 GMT -5
According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Heel can also informally mean "a despicable or unscrupulous person; cad." The term is clearly older than wrestling. Which would explain why wrestling uses it. |
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Post by frankincleveland on Dec 12, 2009 15:06:42 GMT -5
I love the movie too, but I have some questions of my own. . .
1) Why is it never really explained that the Building and Loan is crawling with wildlife? I do like the consoling squirrel, though.
2) Does anyone else sympathize with Violet getting creeped out by George going on about walking around barefoot? For that matter, wasn't the whole moonbeam shooting out of Mary's hair and fingers strange, too?
3) Why does alternate reality Burt shoot among a crowd of people?
4) The alternate 1946 had a graveyard where Harry was laid to rest where Baily Park should have been,. right? I could be wrong. But if I'm not, then what did George do, particularly as a 12 year old, to prevent the graveyard from existing?
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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 12, 2009 16:36:18 GMT -5
I love the movie too, but I have some questions of my own. . . 1) Why is it never really explained that the Building and Loan is crawling with wildlife? I do like the consoling squirrel, though. 2) Does anyone else sympathize with Violet getting creeped out by George going on about walking around barefoot? For that matter, wasn't the whole moonbeam shooting out of Mary's hair and fingers strange, too? 3) Why does alternate reality Burt shoot among a crowd of people? 4) The alternate 1946 had a graveyard where Harry was laid to rest where Baily Park should have been,. right? I could be wrong. But if I'm not, then what did George do, particularly as a 12 year old, to prevent the graveyard from existing? Thanks to Corporate HotRod and Jay Peas 42 for answering my questions. 1. Something to do with Uncle Billy. He's a cooky old drunk you know 2. No, not really. He just wanted to have good old fashioned fun, as opposed to her meaingless sex old fashion fun. As for the moon-beam thing, yeah that was kind of weird. Really I think it shows that George was trying to be romantic but took his thought to literally 3. Because non-George was clearly having a break down. Also it seems like poilice using lethal force probably happens a lot in Pottersvile. |
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Post by Beets by Schrute on Dec 12, 2009 21:51:02 GMT -5
I have a question:
In the scene were they discussed wat everyone was doin durin WWII, they came to this guy Marty. So, who was Marty again?
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Post by frankincleveland on Dec 12, 2009 22:30:58 GMT -5
I think Marty may be Mary's brother, though I could be wrong. I don't know why he would be important enough to mention during the WWII montage since his purpose in the movie's done after the dance scene.
And adding to my fourth question, George not being born makes it not snow? I'll chock it up to the butterfly effect.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 12, 2009 23:21:18 GMT -5
Marty was Mary's brother. He was in the same high school class as George and Sam Wainwright.
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Post by Milkman Norm on Dec 13, 2009 0:33:27 GMT -5
I've heard the Uncle Billy line for years and for the past 3 I've been meaning about asking about here. Again we've proven that it predates wrestling but so far no one has shown the origin of the term. I guess I'll just have to my own research. Which is harder than just being told. So someone just tell me. Note: I know a definition was posted. I'm talking about a word origin here. Did it derive from the same word that means the bottom of the foot or of footware, or another word all together?
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Post by AFN: Judge Shred on Dec 13, 2009 1:26:56 GMT -5
To add to "heel" being used outside wrestling, You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch, You really are a heel".
Like most wrestling vernacular, it likely goes back to carnies, at least in relation to how it got used in the wacky wold of spandex.
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Post by Red Impact on Dec 13, 2009 9:16:56 GMT -5
According to the Random House dictionary, heel means...
–noun
a contemptibly dishonorable or irresponsible person: We all feel like heels for ducking out on you like this.
Origin:
1910–15, Americanism; perh. a euphemistic shortening of s***-heel
So the word came to be an insult of sorts somewhere between 1910 and 1915.
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