the first night mary and george officially commence their life-long love affair, they each make a wish:
george to travel the world and buiid upwards,
mary to breathe new life into an old house and live right here with him.
mary gets her wish: that very night, george’s father dies, cementing his place here in bedford falls.
the first time george makes a conscious decision (not circumstantial) to stay in bedford falls, mary is pregnant.
george lassos the moon
their ambitions are archetypally masculine and feminine ones -out there vs right here - an age old dichotomy. yang and yin, zeus and hera, and now billionaire men seeking refuge in the skies while this planet’s death is on their hands. of course, this planet will never die. in zeus, god of the skies, and hera, goddess of marriage, women, family, and childbirth.
despite the laughable sexism in this movie, most explicitly the depiction of donna reed’s disastrous fate - as a withered dried up virgin, how horrid! - this movie advocates for an inherently feminine act:
to stay.
this is also a message of anti-capitalism, anti-globalization.
the root word of capital means head.
the antagonist of the movie (the “king”) and protagonist both have physical disabilities.
what would it look like to build an economy of the heart? this movie provides a peek.
are europeans from earth? they don’t seem to like it very much.