Rhetorical criticism of the film It's a wonderful life

¶ … archive proposal, introducing the selected work of art, which is the film called It's a Wonderful Life. The author offers a well-written and brief summary, which helps the reader. Saying that It's a Wonderful Life is "significant and unique because it was produced sixty-six years ago and is still a popular film today," also helps to show why the writer chose this particular topic for the research. The author also does a very good job explaining why the movie remains significant after so long, and why it remains an important cultural artifact. It is because it "constructs and performs timeless principles that Americans admire and strive to execute." This becomes an ideal segue way into the background and context section, addressing the rhetorical components of the film.

As the author points out, "It's A Wonderful Life focused on actual events as they occurred." Therefore, one of the reasons why the film can be analyzed in this way is because its context is historically relevant. This allows the author to bring in the secondary sources that refer to the way cultural artifacts use rhetoric to construct or reflect reality. As the assignment instructions asked the students to do, a mixture of scholarly and common sources are introduced. Unfortunately, the author has a few typos or grammatical errors at this point. For example, the author uses the possessive apostrophe for a plural noun as in: "constitutive rhetoric's," while neglecting to use the possessive apostrophe for the possessive noun "Canadians," both on page 6. Other than that, though, the general writing style is very good, sophisticated, and nearly without errors.

The author does not stray from the primary points being made. That is, It's a Wonderful Life has been popular for such a long time because it cuts to the core values of American society and family life. Moreover, the author knows that the film is shown on television during Christmas time. This is an important fact, which ties into the entire rhetoric of the movie about family values and American cultural ideals.

One passage that might need some clarification comes on page 7, when the author finishes talking about the importance of showing the film at Christmas for referring to the American collective life. In the last paragraph on that page, the author suddenly jumps to a new idea about personal identity formation: "To elaborate on the method of identification, Michael Freehan states, 'Questions surrounding property in all its guises allow us to see what would otherwise be invisible, the process of identity formation through contact with the world.'" While it becomes clear what the author is trying to say, it would be helpful to make a better connection between the collective identity referred to in the previous passage, and the personal identity that is being discussed here. However, the part about "constitutive" on page 8 is helpful for understanding that term and how it applies to the film.