Poster service: It's a Wonderful Life

The film tells the story, in flashback, of George Bailey of Bedford Falls. To George, it seems as if his life has been a failure mapped out through a series of compromises. Photograph: Kobal

George had hoped to leave Bedford Falls, an exemplar of small-town America, and to make his fortune in civil engineering. Instead, he is forced by circumstance to stay in the town, and to take over the saving and loans firm of his father. Photograph: Kobal

George faces ruin when his savings company is put under pressure by a bank run and by the unscrupulous actions of the speculator, Henry Potter. In desperation, George prepares to throw himself into the river only for his better nature to reassert itself through saving someone else. Photograph: Kobal

In the end George is shown, through a form of divine hindsight, the big difference he has made to the lives of the people, family, friends and colleagues of Bedford Falls. Photograph: Kobal

In an especially poignant sequence of the film, George is shown how Bedford Falls might have developed without his contribution, had Potter's plans been passed. The friendly community is laid waste by commercial development. The townspeople live, mostly, in derelict slums lorded over by the rentier landlord. Photograph: Kobal

This was an indictment of unregulated financial speculation in 1946. Watching the film now, post banking bailout, seems both surreal and tragic. Photograph: Kobal

It's a Wonderful Life belongs to a series of films by the American-Italian director Frank Capra that describe the integrity of small-town American values. Capra does this by placing these values against the glossy, metropolitan sophistication usually recognised as American. In every case, the glossy metropolitan sophistication is revealed as a shroud for greed and corruption. Photograph: Kobal

The series includes Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939). In each of these films, the out-of-towner Mr Deeds and Mr Smith, is presented with a version of modern life and politics that is presented as overwhelmingly complex and difficult. In fact, the complexity is revealed to be the means by which unscrupulous profiteers take advantage of ordinary folks. Photograph: Kobal

Having exposed the excesses of metropolitan society and political deal-making, Capra turned his attention to financial speculation. It's worth recalling that the films were intended to be inspirational and uplifting. In fact, their enduring popularity suggests that they are understood as such. Photograph: Corbis

Capra was already, by the 1930s, a senior figure in Hollywood. In 1928 he completed eight films. He is credited with helping to launch the careers of several stars including, Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck, Donna Reed, Cary Grant and, of course, Jimmy Stewart. Photograph: Allstar

The role of George Bailey, along with his earlier Mr Smith, confirmed Jimmy Stewart as the archetype of masculine American integrity. In It's a Wonderful Life he is presented as a good man who does the right thing for those around him. Often, this means that his plans are placed on hold. Frustratingly, for Bailey, helping others means that his own plans remain largely unfulfilled. At least as far as he had intended for himself. Photograph: Kobal

Amazingly, the personal life of James Stewart seems simply to have confirmed these characteristics. Stewart began acting whilst at University at Princeton where he was a colleague of Henry Fonda's. Stewart followed Fonda to Hollywood. He was met from the train by Fonda and lodged with Fonda in studio-supplied digs with Greta Garbo as next-door neighbour. Photograph: Kobal

In the end, Stewart's career ranks him as one of the greatest Hollywood screen actors. His great contribution was to give expression, albeit hesitantly, to the ability of ordinary people to do the right thing and to set a course through the ethical dilemmas of everyday life. Photograph: Kobal

Of course, one person can't make a community and Stewart's roles, especially that of George Bailey, are a reminder that it is family, friends and colleagues who define man socially and give personal integrity its wider ethical dimension. Bedford Falls may seem like a form of utopia imagined by the founding fathers. However, and notwithstanding the general happiness, it is worth noting that the role of women remained relatively constrained within this utopia. Photograph: Kobal

In probably the film's weakest moment, the female partners to George's life are shown, without him, as bitter and unfulfilled. It's a little surprising, in this context, that the film was made after the second world war and failed to recognise the transformative effect of female emancipation as part of the war effort in America. Photograph: Kobal

The ideas of utopia and capitalism are uniquely linked in America. The expression of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness combined, form a cornerstone of the Declaration of Independence. The particular circumstances of American genesis allowed for the undisputed development of capitalism as the major political system across the continent. A combination of environment and moral Darwinism have tended to promote a winner-takes-it-all version of capitalism. Photograph: Kobal

It's a Wonderful Life reminds us that there is an alternative. We're not obliged to view ourselves as participants in a race. We can imagine something different and more inclusive. Of course, the great virtue of America is it remains, by virtue of its origins, a magnificent work-in-progress. Now, with capitalism in ruins, comes an opportunity to rebuild it differently. Photograph: Rex Features