MovieChat Forums > It's a Wonderful Life (1947) Discussion > Needs to be remade with a diverse cast.

Needs to be remade with a diverse cast.


The only black character is a maid? That's offensive as hell! How does the black community feel about that?

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Another person looking for something to be offended by..... 🙄

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Marlo Thomas did a remake. It bombed. You can't improve upon perfection.

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Nope.Perfect as is.I'm not looking for a color rainbow when i watch a movie.Just good writing and acting.And this delivers.

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You're right, this is INSANE! I'm only going to watch it 2 or 3 times tonight!

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Not being Black, I can't speak for all of them. My husband, who is Black, doesn't like this movie, but it has nothing to do with the lack of cast diversity, or its portrayal of Annie.

But we do have to consider when and where this movie takes place. (not when it was made. There's a difference.) It's 1945 (and the preceding years) in small town upstate New York. Even today, the majority of the small towns in upstate New York are predominantly Caucasian. Oneida and Cooperstown are 96% White; Rhinebeck is 92%. I'm guessing those percentages were even higher in the 1940's. So there would have been very few people of color in a town like Bedford Falls to begin with. And the ones who would have lived there most likely would have been employed in menial or service positions. So the fact that Annie is a maid is not offensive. In 1945 upstate New York, that would have been one of the few respectable positions open to her. It's unfair on so many levels, but it's the way things were.

Now the fact that she is the ONLY person of color in the movie -- that's another issue.

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How does the black community feel about that?


I'm good with this movie. Paraphrasing Mr. Wesley Snipes, sometimes I like watching white people doing white people things...

I even love White Christmas!!


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No it doesn't.

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