Second Guessing The Muse

Jimmy Stewart was an incredible actor. His acting was heightened and yet utterly believable—a combination that isn't that common today. It's hard to take your eyes off Jimmy Stewart. He was animated. Theatrical. Exaggerated. And at the same time his portrayals were grounded. Undeniably real. He goes out on a limb, but you never doubt that the character is actually George Bailey. Alfred Kralik. Jefferson Smith. Scottie Ferguson. That takes incredible skill.

And yet, my favorite moment is one in which Jimmy Stewart breaks character. He laughs. Not as the character, but as Jimmy Stewart. You can see it in his face. And it's brilliant.

I'm not the first one to notice. The moment's quite famous. A scene from It's a Wonderful Life.

George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) sneaks away from a party to celebrate his brother Harry's surprise marriage. The party is beginning to wind down. George points a drunk Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) in the correct direction home. Uncle Billy walks off camera. Left alone, George's mood darkens. Harry's marriage means George will have to stay in a job he would like to escape.

Then a grip on the film set tips over a rack of stage lights. The glass lenses break. The crash is horrible. Loud. George Bailey reacts in surprise. But that's not the moment. Jimmy Stewart does this in character.

Thomas Mitchell, still in character as drunk Uncle Billy, improvises a joke. He cries out "I'm alright! I'm alright." Suddenly, the stage lights are Uncle Billy running into a trashcan.

And Jimmy Stewart starts laughing. As Jimmy Stewart. Not as George Bailey. He loses it.

And it's brilliant.

It lets us in. We get to share Jimmy Stewart's experience. Thomas Mitchell came from live theater. And he got Jimmy Stewart to break. That moment was fun. And we get to share it.

Frank Capra could have re-shot. The scene wasn't complicated. It wouldn't have taken much time. He could have stuck to the script. But he kept the mistake. The Muse came unexpected and mucked about with his movie. Good for Capra. It's a much better movie for not being perfect.

This would have been good to remember.

I killed a story this week. I over-edited the life out of it. I didn't trust in the Muse. I didn't trust in her weird sense of humor. I was laughing my ass off while writing it. But I second-guessed her. I "corrected" the jokes right into dullness.

Fortunately, I am not a complete idiot. I saved a previous version. An imperfect version. With the good wabi-sabi.

I understand the impulse to cut our Tom Bombadils. They're awkward. Even Tolkien didn't fully know why he wrote Tom Bombadil into The Lord of the Rings. He just did. He called Bombadil an enigma. All mythologies need an enigma. The character doesn't make sense to the narrative. But Bombadil does add some resonance. A lot of resonance.

The Decker narration from Bladerunner (unless you're a big fan of Koyaanisqatsi). Luke Skywalker's crush on his sister. Dick Van Dyke's cockney-ish accent. Yellow Submarine. Second-guessing the Muse would remove all of these beauties. They're not correct or appropriate. They shouldn't have happened.

But they did happen. And they let us in.