Viewers Outraged After Amazon Removes Pivotal 'It's A Wonderful Life' Scene
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Viewers Outraged After Amazon Removes Pivotal 'It's A Wonderful Life' Scene

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Censorship, copyright, and numerous other factors often pose a real threat to existing pieces of work, from the removal of certain books from reading lists to cutting scenes from film. Amazon has faced backlash after it "cut" one of the most important scenes in the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life.

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Viewers tuning into the Abridged Version of the classic available on Prime were shocked to see the scene cut. I guess we know now what was abridged.

The scene, which has George Bailey looking at himself and wondering if he would be better off dead, is the turning point of the whole film. In this scene, he looks at his life and speaks of how he will be more valuable dead than alive.

However, his guardian angel helps him see the truth. In this pivotal scene of It's A Wonderful Life, Geroge is shown the light. His angel points out just how much he has influenced others. It shows him what life would have been without him.

The whole point of the film is to show George that life is worth living and that he is more than he realizes. Without what is known as 'The Pottersville Scene,' the film actually doesn't make sense. However, Amazon have released the classic without it, sparking outrage.

It's worth noting that Prime has the full version of the Christmas classic available on its platform. It has the movie in all of its glory. So why the Abridged version? It all stemmed from a former copyright dispute over that scene.

Amazon isn't even the ones to release that version, just host it on their platform. But that didn't stop cries of censorship.

The Internet Reacts To Removed Pottersville Scene

Of course, the butchering of the classic movie It's A Wonderful Life didn't go unnoticed. You can't rip the heart out of art and expect people not to make a scene. Due to the removal of the Pottersville Scene, the film completely changes meaning.

Now, rather than George coming to the realization of his self-worth, he simply receives cash and becomes content. That may be an idea that Amazon loves to push, being the consumerist version of the Vatican State. But, it's not the way the film originally went.

One X user compares it to a crazy story from South Korea. "I'm reminded of the time when South Korean cinema edited out all the music and singing in The Sound of Music." This was actually done due to the popularity of the film. The cinema owner thought they would capitalize on how many times they could play it in a day by cutting out all the singing!

But, others are saddened by the abridged version of It's A Wonderful Life available on Amazon. They note how much of the plot is lost. "So anyone never having seen the original believes he had an epiphany from drinking at the bar & hitting a tree on his way home???"

The film has lost its essence without it. So be careful which version you click.