It's a Wonderful Life turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename "It's a Wonderful Life". The script underwent many revisions throughout pre-production and during filming. Final screenplay credit went to Goodrich, Hackett, and Capra, with "additional scenes" by Jo Swerling. Capra produced the film with his independent motion picture production company Liberty Films. Dalton Trumbo had written a draft that was different from the final film. In Trumbo's draft, George Bailey is an idealistic politician that slowly grows more cynical as the story progresses, then tries to commit suicide after losing an
It's a Wonderful Life "to combat a modern trend toward atheism". It ranked 283rd among critics, and 107th among directors, in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls of the greatest films ever made. The film's positive reception has continued into the present. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The holiday classic to define all holiday classics, "It's a Wonderful Life" is one of a handful of films worth an annual viewing." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film