It's Great to Be Alive: A Truly Weird Trip Back in Time

Is it worth your time?

If you have a high tolerance for 1930s musical-comedy weirdness and don't mind when a movie premise gets completely off the rails, you might actually enjoy this. But if you’re looking for something that makes sense, or if the idea of a 'last fertile man' premise sounds like it’s going to age like milk, you’ll probably want to skip it.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of It's Great to Be Alive (1933) through its definitive frames.

Honestly, watching It’s Great to Be Alive feels less like watching a coherent narrative and more like stumbling upon a stage play that someone decided to film while everyone was slightly delirious. The whole concept of 'masculitus' is so absurd it’s hard to tell if the writers were trying to be clever or just throwing darts at a board of crazy ideas.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of It's Great to Be Alive (1933) through its definitive frames.

Odd moments and observations

• The pacing is all over the place. One minute we’re in the South Pacific, the next we’re dealing with a global crisis, and it all happens so fast you get whiplash.
• The musical numbers feel like they were pulled from an entirely different movie. They just sort of happen to the characters.
• I kept thinking about The Moral Code and how differently that film handles its heavy themes compared to this chaotic mess.
• There’s this one scene where a group of women are just... watching the aviator, and the tension is so thick it feels like a low-budget horror flick, even though it’s supposed to be a comedy.

It’s fascinating how It’s Great to Be Alive tries to force its own logic on the audience. You can almost feel the movie trying to convince you that this world-ending epidemic is just a fun backdrop for some mild flirtation and a few catchy tunes. It’s deeply silly.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of It's Great to Be Alive (1933) through its definitive frames.

The cast is huge, but you barely get to know anyone. It’s like they just kept adding more people to the set because they didn't know how to fill the runtime. Some of the performances are fine, I guess, but nobody really stands out because the script is busy chasing its own tail.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of It's Great to Be Alive (1933) through its definitive frames.

I found myself wondering if this was influenced by Let-'Er-Go Gallagher in any way, even though they’re totally different genres. Maybe it’s just the weird, frantic energy of the era that connects them. Who knows.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of It's Great to Be Alive (1933) through its definitive frames.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good film by modern standards. But it is bizarre, and in a way that’s hard to look away from. It’s the kind of thing you watch at 2 AM when you’ve lost control of your life. ✈️