The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Harry Bailey was a selfish, narcissistic jerk:
- doesn't thank his brother for saving his life.
- doesn't bother to warn George about the gym floor being opened up.
- steals George's college money.
- makes the college All-America football team but doesn't have the decency to accept a scholarship so that he can pay back his brother.
- gets married without notifying anyone in his family.
- all but accepts a job with his father-in-law, knowing full well that his brother is too nice to ask him to turn it down.
Also, I'm skeptical of his motives for flying home in the middle of a blizzard. Was he flying home to give George money, only to keep the money for himself after realizing that everyone else had already taken care of it? (If so, that's a total cheapskate jerk move.) Why else did he need to get home so soon?
Maybe, just maybe, he was jealous of all the attention that his big brother was getting, so he flew home to make sure the town didn't forget about that parade it had promised him. Sure, he gives a toast to his brother at the end. But what he's really saying is "Look at me! Don't forget my parade!"
Yeah, yeah, the guy shot down a plane.
Way to take the shine off the Greatest Generation.
1. How do you know Harry wasn't grateful to George? Just because it didn't happen on camera doesn't mean it didn't happen.
2. There was a whole crowd trying to warn George and Mary about the gym floor opening. Harry's not the only one short on self-awareness in that family.
3. Harry didn't steal anything; George chose to stay to keep the family business going. Harry would have been as useless as Uncle Billy at that point.
4. You and I both know that George would have just returned any money Harry tried to give him; who's going to take money from a kid just starting out in life?
5. Harry hadn't accepted the job yet, his wife spoke out of turn.
Also, it was a snowstorm, not a blizzard. That's nothing to those folks in upstate New York.
George did what he did so that Harry could become what he became; anything less would have been an insult to George and their family.
The plane he shot down was going to hit a troop transport, so he saved a bunch of lives as well.
The thing is, everyone here would have done the same in Harry's shoes. Early-mid 20's, All-American sports star, fighter pilot decorated in war, he's a bulletproof rock star. George and everyone else in Bedford Falls should be thankful he even remembers them. He's living the American Dream and you call him a selfish, narcisistic jerk?
j/k, Harry seems more like a Baby Boomer than coming from the Greatest Generation.