My Favourite Characters - Elwood .P. Dowd

James Stewart is one of the best actors of his generation, hell, he's one of my favourite actors of all time, though this may not be his best role in terms of performance, it's certainly his best in terms of charm. Harvey is a movie from 1950 that follows the story of a man named Elwood P Dowd who is friends with an invisible 6ft 3 and a half inch rabbit called Harvey, and while everyone else in the film is trying to get Elwood sent to a sanitarium, his interactions with them eventually lead them to either believe Harvey is real, or at least that is delusion is more helpful than it is harmful. Elwood himself is probably the most optimistic person on the planet, he's not an idiot and depending on your interpretation, he's not insane, yet he's somehow always able to see the positive in every situation to the point where i don't know which of his quotes to use to prove it "every day is a beautiful day" "you make my flower look beautiful" "you can never have too many friends", the man is a walking inspiration. Even after he finds out his sister tried to get him committed, he was just more impressed by how much she was able to get done in one day. A lot of this does come from Harvey giving him a lot of luck and making his life easier (or if you think he was crazy then it was just a bunch of coincidences) and because he's never exposed to anything negative, he spends his time spreading joy to others. He's always inviting people over to his house for dinner or buying them a drink at the bar, it seems he spends every waking minute of life just trying to make life easier for others as it is for him. Hating Elwood is like hating Winnie the Pooh, it's impossible, they're so damn optimistic and pleasant to be around. But what makes him so interesting is that the film doesn't ignore other perspectives, maybe he is just crazy, real people don't work this way and sometimes life will be difficult, but he always has a smile on his face and (to quote Monty Python) always looks on the bright side of life. To show how insightful and kind he is, i'll end it with the most famous quote from the movie,

"My mother used to say to me "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."

-Danny