Is this movie still relevant?

What a unfounded bias you have, but then again, considering your sig, I shouldn't be surprised that such crass generalizations about today's youth are coming from a home-schooled Christian. You seem like a swell old movie fan, I'll give you that, but you're WAY off base about "today's kids". you are apparently only capable of seeing the "bad" ones (in your eyes, of course) and assuming that the rest are just the same.

As for the movies, this whole "they just don't make 'em like that anymore" notion requires a fair amount of ignorance about the broad spectrum of motion pictures available to us today, from the U.S. and around the world (and, as a collector of "old black and whites" myself, I'm NOT discriminating against classic cinema). You, of all people, with NO cable to hobble your journey, should be opening your eyes to ALL the movies that are made throughout the year and throughout the world. There's SO much you're missing, and I only fear you won't have enough time left on this earth to experience it all, having so callously brushed off computers and, one presumes, television and movie theaters based largely on ignorant assumptions about the content available on them. "The work of the Devil"?! Seriously? All those years not even knowing, not learning the truth about the technology, falling behind, regressing as far as entertainment was concerned, because of a typically Christian absolutist attitude. That's maddening. Thank goodness for your cousin living so far away! Why DO so many religious people, regardless of sect, have to learn everything so friggin' late, after years of repression of natural human instincts. My cinema lover's heart cries for all the thought-provoking stories you've missed and may never see. :(

The "moral" of YCTIWY was NOTHING NEW when it came out. People are generally conservative (yes, even most liberals) in various areas of their lives, and especially as they age, purchase property, raise children, so it wasn't like Capra (or Kaufman and Hart) suddenly noticed all these new-fangled fears and felt the wayward public needed a good little lesson in how to be happy having nothing rather than getting ahead and improving your lot in life. Such fears and insecurities go back centuries.

And all this crap in this thread about "the movies of today" just not dealing with these kinds of issues, and young audiences craving sex and violence above all, well, what B.S. when you look at the LARGER PICTURE, which is decidedly NOT being done thanks to all the rose-colored glasses being worn by contributors here! Audiences of ALL ages will crave sex, violence, explosions and the wonderful CATHARSIS that goes along with enjoying such things we may not enjoy or experience in our real lifes -- that's what the movies are THERE FOR -- but there are plenty of films released every year that get at deeper issues than the average Hollywood summer blockbuster, which isn't even designed to.

And I resolutely believe that many teenagers of today, whether they even know if or not, and thanks to the very computers you so desperately avoided for a DECADE because of an entirely unfounded and irrational religion-based fear (you MUST admit this), do view these films, or are at least completely capable of doing so, be they domestic or foreign cinema, arthouse fare, indie dramas, and via various media -- cinemas, cable, streaming, illegal downloads (sadly) and what have you. Granted, they may not watch them in the kinds of numbers that go to big special-effects filled fantasies, but it doesn't mean that no one is watching the alternatves. Whether they RETAIN these oceans of web-based information available to them as they get older is another story. Studies today (such as the recent book THE SHALLOWS, look it up) suggest that they won't, because they're of a generation that's used to knowing that ALL information will simply "be there" whenever they want it, so it won't need to reside in their heads.

And as to the world worrying about money instead of enjoying their lives, well, this is one of the most insidious modern philosophies out there, the whole notion that money -- and having or EARNING lots of it -- somehow robs people of their ability to enjoy friends, family and the life around them. WRONG. Money DOES buy happiness. Popular literature, and movies like YCTIWY (made by people who got paid LOTS of money, buy the way) would have the masses believe that it's better to accept one's lowly station in life, dancing around the living room with friends and family and not having two nickels to rub together than actually having millions and REALLY enjoying ALL that the world has to offer. Granted, you and me and most of the developed world are not going to become millionaires, but the point is that, DESPITE all the wonderful stuff we can do for free (with or without loved ones and friends), there are likewise a lot of wonderful things in this life DO cost money and should under every available circumstance be considered worth striving to afford, be it something as simple as a fancy dinner for two in a restaurant you might never visit again, or a flashy sports car to complement the collection of fifty you've already got parked in your garage. You can't take the money with you, so you might as well enjoy the hell out of it while you're here, especially if you've EARNED it with honesty, elbow grease and the best of intentions. I'll never be a millionaire, and I love my family more than anything in this world, and my friends almost as much, BUT I also love doing and seeing and experiencing the things my MONEY will allow me to, and often wish I only earned MORE so I could sample even MORE of the world's wonder in the next 30 or 40 years before my lights go dim.

Of course, some people might be happy bouncing around harmonicas and xylophones in their living rooms while their "lovably kooky" clans. Me, I want to explore what's OUTSIDE my front door.

By the way, your suggestion that kids pick up cussing, smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey, using dope and being promiscuous at public schools shows your remarkably narrow experience with the contemporary world and the young people within it. I bet every time you see a teen girl walk down the street in Daisy Dukes, you think to yourself that she must be a slut to show off so much flesh, just as "elders" did to the girls of your generation when they dared to walk down the street in tight jeans, or wear -- GAWD FORBID! -- one-piece or even early bikinis at the beach. Seriously, the vast majority of people learn the "bad stuff" from their PEERS, not their schools. To think that home-schooled kids are somehow immune to these things just because their parents are keeping them from the outside world is foolish. The saddest thing about EVERY home-schooled kid I've ever met (EVERY damned one of them) is that, just like you say, they're like "little adults" when they should be simply BEING KIDS, learning the good stuff AND the bad, and learning how to differentiate the two, and growing into a more savvy, street-smart person because of it, and usually winding up better off and more successful, and more socially WELL-ROUNDED because of it.

Calling children raw little savages is bang on, but it's utterly ridiculous to assume that home-schooling is in any way superior just because a grand total of TWO home-schooled people have civilized chats with you on the IMDB. You'll find far more public- and private-schooled kids who are capable of the same thing. Not every young person is the mess your high-minded comments suggest you think they are.