Christmas Movies

I have been meaning to come back for some time now and give some reviews of several TV shows, or movies I have seen recently. Goodness knows I still plan to try and do a review for the recent remake of Footloose. However, what motivated me to take the time to actually write is my love for great Christmas movies and Hollywood's inability to do them.

Growing up I got to watch great Christmas movies, Babes in Toyland, Its a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Jim Henson's Toy Story, the classic clay-mation stopmotion shows and Frosty the Snowman, A Nightmare Before Christmas, and I will argue Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Comparitively, I am concerned that many of today's youth will never understand what it means to have a true Christmas movie celebration. ABC's 28 Days of Christmas was built upon the constant reruns of classics such as Miracle on 34th Street and Its a Wonderful Life, until recently it has only shown modern Christmas films, maybe Christmas Story, and made several AWFUL movies that happen to have Christmas around. Santa Baby, some movie with Christina Millian, another movie with Melissa Joan Hart and the guy who hosts America's Best Dance Crew, Santa Baby 2? So TV is no longer supporting great Christmas films, it would rather produce cheap schlock that it can dredge up each year to try and win a couple of fans and make more money than having to pay rights to show a film that isn't theirs.

What about Hollywood? Surely they are doing a great job by putting out 1 or 2 Christmas movies each year, usually one will involve Vince Vaughn, right? I might be blasted for this, but I completely blame The Santa Clause. That's when I remember smiles getting cheesier, jokes becoming dumber for a more massive appeal for kids and parents, and when story took a back seat to somehow coopting the Santa myth. For some reason, everyone wants to tie their name to the santa brand. Whoever is Santa's agent won't have to worry about retirement since he can milk Santa's biography like no one's business. At least unlike the future movies concerning Santa's family/myth/waste of time, The Santa Clause understood to put the focus on the family in a way that was relatable. An overworked dad in a divorce and struggling through mid-life crisis causes chaos on son's psyche. But Four Christmases? Freddy Clause? Surviving Christmas? Santa Clause 2? Santa Clause 3? Elf??? No. I will give you that Elf had Bob Newhart who can make a tin can funny. But a feel good Christmas movie? No, Hollywood can't do that. Not even when they try to animate it and make it more inclusive by focusing it on another religion such as in Eight Crazy Nights.

Hollywood decided somewhere in the early 90's that making movies that moved people consistently was too hard and they would rather focus on the dramatic and action based game changers such as Terminator. To prove this, Bad Santa is a movie that was made to be the antithesis of Christmas movies with nothing going the way it should except it is around Christmas and deals with a reprobate. It's good for some laughs, but nothing is there to warm your cockles. And ever since then, everything has been focused on laughs instead of emotion.

Great Christmas movies weren't about the best actors, funny gags, or even necessarily Santa's family. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is easily one of the best Christmas time movies and it isn't tied to Santa at all. The Muppers A Christmas Carol is also not tied to Santa, although there are supernatural beings. What all of the great Christmas movies have besides a plot, is they have actors who don't put a wink in their eye, that don't try and steal scenes, that don't try and add crazy levels of depth to their characters. They simply play people who are dealing with everyday ordinary things and living their lives and are confronted by the oppressiveness or the injustice of the world at large. It is something instantly relatable. Politicians don't care and don't listen, so we have to make them = Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. CEOs are getting way too much money and privileges and seem to consider everyone else below them = Scrooged. How can you help people who don't want your help because they are hurting but need it? = A Christmas Carol. It is always a sad and relatable problem that sets up the audiences ride with the main character who must suffer at the hands of fate, only to have everything fixed or restored on Xmas by the sacrifice of the community, or by the love of someone or something close to the figure to drastically improve their outlook. With out this consistent fall and rise, based upon expected patterns of behavior from the society and acted by understated professionals, then what you wind up with is halfbaked ideas that seem funny on paper but could be done as well on screen by a baboon as Will Ferrell.

Hollywood: If you wanna make Christmas movies fashionable again, then here is where you go.
1. Make the characters more serious. You don't need 12 quirky characters and 1 smart quippy straight character for a film. Make them all realistic, you can have 1 or 2 different characters if you want as in Miracle on 34th Street, and have the lead be someone who is downtrodden and trying to live a good life but can't.

2. Up the ante, Smith fights for the kids against Washington, Scrooge fights for his soul, It's a Wonderful Life has a man who has to fight to exist! But don't make it ridiculous.

3. Hire actors who care about playing their parts and don't see it as a nice easy paycheck.

4. Write a script where pratfalls and speaking in weird accents aren't the key. Preferably aren't mentioned.

5. When the big ending comes, have it be actually heartfelt. Have the town or family save someone and the lead be unable to stop from breaking down in happiness. Most iconic image ever is Jimmy Stewart freaking out at the end of Its a Wonderful Life, shaking and smiling and crying all over his supposed children. It's masterful.

6. Give us a reason to care and want to celebrate again. Remind us of how good we as a people or a person can be. It's no coincidence that the amount of Xmas celebration has gone down over the years. It is beginning to be thought of as a Holiday for youngsters or maybe a holiday for the corporations where they can push their products and we have to buy them because it is expected as the social norms. If you can convince us to want to celebrate Christmas because it means more than just gifts, it will convince us to start believing again in Hollywood and looking forward to that Christmas season movie. And hopefully get Hollywood to look forward to a much colder Blockbuster season.