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Non-Christmas Christmas movies
Published November 29, 2009
Although it’s still November for a couple of days, it’s already time for me to start burning through all my Christmas-mandated films if I’m going to get them all in before the actual date. There’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and the original animated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” There’s “A Christmas Story,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Miracle on 34th Street” and the granddaddy of them all, “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
But then there are also my unusual additions to the season — the non-Christmas Christmas movies. These are films that aren’t about Christmas, usually, but take place around the holiday, sometimes even subverting it a bit for ironic fun. While I love all the holiday hoopla as much as the next guy, sometimes one of these films is a nice antidote when it seems one more rendition of “Winter Wonderland” will drive you insane.
For instance, there’s “Gremlins,” where a fuzzy little pet goes from present to monster in no time because someone fed it after midnight. There’s no peace on earth or good will towards men, but there is lots of chaotic mayhem.
One of my favorite films as a kid, “Batman Returns,” throws a bone at the most wonderful time of the year. Long before Christian Bale donned the Batsuit, Michael Keaton and Tim Burton were plumbing the depths of the Batman’s psyche, and in the first Bat-sequel, the Caped Crusader had to face off against both Catwoman and the Penguin while Christmas is in the air. There’s mistletoe and presents and Christmas trees as well as a body count and penguins armed with rocket launchers and enough cheesy fun to make anyone forget about that looming shopping list.
The closest to an actual holiday film is “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” curiously also produced by Burton. But while the trappings are all about the holiday and the plot involves taking over for Santa Claus, the mood is all Halloween and the atmosphere more spooky than jolly. And while lessons are learned (this is an animated children’s film, after all, done in the best Rankin-Bass manner), the true meaning of Christmas is saved for another film.
But the king of all non-Christmas Christmas films, the true holiday film without traditional holiday spirit, is also perhaps one of the greatest action films of all time: “Die Hard.”
While John McClane must save his wife and an office full of hostages from bank-robbing terrorists on Christmas, the holiday has little to do with the plot.
But, almost as a curative for other holiday movies, little reminders are constantly thrown out about the date. A Christmas party is the entire reason for everyone’s presence, Run DMC provides a seasonal song, holiday quips are quoted by everyone and Christmas is in the air.
More importantly, however, so is shrapnel and falling helicopters and a German terrorist with a British accent. And nothing says the holidays, at least in my version of the season, than Bruce Willis saving Christmas with a gun taped to his back and a whole lot of explosions.
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