Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward. On th-ink.co.uk Harry will be writing a series of posts in which he will be sharing his opinions on things he has watched.
At this time of year, are you ever sat in front of the television bored out of your skull as the usual parade of Christmas movies are dragged out to numb you with forced comedy and seasonal cheer. Do you sit staring gloomily into your mulled wine thinking ‘I know a few films I’d rather be watching that aren’t Christmas movies exactly but they are related to Christmas’? Well that’s exactly what this article is about. The movies in this list aren’t typical Christmas films, as in rather than celebrating Christmas they drench it in alcohol and set it on fire like a Christmas pudding. In other words, Christmas is in the background of these movies but they’re not suitable for the family to mindlessly veg out to after dinner. You certainly couldn’t show them straight after the Queen’s speech. But they’re a little more interesting than re-watching Muppet’s Christmas Carol.
1. The Proposition, 2005, dir. John Hillcoat
You could say this is a Nick Cave Christmas movie, since he wrote the screenplay. What a better figure for Christmas cheer than Australian Goth prince Nick Cave? Just listen to his album Murder Ballads. As we’d expect from the twisted genius of Cave, The Proposition is a bloody, blistering journey into a 19th century Australian hear t of darkness, with lashings of flies, guns and flogging. It happens to be set during Christmas and the only character celebrating is a cockney copper played by Ray Winstone, who has moved from London with his wife in order to lay down some law in the outback. In order to remember the Victorian civilisation they left behind, they order a tree, a turkey and even fake snow. Their attempts to enforce European traditions have some success on their Aborigine servant, who replies ‘merry Christmas’ to his master. However, the English couple’s attempts to practice their cosy civil culture is not enough of a shield against the harsh, violent, alien world just outside their window.
2. Brazil, 1985, dir. Terry Gilliam
How about some dollops of dystopia with your warm mince pies? After all, Christmas is the only time of year when we try to forget we live in an unjust, cut-throat society and spend loads on food and presents in order to further the magical illusions spread by adverts. So why not watch a movie that holds a mirror up to the violent, materialistic bureaucracy hiding under the tinsel?
As you’d expect from Monty Python member Terry Gilliam, Brazil is a madly visual cross between 1984 and Pythonesque humour. In the bowels of Gilliam’s spectacular nightmarish metropolis, a bumbling bureaucrat played by Jonathan Pryce loses his grip between reality and his dreams. It’s very dark but also very funny if you like satire based on an all-powerful but inept police force that arrests and tortures the wrong people due to administration errors. There’s also an incredible array of actors, including Michael Palin as a state torturer and Robert de Niro a rogue plumber. Meanwhile Christmas is going on, perhaps to highlight the extreme materiality of this future culture. It even leads to some satire in a scene where our hapless hero thinks a bomb is disguised as a Christmas present. Perhaps this is a comment on the damaging impact of consumerism on the traditional spirit of Christmas goodwill.
3. Eyes Wide Shut, 1999, dir. Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick is a director you wouldn’t normally consider suitable for Christmas movies. Sure he once directed a family film set in the snow, but that was a claustrophobic horror where daddy goes mad with an axe and just won’t shut up. Eyes Wide Shut is a family film set during Christmas but it’s also a sexual odyssey. Kubrick’s last film saw him leave behind graphic violence and start exploring graphic sex. Unfortunately Tom Cruise is the hero, and I’m sure most people there days would rather watch Idris Elba in this kind of film. Luckily Cruise doesn’t get his clothes off much. The film is about him and his wife Nicole Kidman (both really married at the time) played an ordinary American couple until Kidman’s character admits she once desired another man, so Cruise thinks it fit to retaliate by going an all-night search for sexual gratification. His journey takes him to a secret masked party, where sumptuous tracking shots linger on all-out room-to-room naked orgies (artfully shot of course). Clearly this marital breakdown erotica is not suitable Christmas family viewing, but it is worth watching for Kubrick’s typically stylish cinematography, tension and atmosphere. Perhaps it also rages against the supposed innocence of Christmas and the refusal of typical seasonal stories to acknowledge that people are just as much victims of their emotions and desires as they are the rest of the year.
4. Gremlins, 1984, dir. Joe Dante
Finally here’s some light relief (which is what Christmas is supposed to be about, after all) from westerns, dystopias and erotica. However Gremlins was still nasty enough to inspire the PG-13 rating, since scenes of monsters attacking people with household appliances or being blown up in microwaves were considered too gruesome for a mere PG rating. To be fair, it is odd that today this is considered a family Christmas movie since such scenes are still rather graphic. Nevertheless it’s still lots of guilty fun to watch a sleepy American town fall prey to invading hordes of mischievous little green devils. The difference between this and other critter movies is that this one happens to be set during Christmas. Why? I’m not sure. I can only assume it’s some kind of marketing ploy, or maybe the film was scheduled to be finished near Christmas and the makers thought ‘what the hell, let’s make it a Christmas movie.’ Whatever the reason, they ended up putting a lot of effort into the Christmas aspect.
A festive pop song is blasted at us over the opening credits, the streets are laden with snow and every house is decked out like Santa’s grotto. To be honest this does contrast nicely with the mayhem that follows, perhaps to symbolise the fragility of Christmas against the forces of chaos. I also have a theory that the gremlins themselves are a reflection of what actually happens to people during Christmas. Instead of spreading goodwill, people turn vicious, ravenous and selfish. They devour all the food, drink too much and assault the bar staff while overcrowding cinemas with overexcited, screaming offspring to watch the latest Disney flick. Lastly, the film even has a little message of responsibility about getting a pet for Christmas. Do take care of your animals, whether it’s dogs or mogwai who can sprout evil babies from their backs when you get them wet.
5. Die Hard, 1988, dir. John McTiernan
I think a few people would be upset if I left this off the list. Like the other movies, this is a very un-Christmas movie that just happens to be set during Christmas. It does very little to promote any Christmas message. On the other hand, like Gremlins, Christmas is everywhere in typically American garish fashion. Bruce Willis walks into an airport in L.A. with a massive Christmas present and goes to his wife’s office Christmas party, which is the office Christmas party to end all office Christmas parties, at the top of a towering corporate complex. Then everyone (except Bruce of course) gets kidnapped by the evil Alan Rickman and his team of elite criminals. After that the festive mood is shot to pieces, rather like some of the unlucky office workers. The rest of the movie is Bruce crawling through air ducts in a filthy vest, frustrating both the robbers and the cops he’s supposed to be cooperating with. So what is the meaning of Christmas in this typical 80s action flick, apart from something in the background? Well there is a family theme, since Bruce’s wife is one of the hostages and he spends the entire film trying to save her. So life-threatening situation aside, Christmas time does bring loved ones together. Or maybe the film is trying to say that sometimes Christmas is not enough to fix estranged relationships. Only Snape’s terrorist ring can save your love life. Happy Christmas.
One last thing, I would just like to draw attention to the Christmas scene in Full Metal Jacket, where the drill sergeant leads his recruits in a chorus of ‘Happy birthday dear Jesus’. Because it’s hilarious.
