We all know the Christmas classics and specials we all watch.
We even have a lot of unconventional Christmas movies like “Gremlins,” “Die Hard,” etc. But what about the movies you’re not sure about? Or that you never see on these kinds of lists? Well making a normal list, but filling it with out there stuff is kind of my calling on this site. So let’s begin another list.
Honorable Mention: “Nightmare Before Christmas”
I put this one on the list because this is probably the OG for this sort of debate for me. Is it a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? Is it both? I kind of considered it almost a Thanksgiving film. It’s set in between and it’s said Tim Burton came up with the idea while watching a store in the process of putting up its Christmas decorations while taking down its Halloween ones. This would most likely place it in Thanksgiving time then. Nowadays this can be seen even before Halloween, even in September. As a film fan, when it comes to debates on the film I’m more invested in the is it a Tim Burton or Henry Selick film question. Still a fun simple film I’ve loved since childhood and a good one to get us started.
4.) “In Bruges”
Man do I love this director, Martin McDonagh. He’s done this and “Seven Psychopaths.” Even his brother John Michael McDonagh is brilliant with “The Guard” and “Calvary.” It’s one of those films where it’s so good it completely changed my opinion of a certain actor, Colin Farrell. Not that I hated him, but I never quite got his appeal especially for awhile he seemed to be the “it” actor until I saw this. This barely mentions Christmas or the holiday season other than a few trees and lights in the background of scenes. In the city of Bruges they’re much more modest with their decorating. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about two hitman made to wait out in Bruges, Belgium until their boss gives them their next assignment. It’s a great character study and incredibly funny while being very serious at the same time. I highly recommend it to anyone. If nothing else it has a ton of great quotes and makes me want to one day go to Bruges and preferably in the Christmas season. It’s like a f#@*ing fairytale or something.
3.) “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”
Who here really needs Monty Python explained to them? Either you know and you’ve already seen it or you haven’t and probably won’t be able to fully grasp it if I explained. So legend has it the origin of this film was after “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was released and the group were doing press tours. The main question that they got over and over was “So what’s next?” Being tired of this question Eric Idle responded, “Our next film will be Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory” and that normally would shut up reporters. As they developed the idea they realized there just wasn’t much comedy to have with Jesus himself so they refocused the screenplay on the followers of Christ. The story is about a boy, Brian who was born in the manger next to Jesus. The rest is just Brian going through his life being mistaken for a messiah and all the wacky shenanigans he gets into until he
Click to reveal the spoiler
It’s as heart warmingly funny as it sounds. So really the central question to this list is what is a Christmas movie? What makes a film a Christmas one? Well as Jesus is tied so directly to certain versions of the origin of Christmas depicting his birth tends to make it a Christmas film and thus many religious films qualify. Despite the massive controversy that still exists around this film, under those requirements I say this counts.
Click to see the last 2 entries!
2.) “Prometheus”
I had actually finished this article before I remembered this one. A particular recent trailer reminded me. Now since I plan on covering this film in more detail in a certain October theme set of articles next year I’ll try to make sure I don’t end up repeating myself. I’ll focus on how this is a Christmas movie… I guess. Aside from the scene with Idris Elba’s character putting up a Christmas tree showing that this is taking place during the holiday season there are some other points. First let’s put the Christ back into Christmas for this discussion. Just so we’re clear yes I’m aware that Christmas was a pagan holiday that the church attached the birth of Jesus to in order to help convert others to Christianity, but that’s not important right now. Point being a lot of folks see Christmas as a celebration of Jesus’ birth and one of the holiest days. Now this film deals with the concept of meeting our makers which in this case are the engineers. Our main character despite coming up with the theory that we were created by some other species still maintains her belief in God. She even wears a crucifix during the film. She also sort of ends up having a virgin birth later in the film. So there’s plenty of good old-fashioned Christmas themes in this film. Also, there’s a theory known as the “Space Jesus” theory that in an interview Ridley Scott basically said that they had it in an early draft or at least considered it. The idea being that Jesus was an Engineer sent to earth to get us back on track and well if you’ve seen any film about Jesus you know it didn’t end well. This angered the Engineers and is the reason for them hating and wanting to kill us. More of a head cannon sort of thing, but still interesting.
1.) “March of the Wooden Soldiers”
I remember as a kid my cousin had this on video and I would borrow it all the time. For those who don’t know this is the original “Babes in Toyland”… on screen. The opera is where it truly began, but this is barely anything like the opera to my understanding. In fact, most versions since then are more riffing off this 1934 version. One major difference that puts this above the other versions? 3 words… Laurel and Hardy. In most other versions they bring someone from the “real” world or in the Disney remake just have different main characters. However, here we have Laurel and Hardy as two screw ups who in most other films would be side characters and are instead made the leads. It can be hard to explain why it works so well for me, it just does. It’s not the most sophisticated film, the costumes and sets are very obvious and simple but I sort of feel it does help create this unique atmosphere. Another odd but fascinating thing about this film, there’s a live action Mickey Mouse. Which may shock you even more since this is NOT a film made by Disney. How does this work? Well Mickey is realized through putting a monkey in a mask and costume. And luckily for this film the producer Hal Roach was friends with Walt Disney. He even got permission to use the “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” song. However, there’s no word about if he asked for Mickey and when Disney later did their remake the henchmen for the villain feel like a spoof of Laurel and Hardy so maybe it wasn’t an amicable arrangement with the mouse.
Why the confusion? There is just an undeniable Christmasy feel to this film despite the fact Christmas doesn’t really play a role and it takes place in July. Santa shows up towards the beginning and it’s through a screw up with an order of Christmas toys (I guess Santa is outsourcing his elf jobs) that saves the day. Other than that it’s just generic mother goose fairy tale creatures living in a land together. Perhaps since for many of us Christmas is tied into our younger years which when we read/hear stuff like Little Bo Peep, Three Little Pigs, the old woman in the shoe, etc. that it just puts us into that mind frame of kids anxiously waiting to open presents in the morning. At least for me it does. Honestly, most of the time I tend to watch it around Thanksgiving and since there are so few Thanksgiving films to begin with, Christmas can spare this one. Still, if you’ve never seen it give it a watch. It’s one of those childhood classics that I put up there with “Wizard of Oz” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Also it’s one of those rare films that I think could work as a remake even though it’s a favorite of mine.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and I hope you have a lovely season!