Die Hard
Gremlins
Eyes Wide Shut
Brazil
It's a Wonderful Life
The Three Godfathers
Batman Returns
Fanny and Alexander
Meet Me in St. Louis
Home Alone
We're No Angels
The Apartment
In Bruges
A Christmas Story
For me the best Christmas films are those where Christmas is only in the background or films that just happen to be set during Christmas, but are not necessarily about Christmas as a holiday event. For a film to be about something being about something is inherently boring which is why most films that are actually focused on the holiday itself, rather than it just being incidental, are incredibly boring and drab. The only exception to that being A Christmas Story because it's so fun and clever and has that Norman Rockwell nostalgia thing going on and is seen exclusively from the point of view of a child as he deals with all the hoopla around the holiday. Of course what makes A Christmas Story great has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas itself, but rather the sharp narration and seeing the absurdity of the world and stupidity of adults and those around him from his nine or eight year old point of view. This in addition to his relentless quest for Christmas as just an means for him to achieve what he really cares about which is the Red Ryder BB gun!
Miracle on 34th Street is... OK and I get what they were going for with the faith issue and using Santa as an allegory for something more meaningful, but I feel like it's far too Capra-corn for my liking and really set the template for every garbage Hallmark movie.
So stuff like Brazil and Eyes Wide Shut and The Apartment are the best Christmas movies, even though I hesitate to even use such a label, because just as in the real world, Christmas is a part of the social construct and all the pomp and circumstance, decorations, mass marketing, lights, etc that are inherent to how we've structured the holiday of Jesus' birth, the institution of Christmas exists in reality. But neither Brazil, Eyes Wide Shut, nor The Apartment have a thing to do with Christmas and very little if any of the conflict in the narration/story arises from the fact that it's Christmas. Christmas is the window dressing and nothing more. And that's really how it should be. A movie that's about Christmas, again, are just dull.
Also I tend to hate Christmas as a general rule. It's always amazing to me how many people celebrate the institution who are not Christians, but enjoy the social aspects, which is certainly fine, but what I would love is a historical film about baby Jesus or the birth of Jesus. We've had some good Jesus films about his last years of the gospel and his death, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Gospel According to St. Mathew being a couple of the better ones, but to my mind, and I could be wrong, has there been a film centered around Joseph, Mary, the three kings, and that whole story around his birth? I really don't know.
But on the whole, I think the reason I dislike most Christmas films is that they're inherently centered on forced emotions, sentimentality, and people putting on airs of kindness, good will, and generosity, etc, etc. To me it runs so counter to reality and is so unbelievably artificial to my life's experiences, observations, and just reading about life and history. Most people will stab you in the back if it benefits them or betray you. Most people will use you and love you when you can benefit them and then be apathetic at best when you're no longer utilitarian to them. People are evil and cruel to each other, who in certain moments can do good and rise above their base instinct and inherent nature. In fact, and I'm a Christian, this is one of the strongest messages to me of the Christian faith, which Christmas celebrates the birth of the Savior - Christianity is one of the few religions that looks at reality in the face and says... yeah, human beings, pretty awful, pretty evil and as such they are in need of a Mediator or Christ to wash away of their wickedness and evil nature through the purity of the blood of Christ. To me this is a powerful message because it speaks volumes to what I know is true of the nature of people and in my experiences with people through my 40 years of being on this Earth. I really wish they'd make a Christmas movie about that.
Actually, in fact, I do kind of really REALLY love It's a Wonderful Life EXCEPT for the garbage ending with the townspeople bailing out George Bailey. Toward the end, that film was getting dark, and I did love the play on Dicken's A Christmas Carol, but God help me if Capra didn't ruin and undermine the entire darn movie by having the people of Bedford Falls toss money his way instead of him going to jail wrongfully or not. It undermines the entire message of the angel talking him out of suicide and seeing his worth. The fact is I 100-percent agree there are some good people in this world who DO make a positive influence as Bailey did, but most of the time those people who we help will end up not only showing a lack of gratitude, but will be the ones who will shove us into the ditch of life to rot and die alone and hopeless. The thing is George should have went to jail because if he learns anything it's that even if life sucks and is a miserable place with no justice and a place where people will abandon you, it's still not worth taking your life. If he would have went to jail with all the repercussions and the tragedy of not being able to be with his wife and kids and not being able to financially support his family and the tragedy of that, it would not only be one of the best "Christmas films," but one of the best films of all time. But, as in I think every single film I've seen of his, Capra tacks on these fantasy endings that give false hope and show people as how we wished they were and not as how they truly are, but Capra, I think does believe that people are ultimately good who occasionally lapse and do bad things, whereas my world view is that people are ultimately bad who occasionally lapse and do good things.
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