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Journalism of Courage
In the past few years, unfailingly by November, Netflix floods with Christmas film suggestions, with most of them being old Hallmark festive flicks. It’s a congealed mass of season joy, with titles mostly blurring in the audience’s memory before they’re devoured. The format is so basic that many of them won’t even have a Wikipedia page.
The story will most likely focus on two different hard-working individuals, of whom one won’t have time to understand the meaning of Christmas and then they run into each other a week before the big day. They’ll fall in love as they help out with planning Christmas dinners, carnivals, carrying around Christmas trees, have that one meaningful conversation by a bonfire, have a brief misunderstanding for around 10 minutes before a reconciliation on Christmas.
It works. No one expects profound distinctions between these films– they all just fall under the banner of comfort-viewing and easy joy. The titles are generic, Christmas at the Castle, Californian Christmas, Too Close For Christmas…and the list goes on.
By all this, it may seem easy to make a Christmas film, and yet, it takes far, far more to make a truly memorable Christmas film that can actually stand the test of time. While the Netflix and Hallmark films continue their straight-faced format—-a Christmas film is usually a broad umbrella term that even includes the tough action thriller Die Hard, slapstick comedies like Home Alone, the feel-good and extremely debatable Love Actually along with the quintessential classic It’s a Wonderful Life, the old Christmas Carol. The format isn’t straight-forward and predictable, not enough for Twitter to currently make memes and poke sly fun at it.
In the slapstick comedy Home Alone (1990), Kevin (McCaulay McCulkin) is accidentally left behind as his parents depart for a holiday with the rest of their children to celebrate Christmas. Chaos ensues as he defends his house against two goony thieves, and constructs elaborate traps that are nothing short of medieval torture. But in the name of goofy fun, it worked as one of the most memorable Christmas films, along with its sequel.
Love Actually, that boasts of an ensemble cast, sees different love stories, including unrequited love, broken marriages, parental relationships and an unsaid understanding between acquaintances.
These are films that are spread across varying genres with different themes of family dysfunction, all built around the theme of Christmas.
There are several elements that constitute a really enjoyable, heartwarming Christmas classic, some of the most important being seeped in nostalgia, touches and hints of magic (Santa Claus is always a bonus), comfort of family and the entire setting that includes colourful festive lights, houses with firesides and Christmas trees, lots of snow with kids building snowmen, and most importantly, the element of hope, belief and redemption, the last being the most essential.
There will be several iterations of usual tropes—the kid who doesn’t like Christmas, a rebellious teenager, the kooky grandfather, busy parents, lots of cookies and good food. Most of them are clichéd, but the best Christmas films are all about rejigging the staid old tropes and presenting something that you at least try to pretend that you haven’t seen before. Family, or the dearth of it, is always a much-needed element for a Christmas tale—and many stories focus on people reconciling or finding their true loved ones, even if they aren’t quite their flesh and blood. Most Christmas films build on the idea that home isn’t always a place; it’s people that make a home.
Redemption isn’t possible without a believable conflict—and every character in Christmas films needs to battle their internal and external demons to overcome obstacles. Kevin needs to learn regret for wishing that he didn’t have parents, the Grinch learns to, well not be a Grinch, Scrooge in The Christmas Carol understands what he has lost in life and what more he could lose by continuing in his set ways.
There’s perhaps a reason why the adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol continues to find a loyal audience—people are still drawn to the story of the stodgy, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future to make him realise how truly alone he is. The idea that is entrenched in such stories—people can be much better than what they currently are. They deserve more. It’s this uplifting thought of hope that adds that particular element of magic to the genre and you won’t even need Santa Claus or the reindeer.
It’s almost the same with It’s a Wonderful Life, another film about the hunt for hope when it cannot be found. George Bailey contemplates suicide and a Guardian angel has been assigned to save him in order to earn their credentials or ‘wings’. The story shows the alternate realities and timelines where George Bailey realises that he isn’t worthless as he believes and sees all the lives he has changed for the better—-a concept that has been recycled in every possible way since the 1940s. These are films that brim with actual hope, magic and simultaneously tug at your heartstrings. In Home Alone, the story of Kevin’s elderly neighbour and his estrangement from his family is a heart-warming one amid all the chaos.
So where does the tough thriller Die Hard fit into all this cosiness and season’s greetings? There’s been much debate over the years whether the film can be a Christmas film. However, the premise itself is built around Christmas festivities as evident from the visuals, along with family dysfunction as John McClane (Bruce Willis) wishes to reconcile with his estranged wife while getting caught in an insidious terrorist plot. Amid all the gunning down and machismo, Die Hard proves that Christmas films don’t really have a particular genre—if you enjoy watching people shooting each other down with evident hints of holiday cheer, it’s clear that the understanding of Christmas films are also a personal choice. So by that logic, Die Hard is a Christmas film.
So, if a film makes you feel warm enough to revisit it every year on December 25, then it’s definitely something worth remembering.
