The A-List: The Top Five Holiday Movies of All Time
By J. Don Birnam
December 8, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But none of these movies are about the actual Christmas holidays (let alone other formerly religious holidays - there are no Hanukkah movies out there other than Eight Crazy Nights, but it’s not a great movie). This is true despite the fact that there are many - dozens, in fact - of holiday-related movies in movie lore, and many are great movies in their own right.
So the Rockefeller Center tree has been lit, the snow outside is frightful while the fire is so delightful, and if you’ve no place to go, read up on my five favorite holiday (essentially, Christmas) themed movies of all time.
The criteria here are simple: if the movie is about Christmas, it is easily in. But I will also consider movies that although they are not directly about that holiday, prominently take place during that holiday. They are the stories that could not have existed without Christmas. The prime example of this latter type is one of the best holiday movies of all time, the original Die Hard from 1988 - the first honorable mention of the day. Although most won’t remember it, one of the best action movies of all time also happens to be a Christmas-themed movie. Bruce Willis, a New York cop (I guess they were the good guys in the 1980s?) arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve to reconcile with his wife and heads to her company’s Christmas party in Los Angeles’s new high-rise. German terrorists (again, don’t you love the ‘80s?) attack the building and a taut, tense thriller ensues. Bruce Willis was still at the top of his game, and action movies had not yet devolved into endless and senseless massacres and explosions as they have today. The movie is now indelibly part of the cultural ethos, with “Die Hard on a ___” becoming a moniker for most action movies.
There are also more obviously Christmas-y movies to point out as honorable mentions. In my rather larger family, one of our many holiday traditions is to have the movie Elf on a constant loop in the background on Christmas Eve. It is perhaps for that reason that I can only give it honorable mention and not a spot on the top five. I like it - I must confess to being enamored a bit with this Will Ferrell silly comedy that superfluously (but sometimes touchingly) explores the innocence of childhood by contrasting modern society’s hollowness with development away from it. It’s not that Elf will have a long-term impact on moviemaking or on cultural understandings, but it is a great movie to enjoy in that it’s witty, sometimes hilarious and always clever and, most important, light-hearted and honest. At the same time, years of watching it over and over again disjointedly perhaps make me sour on it.
Then there is a guilty pleasure of mine - Bad Santa, from 2003. I debated endlessly whether to give this crude, at times ridiculous, black comedy film a spot on this list. I decided to give it at least this mention because although the Billy Bob Thornton film may not leave you in the holiday spirit until the very end, when it somewhat sardonically redeems the importance of loyalty, friendship and caring for one another, the lead character is so memorably and casually anti-Christmas (an abusive/abused drunk who has lost all faith in humanity and himself) that clearly there must be some sort of “they’re playing with us at another level” notion going on in this film.
Lest the list of also-rans become longer than the Top Five, I’ll close by mentioning 1983’s A Christmas Story (remember? Ralphie Parker wants a BB gun for Christmas, but the adults in his life know better) and Jim Carrey’s The Grinch. What’s striking about them movie is how they depict that a child’s resolve is more powerful than Christmas itself, and more powerful in many ways. I guess that’s the true spirit of Christmas in a way: to return to our faith now long-list in the innocence of Childhood.
On to the main event.
5. Home Alone (1990)
After he was done with another great Christmas movie, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, John Hughes next helmed a now classic film that launched Macauley Caulkin into the iconic status I understand Justin Bieber has today, and which has landed at number five on this list. What child did not dream of having the house to himself to run amok? (Or was that just me?) If you ever felt underappreciated by your siblings and extended family and felt a desire to “teach them a lesson,” you were immediately captured by this hilarious paean to the saying: “be careful what you wish for.” And, predictably, the message is one of discovery of value in that which we had not previously appreciated, and the importance of family. As young Kevin McAllister navigates early adulthood by himself, outmaneuvering those who would harm him, he realizes that, no matter how independent and happy he may feel while alone, Christmas is a time for family, gifts, love, etc. Corny? Perhaps. But I guess I’ll take hopeful and joyous any day of the week, at least this time of year. Unlike some of the other movies I have listed so far, this one deals directly with another important theme of the holidays: forgiveness. I won’t recommend that you “watch” this movie because I assume anyone who is reading this has seen it. I cannot imagine that you haven’t. As a bonus, it features a sequel that achieves the rare feat of being at least above decent and thoroughly watchable (and repeats the Christmas theme to boot!).
4. A Christmas Carol (1951)
The first question that comes to mind when thinking of a movie adaption of Charles Dickens’ classic novel is: which one? Wikipedia says that there are over a dozen movie versions of Scrooge’s tale, but I say that only this one is worthy of mention in a top five list and is therefore the one to queue up on Netflix. Scrooge is played magnificently by one Alastair Sim, a British actor who dazzles us with his demonic but melancholic gestures. What makes this film the best of the lot is that it accurately captures the essence of Dickens’ story, in that it reflects on the agonizing, tortured human spirit in the context of the wretches of society. It achieves this effect with its mostly phantasmagoric overtones that reflect the feeling of despair and lost life that the story is meant to display. Not that there is anything wrong with the more romanticized, caricaturized versions of the lovely tale, but this one is thoughtful and sincere as well as being ultimately rousing and redemptive. Most of the movies on this list so far make at the very least a not-so-subtle attempt at conveying message in between the comedy, action, or slapstick that defines them. A Christmas Carol, by contrast, is a much more somber movie that demands being taken seriously. It’s Dickens all the way. For this reason the expected Christmas-themed denouement, grin-inducing when seen in the other movies, is much more tremendously effective and sentimental here.
3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
At the number three slot is perhaps the most recognized Christmas movie on this list. Several themes of this column come together with this one. For one, it’s one of the few on the list to have been nominated for Best Picture (it did not win) and to have won any Academy Awards at all (including for acting and writing). Second, it stars an exquisitely adorable young Natalie Wood (of West Side Story fame) in one of her first major roles. Third, it begins with a drunken Santa Claus at Macy’s (Bad Santa, anyone?). In all seriousness, this movie is an absolute must see. Although it is unabashed in its sentimentality, which permeates its upbeat message about the loveliness of innocence and the power of suspending rational disbelief, it is also extremely well made. It stars the classic actress Maureen O’Hara as the Macy’s event director who is in over her head when she hires an eccentric character to take the place of the inebriated Santa Claus. I’d be curious to see if a movie with its message exulting selflessness over corporate profit and kindness over dollars would resonate today. In any event, this is another truly inspiring film that I’d recommend for people of all ages.
2. Love Actually (2003)
I was close to making this modern British romantic comedy number three after Miracle, but the masterful way in which this movie weaves the tale of over 12 strangers around the holidays in a natural and organic way put it slightly ahead. Starring a spectacular British cast, this movie was one of the first “ensemble cast” rom-coms of which we have unfortunately too many today. Whereas movies from earlier decades focused on the important values of family and friendship around the holidays, Love Actually - accurately reflecting 21st century anxieties - places more emphasis on romance and love. The success of this movie is that it avoids easy clichés about love even when exploring age-old subjects. It also reminds the viewer of the associational value of the winter, snow, and cold with the holidays. But the movie, far from chilly, warms the spirit at the same time it saddens it by honestly reflecting different stages of human life and not shying away from the reality that things are not always ideal or as we foresaw them through more romantic movies (“romantic” as in quixotic). If you’re still stuck on gifts for the holidays, this movie is an excellent stocking-stuffer.
1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Topping the list is another feel-good classic of yore, It’s a Wonderful Life. The story stars one of the greatest American actors of the early 20th Century, Jimmy Stewart, as George, a kind-hearted, selfless soul whose Job-sian life brings him to the brink of despair, only to be rescued by a guardian angel who enables him (on Christmas Eve, of course) to appreciate the wonders of his life. Another well-known actress from the past, Donna Reed (From Here to Eternity), plays Stewart’s devoted wife, but it is Stewart who delivers the tour-de-force performance and who shames us at every turn with his heroic and noble deeds. The movie lost Best Picture to The Best Years of Our Lives, a similarly themed movie about the importance of love and the tribulations of reality, but which centered on the interplay of such motifs and the scars that World War II left on the nations ethos at the time. Over time, however, it is the softer, Christmas-themed Wonderful Life that has arguably prevailed as a timeless masterpiece. It deserves topping this list because not it does not only explore the importance of the holidays or Christmas. Rather, like the best movies on this list, it uses the holidays as a vehicle to explore and exalt the value and magnificence of life itself.