Having just passed Christmas, I saw one of the most important debate topics that faces mankind in the modern age, surprisingly on Facebook for a question of such magnitude: "Does Die Hard qualify as a Christmas movie?"
I've seen Die Hard- good movie, got 92% on Tomatoes, relate-able hero, I've actually worked at Fox Tower (Nakamura Tower in the movie), so lot of good vibes. It's an action movie, no doubt. It also happens to take place on Christmas Eve, for which some have argued it's a Christmas movie. However, the movie works without the fact that it's Christmas, at no point does John McCain the narrator embrace the fact that it is Christmas. Although the terrorists do use the fact that it's Christmas Eve to initiate their plan thus making the date a significant plot point, Christmas is not an essential theme to the story no contribute to the heart of the narrative, that of John McCain kicking ass and saving hostages.
What does constitute a Christmas movie? Obvious ones include Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol (along with Scrooged, of the same story), How the Grinch stole Christmas, A Christmas Story (played on a loop on FX every year during Christmastime), and my personal favorite, Elf. All of these stories incorporate themes of Christmas and Santa and embrace the spirit of Christmas, whether it's a lost elf looking for his father leading choruses of Christmas cheer in New York City, whether it's a creature who hates Christmas only to find that he loves it, and so on. All of these stories would be lost if they did not happen during Christmas.
Conclusion: A Christmas movie must encompass a Christmas theme or incorporate the values or spirit of Christmas into one of its themes, not just use Christmas as a plot device. Supporting evidence could be the use of sequels (as in Home Alone- where Home Alone 2 also dealt with the theme of befriending those who are alone on Christmas, etc.) Die Hard is therefore NOT a Christmas movie. (Its sequels all occur on different dates, indicating that Christmas was not an important date).
Unfortunately, Google completely debunks my point by listing "Die Hard" among the movies that pop up in Search Results when searching "Top Christmas movies of all time," so what do I know. Merry Christmas!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment