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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat makes a compelling Christmas movie\u2014the season, the music, the characters? Maybe it is something else entirely.<\/p>\n
The question of what makes a movie ideal for Christmas, the day we commemorate and celebrate Jesus\u2019 birth, is subjective. It often depends completely on the audience\u2014among my Facebook friends, for instance, the 1988 thriller Die Hard came out as an unlikely favorite when I recently posted this question. But come to think of it, John McTiernan\u2019s action movie starring Bruce Willis has all the right elements: It starts at a Christmas party and includes danger, a pregnant woman, bad guys, reconciliation, a savior, and a happy ending. And it\u2019s really violent. If you make a case that Jesus was born amidst peril and violence, Die Hard might be the best Christmas film for you. Personally I prefer strong but less abrasive movies.<\/p>\n
One way to approach your Christmas movie selection is to look to the Sunday readings and responsorial psalms of Advent as a guide. For year B, week one offers the prayer \u201cShow us your love, show us your salvation, Lord\u201d and commands us to \u201cbe ready\u201d following the end-times readings of the weeks leading up to Advent. This makes me think of one of my favorite films, Chris and Paul Weitz\u2019s 2002 comedy, About a Boy. The story, which is bookended by Christmas, demands that a stingy, narcissistic bachelor get ready to show love in a way that creates a family made from strangers.<\/p>\n
Week two of Advent tells us to \u201cPrepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths\u201d (Mark 1:3). Although it ends with a passage from Luke\u2019s gospel, what better film is there in the world than 1965\u2019s animated A Charlie Brown Christmas to help us make straight the paths by refusing the consumerism of December? The Christmas classic leads us straight to the manger\u2014and a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.<\/p>\n
The third week of Advent in year C focuses on generosity and sharing. The gospel reading of Luke 3:10-18 calls to mind Peter Weir\u2019s 1983 political thriller, The Year of Living Dangerously. In the face of great evil at a time of social and political injustice in Indonesia in the 1960s, the story is driven by this scripture passage, asking, \u201cWhat then are we to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
The final week of Advent in year B follows the theme of \u201clet us see your face\u201d with the gospel of the annunciation evoking images of service to God and others. The first movie this draws to mind for me is Xavier Beauvois\u2019 2011 film, Of Gods and Men. Based on a true story, it follows a group of Trappist monks in Algeria who must decide whether to stay or to go when threatened by opposing sides in the country\u2019s civil war. They see the face of Christ in both the people of the village and in those who threaten them and choose to stay. You may not think that the theme music from Tchaikovsky\u2019s Swan Lake is Christmassy, but this film may change your mind.<\/p>\n
Looking beyond the Advent readings, plenty of movies have underlying themes that are a perfect fit for the Christmas season. Take for example Millions, director Danny Boyle\u2019s 2004 challenge to Christmas consumerism. The film is filled with gospel-like characters, including a little boy named Damian whose mother has recently died. He has visits from the saints and quarrels with his brother about how to spend a lot of cash that has come their way in the run-up to Christmas. Note to concerned parents: The scene with the boys looking at a lingerie catalog on the Internet seems that it\u2019s leading to no good, but it turns into a gentle and tender lesson between children about a mother\u2019s milk.<\/p>\n
Babette\u2019s Feast, purportedly Pope Francis\u2019 favorite film, is director Gabriel Axel\u2019s 1988 cinematic interpretation of Isak Dinesen\u2019s novel. It tells the story of a French chef who spends everything she has to create an unforgettable meal for the members of a religious sect off Denmark\u2019s northern coast in the late 1800s. Babette, a refugee, chooses to become a handmaiden and serves with joy. It is a winter\u2019s tale that takes place on December 15, the anniversary of the death of the community\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n
I hesitate to suggest a film about war for Christmas\u2014in fact, I would like to nominate Advent and Christmas as conflict-free entertainment zones\u2014but avoiding violence at Christmas would be more unrealistic than some of the supersentimental films people in the West seem to enjoy this time of year. If I were to pick a Christmas war film, it would be Joyeux No\u00ebl, the 2005 Oscar-winning film about unofficial cease-fires that occurred along the Western Front in Europe at Christmas in 1914. The film focuses on French, German, and Scottish soldiers who created a no-man\u2019s-land on the battlefield and played soccer on Christmas Day. The gesture showed they were but lads, after all, who on the morrow would continue killing one another. Does the film show hope, or the failure of humanity to internalize the Christmas message? It\u2019s a tough call when war is so acceptable and going to war is as normal as another day at the office.<\/p>\n
Black Nativity is Kasi Lemmons\u2019 2013 musical interpretation of Langston Hughes\u2019 1961 play of the same name. It didn\u2019t do so well in theaters, but I enjoyed it. It is an imaginative and creative, modern telling of the Christmas story about an African American teenager and his mother who are evicted from their home in Baltimore just before Christmas. The teen goes to New York to live with grandparents he has never known, and he starts to search for a father he has never met. It has a great cast led by Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Tyrese Gibson, Jennifer Hudson, and Mary J. Blige.<\/p>\n
Some people might think Paul Haggis\u2019 Oscar-winning 2004 film Crash is a crime drama rather than a Christmas film, and it is. But it takes place at Christmastime, with the visual motifs creating the landscape, from lights and trees to It\u2019s a Wonderful Life on a theater marquee. The interwoven stories create the ultimate Christmas-themed story: fear overcome by trust, racial hate overcome by kindness and fast-thinking, the abuse of power overcome by extreme forgiveness, and a child leading them. Crash is one of my favorite Christmas movies\u2014with the confrontation between crime and Christmas constantly in motion.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for a great Christmas movie, there are of course the usual suspects. The sisters of my community remind me that \u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0CLICK HERE to continue reading<\/a> at\u00a0US Catholic, December 2014<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 What makes a compelling Christmas movie\u2014the season, the music, the characters? Maybe it is something else entirely. The question of what makes a movie ideal for Christmas, the day we commemorate and celebrate Jesus\u2019 birth, is subjective. It often depends completely on the audience\u2014among my Facebook friends, for instance, the 1988 thriller Die Hard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3288,4,2030,17,2323],"tags":[4511,4513,4512,2024,3511,4514,3516,4515,2126,4516,3512,2131,4517],"class_list":["post-6743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adolescent","category-adult-faith-formation","category-analysis","category-commerntary","category-faith-and-film-2","tag-advent-movies","tag-advent-readings-and-film","tag-avent-liturgy","tag-babettes-feast","tag-black-nativity","tag-charlie-brown-christmas","tag-christmas-movies","tag-crash","tag-danny-boyle","tag-joyeaux-noel","tag-langston-hughes","tag-millions","tag-popes-favorite-film"],"yoast_head":"\n
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