Christmas movies for atheists
Cuthbert Thistlethwaite
Christmas time, refer to Christmas in any way, contain Christmas
decorations, etc.
There must be a zillion more. Can any one add to the list?
Invasion USA (Chuck Norris, 1985) Terrorists attack a decorated
neighborhood.
Goodfellas ( Pacino, Pesce, 1990 ) Christmas scene after Lufthansa
heist,
includes "Frosty the Snowman", plus a domestic scene with a flocked xmas
tree, etc.
Godfather ( Michael and Kay shopping just after the attempt to murder
God Father Vito ). Song, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town, etc.
Godfather II: Michael visits Frankie Pantangeli in Frankie's house (
formerly Clemenza's, and then formerly the Godfather's, where Michael
was raised ) after the bedroom shooting episode at Tahoe. There is a
Christmas tree in the house.
The Untouchables
Ness (Costner): "I want to take the battle to him."
Morgan (Connery): "Then Merry Xmas, Mr. Ness."
Die Hard ( Willis, 1988 ) The terrorists attack the Nakatone corporate
Christmas party.
Die Hard II (Bruce Willis) (Christmas decorations in numerous scenes)
Eraser
Due to phrase "not a creature is stirring."
Striking Distance ( Bruce Willis 1993 )
Drunk son of Dennis Farina pounds one down, and says "Merry Christmas"
Trading Places (1983) (Christmas time, plus the wonderful drunk Santa on
the bus by Ackroyd)
LA Confidential
More in the same vein:
Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Force of One, Chuck Norris
Lethal Weapon I
Set at Christmastime:
Gremlins I
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Allan Adler
> List of totally secular, mostly action-oriented movies which are set at
> Christmas time, refer to Christmas in any way, contain Christmas
> decorations, etc.
>
> There must be a zillion more. Can any one add to the list?
The Lion in Winter. Based on a play by the same name by T.S.Eliot.
A touching story of a family spending Christmas together. The family
includes Henry II of England, his wife the legendary Eleanor of
Acquitaine, their son Richard the Lion Hearted, etc. Henry has
been keeping Eleanor (Katherine Hepburn) imprisoned in the Tower
of London because she tried to get her children to overthrow him,
but let her out briefly before locking her up again. This story takes
place while she is still out and the family is celebrating Christmas.
It is a great classic and a welcome change of pace from It's a Wonderful
Life (a good movie if one doesn't see it over and over again). One TV
station in Berkeley, CA, was nice enough to show The Lion in Winter when
I was there one Christmas. Eleanor, before she was married to Henry II
of England, was formerly married to Louis the ?th of France. The marriage
to Louis was annulled on the technical grounds of consanguinity (e.g. their
(great?) grandfathers were cousins and her aunt was his grandmother, or
something like that). She also had a role in causing the 2nd Crusade:
she got Louis involved in her traditional dispute with the Count (?) of
Toulouse, resulting in some people being burned to death at Louis'
hands in a cathedral. Their agonized death cries so afflicted his
conscience that he searched for a way to atone until he finally hit
on the idea of launching another Crusade. She tagged along on part of
the trip. She was also famous for the Courts of Love, where issues about
love could be given a hearing and decisions handed down. Stendhal mentions
them in his book on love. These issues included, "Which is better, to be
in love with someone who is not in love with you or to have someone in
love with you whom you are not in love with?", as well as various complaints
from lovers.
When I was in France, I went to a festival of Marcel Pagnol's films, including
his film Merlusse. I never saw a Pagnol film I didn't like and some are among
my all time favorites, including Topaze. Merlusse is based on his play by
the same name (I think most of his films are). It is a heartwarming story
and enjoyable by anyone, atheist or not. It takes place at Christmas and
Christmas is a factor in the characters but it is quite natural in its
context; it is not Christmas exploitation, per se, but just another of
Pagnol's depictions of the ways people relate to each other. Try to see
it if only to find out what I'm talking about. But also see his other
work: Topaze; La femme du boulanger; La fille du puisatier; Le Schpountz;
a few films based on Cesar, Marius, Angele, Fanny. I don't know if Pagnol
made Le Chateau de ma mere and La gloire de mon pere, but they are based on
his work. Ditto for Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. Since Pagnol
and the other old greats, French movies just aren't the same, although I
did like Les Visiteurs.
Caveat: There were two French versions made of Pagnol's play Topaze. Both
are good. One is directed by Pagnol and has his wife in one of the roles.
There is also a good version in English, under the title, "I like money",
with Peter Sellers. Apparently this has never been made into a video or
digital version. Then there is the execrable English version of Topaze
with John Barrymore, which completely changes the plot and guts Pagnol's
message. Do not see this despicable version except maybe to be reminded of
why you have to read books instead of seeing the movie versions. I've read
Topaze in French and some of Pagnol's other plays, and hope someday to read
them all.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <a...@zurich.csail.mit.edu>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
Paul Ciszek
That movie was a hoot. But then, I was a lot younger, then, too.
I don't know if it has aged well. But it has a 20 year old Phoebe
Cates in it, you can't go wrong there.
I have heard about this, but never rented the movie to check: In the
scene where dad is calling home from the inventor's convention, watch
closely: Supposedly, the Time Machine from the George Pal movie is
there, surrounded by velvet ropes. As dad is on the phone, a chap in
a long scarf and floppy hat gets in the machine. The next time they
cut back to him, the Time Machine is gone.
--
Please reply to: | "One of the hardest parts of my job is to
pciszek at panix dot com | connect Iraq to the War on Terror."
Autoreply is disabled | -- G. W. Bush, 9/7/2006
Cuthbert Thistlethwaite
> The Lion in Winter.
Thank you; I enjoy that movie and had forgotten that it is set during
"Christmas break."
> Merlusse (and others) by Pagnol.
I have nowhere near enough French to see Pagnol, but I'm sure many
others will enjoy the suggestion.
Todd N. Verklarung
referring to Jesus or anything religious. But more to the point for this
group: The characters recite trite dialog about faith vs. reason, sure,
but there's the potential to generate post-viewing reflection about the
use of those same arguments by actual believers. After all, we all know
there's no Santa Claus, right? So if those bromides about faith have
persuaded us for just a few moments into believing something that we
acknowledge in our wakeful hours is a fantasy...
TNV
Allan Adler
I think they might be available with subtitles.
Allan Adler
"Miracle on 34th Street" is typical of we are trying to get away from.
"It's a wonderful life" is actually a nice film. I enjoyed it the first
few times I saw it. But it is enough already and I don't want to ever see
it again.
That aside, your point about the merits of watching "Miracle on 34th
Street" is interesting. It reminds me of Socrates marrying a shrew to
test himself or of flagellants in the plague years. With the same
justification, we would have to listen to sermons, just to be sure we
hadn't missed any fallacies.
Cuthbert Thistlethwaite
> >Gremlins I
> . . . In the
> scene where dad is calling home from the inventor's convention, watch
> closely: Supposedly, the Time Machine from the George Pal movie is
> there, surrounded by velvet ropes. As dad is on the phone, a chap in
> a long scarf and floppy hat gets in the machine. The next time they
> cut back to him, the Time Machine is gone.
You're right. Here's the IMDB trivia page on Gremlins (there's LOTS of
trivia in this movie):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087363/trivia
For my part, I watched "Christmas in Connecticut" which was shown a
couple of times this Christmas.
It's an old-fashioned "madcap" comedy, starring Barbara Stanwyck as the
Martha Stewart of 1946. She was a newspaper writer with a huge
following but she actually made it all up: wasn't married, didn't live
on a tidy farm in Connecticut, didn't have a baby, didn't fetch fresh
eggs every morning, and couldn't boil water. Excellent cast included
Una O'Connor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Hungarian character actor S. Z.
Sakall.
Paul Ciszek
Allan Adler <a...@nestle.csail.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>"It's a wonderful life" is actually a nice film. I enjoyed it the first
>few times I saw it. But it is enough already and I don't want to ever see
>it again.
Has anyone ever made a secular version of "It's a wonderful life" with
time travel instead of religion?
corky
news:476B03EA...@myface.net...
> List of totally secular, mostly action-oriented movies which are set at
> Christmas time, refer to Christmas in any way, contain Christmas
> decorations, etc.
>
> There must be a zillion more. Can any one add to the list?
>
>
> Invasion USA (Chuck Norris, 1985) Terrorists attack a decorated
> neighborhood.
Eyes Wide Shut is the best xmas movie.
axlq
Gag. My wife fell asleep about 45 minutes into it, and I had a hard
time staying awake through the whole thing. Snore...
The only movie we watched around Christmas this year was The Last
Samurai. Oh, and I watched the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas
DVD with a friend.
-A
Allan Adler
>For my part, I watched "Christmas in Connecticut" which was shown a
>couple of times this Christmas.
>It's an old-fashioned "madcap" comedy, starring Barbara Stanwyck as the
>Martha Stewart of 1946. She was a newspaper writer with a huge
>following but she actually made it all up: wasn't married, didn't live
>on a tidy farm in Connecticut, didn't have a baby, didn't fetch fresh
>eggs every morning, and couldn't boil water. Excellent cast included
>Una O'Connor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Hungarian character actor S. Z.
>Sakall.
On this recommendation, I got it out and watched it. Pretty good, especially
S.Z.Sakall.