Monday 12 December 2011

Die Hard: Not An Xmas Film

Las Ketchup had a song out in the summer of 2002 which was forever on the music video stations and a few years later, in the best Christmas tradition, they threw a few jingle bells into it, reshot the video in winter and called it a Christmas song.
Now a few jingle bells does not a Christmas song make, especially not one that you last heard while sweltering in 32C heat with your face covered in after-sun and the same goes for Christmas films.
When i think of Christmas films, my mind turns to the like of A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. Feel good films with a happy ending and the vital ingredient of being Christmassy and not people with machine guns throwing other people from the top floor of a building.
Possibly in the directors cut of Wonderful Life, a heavily armed George Bailey runs amok in Bedford Falls after international terrorists take over the Savings and Loan, but its unlikely so how does Die Hard qualify as a Christmas film in most Top Christmas Films Google searches?
I concede that it is set on Christmas Eve and at one point a dead terrorist turns up in an elevator wearing a Santa Hat but a Christmas film? Nah.
Most importantly, it came out in July and I don't need to check my Cagney & Lacey calendar from 1988 to know that even back then July was not generally associated with Christmas.
Adding a jingle bell to a song does not make a song a Christmas song as tagging Dean Martin warbling about letting it snow at the end of the film does not make it into a Christmas film. Yippie Ki Yay Mother Christmas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We used to call it Gagme and Spacey...

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