Sorry to leave you hanging before getting onto the utterly-must-see-doesn't-matter-if-it's-3am-I'm gonna-watch-it-and-every-time-I-drop-off-I-will-wake-and-rewind-the-bit-I've-missed (that is really what I call them) but the previous post was becoming a bit of a monster so it was time to make a lovely blogpost split (mmmmm, delicious!).
White Christmas
For some, the definitive Christmas movie; and I am not going to argue with them! (Now, anyone who says that 'Scrooged' with Bill Murray is the definitive Christmas movie I am sorry but I am going to have to grab you, carry you out the back and beat the crap out of you!). It may not be the first film to feature the title song (see last post) but the unlikely yet inspired pairing of Danny Kaye and - again! - Bing Crosby leaves its earlier counterpart very much in the shade.
In my book (metaphorical), for a film to be classed as 'good' it usually contains great songs, great lyrics (Irving Berlin....genius), a great story, a great script with some funny one-liners, great dancing; White Christmas elevates itself beyond this in the fact that it effortlessly ticks all of these boxes. Kaye's unique talent of being equally comfortable dancing as singing turn numbers like 'The Best Things Happen While You Dance' ('even guys with two left feet come out alright if the girl is sweet') into an utter joy, and likewise Crosby's unequalled crooning makes a pretty song such as 'Count Your Blessings' ('when I'm worried, and I can't sleep; I count my blessings instead of sheep' which incidentally I do by the way, and it really works!) into a song of true love, not to mention true wisdom.
Even if the White Christmas experience were limited to a collection of song and dance it would still be worthy of a place in my Christmas DVD collection, but interweaving them within a fantastic, festive story of friendship, hope, kindness, joy and love (if you haven't noticed a pattern in my films yet you really are a bit daft aintcha!?) leave me once again snivelling into my hanky. Now, usually I finish off with a line from the movie; the trouble is there are so many to choose from......!
'.....My dear partner, when what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting whatever it is you've got left.....'
okay, one more.......
'.....I'm not the marrying kind!'
'So what kind are you then??!'
'Well, I'm, uh, more the 'I-don't-mind-pushing-my-best-friend-into-but-I'm-scared-stiff-when-I-get-anywhere-close-to-it-myselfing' kind!'
I could go on, but instead I will leave you to discover it yourself; much more enjoyable that way!
Scrooge
This is the definitive Christmas movie starring Bill Murray.
......just kidding......
The good news is that I can't really spoil this story, as surely everyone knows the Dickens classic of 'A Christmas Carol'. Cratchit, Tiny Tim, Fan, Alice, ghosts of Christmasses past, present and yet to come? If this isn't ringing any bells then do yourself a favour; get up, go to the shops and buy this film on DVD immediately. The story is so classic you can't go wrong with any of its many, many film interpretations (Muppetts, and.......oh go on, even Bill Murray if you must) but without doubt the ultimate version of the Scrooge story is with Alistair Sim in the title role.
Yes it's in black and white, and yes, special effects which in 1951 were as jaw-dropping as Jurassic Park was to us are now looking extremely dated; but that's the thing about old movies, they rely totally and completely on their story, and their actors; and you can't get any better than Dickens and Sim.
Any of us that does a good deed for someone else understands it; the doer does not have to hang around for thanks, the deed itself is reward enough; it feeds the soul. Shakespeare understood it too....
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blessed.
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes
What we witness while watching 'Scrooge' is a man who learns this simple truth. His initial motivation for doing good is selfish - to avoid the fate that the truly chilling ghost of Christmas yet to come shows him - but in an instant he starts to realise that it feels good, to do good. What a quite beautiful sentiment to build a story around don't you think?
'....can you forgive a pig-headed old fool for having no eyes to see with, no ears to hear with, all these years?'
It's a Wonderful Life
Yes, saving the best for last.......
What can I say about this movie? Words are failing me (for once). If I was forced to include Christmas films in my top five, this would have to be number one.
Meet George Bailey; the most extraordinary ordinary man of all time. He was born, he grew up, he moved into the family's struggling business, he fell in love, he got married, he bought a house, he had four children. Pretty boring huh? Well, George himself certainly thought so. All through his life, he had dreams; dreams of a full education, of seeing the world, of a career away from Bedford Falls......
'I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long'
He never did any of that. At every dream-fulfilling crossroads something came along which forced him to sacrifice his dreams for the benefit of others. He never leaves Bedford Falls, and the family business is the only career he ever knows. For George, he equates falling short of these ambitions, with life failure. As the trials and tribulations put before him become more and more brutal, he starts to think the unthinkable; that his existence on this earth from beginning to end has been so utterly worthless, and that life would be better without him, or worse still, that the whole world would be a better place if he had never been born.
Just imagine that for a moment before we continue..........horrible isn't it?
Right at the moment when he needs it most, he gets help in the unlikely form of a wingless guardian angel. He brings George a heavenly gift. Clarence Odbody (AS2; angel, second class) allows him to see what the world would be like if he had never existed. His town, his house, his friends, his mother, his wife, his little brother, his non-existent children, all changed, for one reason, and one reason only; that the influence of one man's life has been completely removed from existence.
I don't think there is anyone who would not be tempted by this; scary though the prospect might be, wouldn't we all like to see what would have happened to our friends, our family, the world, if we had never been around to influence them? Would they have been better off? worse? or would the extraction of your life be no more than a blip on the universe? Frustratingly it is something we will never know. I equate it to being stuck in motorway traffic and trying a longer diversion to get home quicker; you will just never know if you would have been better off staying put. No matter how much some people might say they don't care, it surely is a question which taps into all our psyches.
So what happens after George Bailey gets a glimpse of a George Baileyless world? Look, I've spoiled too much already; all I will urge you to do is watch it; ride it out. Get through the stomach-churning drama of grief, desperation and wrath, and I promise you it will be worth it. Oh, and don't forget your hankies......lots.......and lots........of hankies.......
'Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?'
Okay, not so lost for words after all!!!!
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