Santa’s In The Air And The Sap Is Running
The Washington Post points out that despite the hard boiled, bah humbug attitudes many people affect at Christmas time, the mushy, sentimental films and television shows that are played over and over each year continue to gather astonishingly large audiences. Year after year.
On Friday, the American Film Institute will begin its Christmas Classics series, with repeated showings of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story." The recent ABC telecast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" won its time slot — and not just among children, but among adults as well. "Shrek the Halls" had nearly 21 million viewers. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" had almost 19 million.
These holiday standbys poke through the tough exterior, past the belligerent blogger in us all, to tap into the warm, mushy core that people try to deny. Viewers simply cannot turn their backs on Charlie and the Grinch. Each year, audiences return to Bedford Falls to be reminded, just like George Bailey, that lives led with simple kindness and good intentions can have significant influence. They want to encourage Ralphie Parker as he makes his pitch — to his teacher, to his parents, to Santa Claus himself — for a Red Ryder BB gun.
Every Christmas, people return to the sap.
The draw, to some degree, must be attributed to habit. It's what they do every year, just as they might bake the same cookies, hang the lights in precisely the same way and put the Christmas tree in its usual location. But television and movie traditions offer a kind of continuity and reassurance that other traditions can't. The cookies burn. The lights break. The pine needles start falling off the tree too soon. But the Grinch and his little dog remain the same.
The Christmas classics are a special kind of entertainment. They're available only for a short time. They are both familiar and rare. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is TV's equivalent of a good tomato: a true seasonal affair.
The story lines that made viewers turn teary-eyed the first 10 times they saw these Christmas classics will most likely continue to do so. They strum a chord that is ignored or denied all year long. We are not as detached and cynical as we would like to think. We are not as angry.
I dunno how true that is, I personally would not watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or A Charlie Brown Christmas at gunpoint. Well, okay, I would, but I wouldn't enjoy it. But that may be because, for years, those were the only thing to watch at Christmas! They have a short compilation of clips from some of the classics.
By feeblemind, December 9, 2007 @ 9:09 am
I will step up and defend A Charlie Brown Christmas. It is worth watching if for no other reason than to see Linus quoting scripture when explaining to Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas. That scene is the highlight of the show and is well done, in my opinion. Amazing that someone would say that they would have to be held at gunpoint to watch that. It’s a scene that would likely get censored out of a modern Christmas special.
By Maggie, December 9, 2007 @ 9:38 am
I personally would not watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or A Charlie Brown Christmas at gunpoint. Well, okay, I would, but I wouldn’t enjoy it.
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Awww, Gaius …
Does somebody need a choo-choo??
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zScm2X3S2AM
By Mwalimu Daudi, December 9, 2007 @ 11:06 am
I think that the Washington Post got it flatly wrong. Given the current flood of PC-saturated movies and TV shows that Hollywood is trying to shove down our throats, it is not surprising that older, non-PC stuff is being watched over and over again. Or is there anyone who would seriously argue that Rendition, Fahrenheit 911, Lions for Lambs, The Golden Compass and the rest will be seen by anyone other than historians studying the bizarre leftist paranoia that cast such a shadow over the first decade of the 21st century?
In the former Soviet Union people would ask foreigners for any outside newspapers and magazines. These would be read and re-read for years. Our MSM is heavily invested in secular-oriented groupthink (just as the Soviet Union was), and most people are yearning for any relief from this drab and dreary worldview.