None of those films are about the birth of Jesus Christ, therefore they are Christmasy films and not a Christmas movie ;). See this can be peeled in many different ways.
Al Leong, mentioned in the post I am quoting, is remembered by many as Genghis Khan, in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Fiddlesticks. I am certainly NOT trolling. I do not just believe it is a Christmas film, it IS a Christmas fim.
Modhat: You just accused about half the posters in this thread of trolling. Do not do this again. This is a long running Café thread, not a pit thread.
Oh, and I’m one of those posters not trolling that consider Die Hard a great Christmas movie.
Perhaps the 4th but still unlikely. It is rare for a large building like that housing a large financial company to be so empty at any time. A weekend or ordinary holiday wouldn’t do it, there would still be plenty of people at work around the clock, and plenty of security since the building is open, people would be busy cleaning as well. This was not some corner store.
This isn’t directed to any poster here, sorry about the confusion. That was directed at the link from Stephen Follows, posted upstream, where he “proves” it is a Christmas movie due to “popular culture”.
We all admit that some people like to answer polls in insincere ways, yes? Just for the LoLs?
The actual issue is defining “what is a Christmas movie?”
If you define it as a film set during the holiday season, then yes, this and Wonderful Life qualify.
If you define it as a film all about Christmas, such as Rudolf, the Santa Clause, The Polar Express, White Christmas,Miracle on 34th st, then it isnt.
Sheesh, you seem like one of those guys who doesn’t think Meet Me in St. Louis, Mame, and The Sound of Music aren’t Christmas movies.
And jftr, although I’ve never seen a Die Hard franchise film, I’m sympathetic to the argument that it’s a Christmas movie.
You posting in this thread makes baby Bruce Willis cry.
I’m not TOTALLY without feeling. I liked him in Nancy Drew, The Sixth Sense, and North.
As I type this, Bruce’s Die Hard battery commercial is on TV…
If DH is so obviously to so many a christmas movie, why isn’t Lethal Weapon?
I’ve never seen It’s A Wonderful Life, but I always imagined it as broadly similar to A Christmas Carol, in that they show what life could be like if things continue the way things are going. In that sense, Christmas is the logical setting, and arguably makes it more of a Christmas movie than Die Hard, which has nothing Christmassy in it beyond superficial prop elements.
Here. Disabuse yourself of that notion in five minutes or less.
It is. Gary Busey even shouts “It’s Christmas!” as he shoots a television.
One of the main plot points is that the people at the party are “The only ones left in the building”, which allows Gruber et al. to control them so effectively. There aren’t too many other days in the year other than Christmas Eve that an entire office tower would be entirely empty but for a big office party.
In my experience, that doesn’t happen nearly as often as people leaving early on Christmas Eve. And it certainly doesn’t include big parties happening in the building. “Fourth of July Eve” isn’t really a thing, and the big parties on July 4th itself don’t happen at work.
It is. And a viewing of Lethal Weapon is very much an entrenched Christmas tradition in the Siam_Sam household.
Well, consider the answers above. The Christmas party of DH is an integral part of the plot. The whole robbery wouldn’t work if the senior staff members weren’t in the building, without anyone else being in the build at the same time, and that situation is largely unique to a Christmas Eve setting.
Also, the events of Die Hard all occur on Christmas Eve. In terms of the movie’s timeline, it’s much more compressed than Lethal Weapon.
The plot of Lethal Weapon (cops taking down a drug ring) could happen any day of the year, and the movie itself takes place over at least a few days, some of which just happen to be around Christmas. While Christmas informs the setting, it’s not essential to the setting or the plot.
I think the movie would have a very different feel if it were not set at Christmas, so different that it would be a different film altogether.