If there’s one thing writer and directorShane Blackis known for most, it’s his trademark violent movies. Said violence, however, has always had a backdrop of sleet to it. In no less than five of his nine feature films where he is credited as screenwriter, his movies have beenset at Christmas.
Hollywood (and to a far lesser extentthe Hallmark film company) has taught us that Christmas is a time of quite literal magic and wonder. Films likeMiracle on 34th StreetandIt’s a Wonderful Lifetell us that a higher power (be that God or Santa Claus) will cover the world in snow and save the day before the credits.
Black’s characters and set-ups distinctly bite back against that ethos. The snow is slushy and covered in blood and machine gun shells. The gleam of baubles and kitsch-quality tinsel is suffocating for his creations.Shane Black’s filmsfeel entrapped by Christmas, his characters put upon as they merely attempt to get through yet another year.
Black Christmas
Known for his law enforcement characters (specifically detectives) inmodern noir settings, cast against the glare and gleam of the holiday season, Black has made a career out of his downbeat Christmas movies.
Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,andThe Nice Guysall focus on detectives — be they with the police force, or private eyes — all solving a mystery and ultimately feeling closer to the world as they bond with their new chalk and cheese partner by the end. Back in 1988, so smitten byLethal Weapon’s December disposition, the action magnum opusDie Hardwould even take inspiration from its snowy settings and wisecracking Christmastime cops, leading to the perennial question, “IsDie Harda Christmas movie?”
Related:The Best Dark or Sad Christmas Movies
Talking toDen of Geekin 2013, Black succinctly expressed the appeal of Christmastime as a setting:
Christmas is fun. It’s unifying, and all your characters are involved in this event that stays within the larger story. It roots it, I think, it grounds everything. At Christmas, lonely people are lonelier, seeing friends and families go by. People take reckoning, [take] stock of where their lives are at Christmas. It just provides a backdrop against which different things can play out, but with one unifying, global heading. I’ve always liked it, especially in thrillers, for some reason. It’s a touch of magic.
As such, his characters exist as an anomaly against the world that we are made to believe. Togetherness, warmth, and eggnog are a far cry from these lone wolves (be it suicidal cops inLethal Weaponor PTSD-ravaged superheroes inIron Man 3), but that’s not to say that the films themselves don’t shy away from Christmas magic entirely.
Stark Reality
Black’s heroes are no different from how Dickens uses hisinA Christmas Carol— for the most part, only replacing Scrooge’s curmudgeonly loathing of all things Christmas with whiskey and a loathing for all things self. If Tony Stark inIron Man 3is Black’s own Ebenezer, then the ghosts reminding him of how important Christmas is come in the form of a little boy named Harley.
Related:Why Iron Man 3 Is a Great Christmas Movie
In the film, Stark is suffering from regular anxiety attacks and at this point presumed dead by the media, along with a busted Iron Man suit (making every iteration of himself effectively deceased). Harley, a young inventor himself, reminds Stark of the child that he used to be and reassures him of the good in humanity, which all sounds very Dickensian.
Not Even a Mouse
In the very first scene ofThe Long Kiss Goodnight, we are introduced to Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) dressed as Mrs. Claus, riding a sleigh in the town parade. Welcomed as an immediate contrast, she reveals to us that she suffers from amnesia and only has the last eight years of her life to recall from. Samantha only becomes “activated” as a sleeper agent when returning from her Christmas party and crashing into a tree, following a road accident with a deer, all whileLet it Snowplays from the car’s stereo.
Adorned in her own Christmas jumper and light-up bauble earrings, her whole life is nothing more than a well-placed lie revealing something much bigger. While Christmas acts as its own character (yes, in the same way that certain cities can do in other movies), at a mere ten minutes into the run time, the holiday is also her inciting incident to lead a life of loneliness as a deadly super spy and discard the new life she has found.
Too Old For This
Meanwhile, inLethal Weapon, hidden in a jungle of Christmas trees for sale, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) toys with a bunch of coke dealers before executing them. In the very next scene, now drunk and alone in his caravan and putting a gun in his mouth, Riggs is the opposite end of the spectrum to his new partner; Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). A family man in his two-story house decorated in lights and a tree, the older detective is more on the route towards his retirement at this point, content with his position in life.
In comparison, as Black said, the desperate and on-the-brink Riggs looks all the worse and all the lonelier through the holidays as he copes on his own. When trying to dissuade a suicidal man off a building ledge, Riggs handcuffs the man and jumps with him, only to plummet to the safety net below. But in that moment, he is feeding his own desires to end his own life.
By the point that the two officers have bonded enough and he is welcomed into Roger’s home, as much as he may joke about Mrs. Murtaugh’s terrible cooking, it’s still probably the best meal he’s eaten in weeks.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
These characters all represent the element that shouldn’t be there during the holidays, and Christmas exacerbates their pains to a whole new and intense level. The lights hurt their eyes. They turn away from the music and sneer at the joy. The temperature drops and the very visible breath we can see as they exhale isn’t an excuse at more life, but a sigh that they’re still here.
But with the love of their unorthodox new families (and a healthy dose of ultra violence), these characters should just about get through Christmas to see New Year.
