The Best Christmas Movie

First we looked at what makes a movie a Christmas movie. Then we talked about a better Christmas movie option. Finally it is time to reveal the best Christmas movie, at least in my opinion, subject to change at a moment’s notice. Again, remember I am no movie expert so consider my perspective extremely uneducated.

Remember I argued that a true Christmas movie does not simply take place on Christmas or have a holiday soundtrack. It has to have a conversion experience, much like a Scrooge or Grinch. But it also has to have the true Christmas message that leads to that conversion, at least in metaphor. Listen, we can’t all be as obvious as Charlie Brown’s Christmas. But it can’t just be the gospel played out in film, otherwise we’d all be watching Star Wars or Gladiator. It has to have all of these things. This is going to be difficult.

For real the best Christmas movie would have to be Charlie Brown’s Christmas. It has the conversion experience, the setting of Christmas, and the clearest Christmas message around, a reading of the Bible. BUT let’s be honest, we’ve all seen it and we’re tired of it. AND the gospel isn’t really modeled in the movie so I will have to point to another.

In fact, I can’t just pick one. So there are two best Christmas movies. Well, there’s a best movie and an honorable mention. First, the one topping many Christmas movie lists (made by men) this year, my honorable mention:

Die Hard

Plot Summary from IMDB:

John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save wife Holly Gennaro and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Let’s zoom out and look at how this film fits the bill.

Setting

The film is set in an LA office building during a Christmas party, so that’s covered. The soundtrack even has Christmas songs in it. I’m sold.

Conversion Experience

The beginning of the film has Holly Gennero, McClane’s ex-wife, and our hero in an argument about her switching back to her maiden name. They were in a covenant relationship but that was broken and now they are divorced. The bride will not come back to the groom unless the groom does something to win her back. The end of the film has Holly and McClane taking off in a limo together, a reunited couple, at least for now.

It’s not exactly a Scrooge moment, but it’s a conversion nonetheless. There was a Fall-out in the past and a covenant was broken. In order for there to be reconciliation McClane has to do the work of redemption and win back his beloved. OK, the analogy is a bit slippery, but let’s go with it.

Message of Christmas

John McClane, the Christ figure… (cough) I hope nobody is offended by this please don’t take it too seriously… McClane is faced with the enemy, a group of German terrorists headed by the evil Alan Rickman, aka Hans Gruber. Gruber is a mastermind and he would outgun and outmaneuver any force, except one man.

McClane, of unknown origin, is an off-duty NYC cop. The on-duty cops are all outside and unable to take down the enemy. No matter how much we love Reginald VelJohnson from Family Matters, he’s no match for Gruber. The law has failed to redeem the hostages. In fact, the law has increased the trespass.

McClane rather has come to fulfill the law, at least what the law is supposed to do. When the SWAT team is called, Carl Winslow tries to get them to stop, the law in part pointing to McClane as the answer. Those living under the law do not listen and are unsuccessful at defeating the enemy or even gaining a foothold. They would have been saved if they had only heeded the word of the prophet, Carl Winslow, I mean VelJohnson, as he pointed to their savior. If they had only put their trust in him… but McClane still works to protect them, even those who don’t believe in him. We’ll call this “common grace”.

Vastly out-manned and outgunned McClane eventually defeats the great enemy at great risk of his own life. His victory is then imputed to all the survivors, no matter their ineptitude throughout the movie. His blood, sweat, and tears (actually no tears, Bruce Willis had them surgically removed at the age of 11) bought the freedom of the occupants of Nakatomi Plaza, the citizens of Los Angeles, and even the whole world. Freedom from the enemy that is Alan Rickman. (If only we were free from the look on his face as he fell out the window in slow motion.)

Hey, Die Hard’s not a perfect Christmas movie, but I think the average American man can stand to watch it more often than Charlie Brown’s Christmas. And every time we watch it we see a man risking his life to defeat the great enemy and save his people.

But this movie is just the honorable mention. Check out the reel winner, ha.