Heroes join the parties
Remember that we previously emphasized that action was descended from adventure and thriller? Well, an important part of this legacy includes the holiday interest. There are only two antecedents, but both are fundamental to this development and are also well known to all: 007: At the service of his majesty (1969) and The three days of the condor (1975). Do not expect signs of happiness, spirituality, or love of neighbor, but mature reflections about life, death, the past and the future. A notion that is strengthened by the presence of tragic characters, such as the first James Bond who loses a love interest on his mission and an individual who desperately seeks answers after the mysterious murder of all his office staff.
This background, ignored by so many to this day, did not go unnoticed by Shane Black, the creative who has best understood the narrative possibilities of the combination. “Christmas represents a small stutter in the march of days, a silence in which we have the opportunity to retrospectively evaluate our lives”, explained at the time to EW. “I also tend to think that it only reports as a backdrop. The first time I realized it was The Three Days of the Condor, Sydney Pollack’s movie, where Christmas in the background adds this really weird and chilling counterpoint to the espionage plot. I also think that Christmas is just a beautiful thing, especially in places like Los Angeles, where it’s not so obvious and you have to look for it, like little nuggets. One night, on Christmas Eve, I passed by a Mexican wagon that served tacos, and I saw this little rope and in it there was a broken plastic figurine, with a light bulb inside of the Virgin Mary. And I thought that was just a little piece of hidden magic. You know, all over town there are little chunks, little Christmas icons, that are as effective and beautiful in and of themselves as any 40-foot Christmas tree on the White House lawn. So that, in many words, is the answer ”.
And few have embodied these unusual bits of magic with such skill. After all, it is easy to connect Christmas with trees, gifts and that cute fat man in red, but where are all those lonely people who have lost someone? Not for nothing do suicide rates increase dramatically on these dates. Deadly Weapon delves into the subject with a plot set in the middle of December that introduces us to Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), a detective who flirts with the possibility of taking his own life after the loss of his wife and who only finds joy again with his partner Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) become his new family.
Not to mention the humorous possibilities, which in good hands give exquisite doses of black humor and multiple spikes of adrenaline for an audience that does not know what to expect. Such is the case of Explosive Memory, with an amnesiac and very Christmas Samantha Caine (Geena Davis), who is convinced that she is a chef until she is discovered using her knives to stab in the head an individual who attacks her family. Definitely a very unusual dinner.
Although of course, if there is a movie that perfected the art of mixing action and Christmas, it is the aforementioned Hard to Kill. The film introduces us to a broken couple who only find their way again when he, a policeman obsessed with his work, must rescue his wife taken hostage by a group of dangerous terrorists. A spectacular plot that made Bruce Willis an indispensable pillar of the genre, but also the portrait of a man who only discovers the value of his family when he is about to lose it. Messages that do not neglect the black humor embodied in the corpse of a hitman decorated with a Christmas hat and with the mythical phrase “Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho”.