Naughty but nice...
There are those who hate Christmas movies and all they stand for. In 2004 they
received a panacea and a Christmas present to boot: Bad Santa.
It remains a film unsurpassed in its irreverence towards (and lowbrow take on)
one of the most-loved icons in Western folklore: Father Christmas.
Bad Santa is one bad man. So delighted – and shocked - was I when I saw this
film I wrote in my review:
“Just how bad can a Bad Santa be? Does he simply neglect his reindeer, deliver
toys late to sleeping youngsters, eat a bit too much Christmas cake and refuse
to answer letters addressed to the North pole?”
No fear. I went on…
“If Bad Santa was another Christmas movie you might be onto something. But this
is a) no ordinary Christmas flick, and b) no kids' movie... This Bad Santa is
very, very bad. He drinks, he swears, he sleeps around and on top of that, he's
a career-grade safecracker.”
Bad Santa is directed by one of cinema’s most “celebrated misanthropes” Terry
Zwigoff, (Crumb, Ghost World and the underrated Art School Confidential).
Zwigoff cannily – and perfectly - cast Billy Bob Thornton as his “Bad Boy
Santa” lead. Thornton makes an excellent corrupt department store Santa with a
safe-cracking business on the side. He’s belligerent, itinerant, and an
abusive, womanizing drunk. And it is perfectly sweet irony that when his scam
goes wrong Bad Santa is forced to take refuge with a Good Boy, a gorgeous sweet
albeit pathologically picked on 8 year-old boy who loves the very bones of this
very bad man.
More review:
“Bad Santa has no 'off' switch, it just doesn't let up with the profanity,
shocks and laughs. It is a unique 'equal opportunity offender' bound to insult
anyone and everyone, from mums and dads, Family Action Groups, Church-Goers,
and everyone in between.”
No cow is too sacred.
Bad Santa is also a very smart film with a deep sense of heart and redemption –
though it is kind of buried beneath trash-mouth humor and loads of shock value.
Thornton is a great actor too - he has to be to be able to pull off what
amounts to be a highly complex role. One the one hand he is easily able to
channel the most profane character ever to grace the screen, to evoke a
palpably repulsive reaction in the viewer. In the next however he is just as
able to present his Crim Claus as a damaged individual who can at least see the
grace in others, and try and overcome his shortcomings. In Zwigoff’s upside
down moral universe it kind of makes sense that Bad Santa becomes this kid’s
surrogate father, and teaches him self respect and to stand up for himself.
Seriously.
Thornton has gone on to pretty much repeat the role in other
almost-but-not-quite-as-good movies, Richard Linklater’s very funny 2006 Bad
News Bears remake and last year’s School For Scoundrels (2006).
But it’s a little bit like waiting for lightning to strike twice in the same
place. Thornton’s performance is unique as is the film. Hopefully Bad Santa
will be remembered as one of the best movies to kick off the ‘noughties’, a
true ‘lowbrow comedy’ classic akin to There’s Something about Mary (1998) or
Clerks (1994). It is a rare seditious triumph - a protest movie about “dud
Christmas flicks”, the commercialization of the West’s holiest time of year and
quite literally one of the wickedest movies of recent times.
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
