Merry Christmas! I’m sitting on my sofa on Christmas Day writing this as I watch Nicholas Ray’s 1961 Biblical epic King of Kings, which looks very crisp and shiny on BBC IPlayer.
I started thinking about Christmas and movie traditions. Do you watch a lot of films on the big day? Certainly since I got married and spend the big day with the in-laws, I tend not to anymore. I pack them in around the Christmas week before and after so I have no issue with this—Christmas Day is all about presents and lunch after all—but I wonder how many people do make films a staple of the main day.
I discussed this recently on the Christmas episode of my podcast The Discourse (out every week with my mate Carl Sweeney), but I don’t necessarily have Christmas movie traditions. If and when I have a child in the near future, my plan is certainly to change this. I’m sure the child will end up dictating the choices but The Muppet Christmas Carol (which I watched yesterday of course) will feature if I get my way.
The Christmas period has traditionally been geared around catching up on pictures missed during the year if anything. The other day I watched The Banshees of Inisherin (thanks Disney Plus), which instantly shot into my top three films of 2022. Yesterday, I caught Sonic the Hedgehog 2 which… didn’t… (to be fair it was fine, quite fun). So it feels as much a period designed for packing in as many films during time off work as possible, Christmas themed or not.
That said, I’ve found myself intentionally steering clear of anything too weird or heavy over the last few days. I’ve sought out movies with if not a festive flavour then a lightness of touch. The Duke, for example, the last movie from Roger Michell a couple of years ago, made for enjoyable afternoon viewing while wrapping presents yesterday. I’ve even steered clear of my usual surfeit of podcasts on politics & current affairs in the last few days. Who needs to be hearing about Trump or getting angry at the government ignoring strikers when we’re supposed to be enjoying the few days of the year where we allow ourselves to relax & just be nice to each other?
So today I sit here, with a sleepy dog next to me after a big morning walk, intentionally avoiding snacks as I await what I know will be a tremendous Christmas lunch in a few hours, watching among the most traditional Biblical Hollywood epics at the end of the Golden Age of American cinema. I’m not remotely religious yet I find these old Biblical movies fascinating artefacts as they spend lavish budgets quite literally adapting the Bible’s mythical tales. There’s no nuance here. They’re as straight backed as they come.
King of Kings is definitely in that mould. You’d think casting future brief Enterprise Captain Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus & Robert Ryan as John the Baptist would require a tongue in cheek, but none such is in evidence in Ray’s film. We’re meant to be swept along with the story of Christ and hiss at nasty Herod (a very hammy Frank Thring) and boo at all those horrible Romans. It’s quite arch and stolid but wonderfully of its time, and with a fabulous Miklos Rozsa score to boot. You can see why films such of this remain on permanent rotation on broadcast television at this time of year, even in a secular country such as the U.K. They’re also timeless in the stories and parables they tell with the straightest of faces.
Anyhow, Christmas duties await. Maybe I can convince the family to watch Knives Out or the sequel Glass Onion later (maybe both!). Whatever you watch, or don’t watch, today, here’s me raising a glass to your health and wishing you the happiest of Christmases.