Something off the beaten track...

The plot of the movie is deceptively simple. A con man and his team dress up as Santa and his elf helper and then rob the department store they work at. Then they move on, until the season is over. Repeat next year.

The guy, who pretends to be Santa, is a slob, with no life direction. At one “gig” he meets two people. One is a bar tender, a woman, who likes him, and falls in love with him. The second is a kid, who comes to him to ask (as Santa) if he will bring him a present. The kid is a bit weird, always picked on, and he can’t seem to really decide on what present he wants. He lives alone with his senile grandmother. The con man decides that if he can go home with this kid, he won’t have to pay for a hotel, and shacks up at the kids house. The kid, thinking of him as Santa, warms to him, even though the con man tries to brush him off. The kid is in need of a father figure, and the con man, seeing that the kid needs guidance, begins to teach the kid various things; how to stand up for himself, etc. The woman, who has fallen in love with the con man, thinks that this is a good thing for the guy, and tells him that he can restart his life and make something out of himself.

The con man decides he can’t go through with the robbery, that for the first time in his life, he will settle down, see what he can do about the kid (who, as I recall, has basically been abandoned) and marry the girl, basically set his life back on track.

However, his partner says he has to go through with the job. While doing so, they are busted, and in the midst of some confusion, the con man grabs the present the kid wanted, and runs out, jumps in his car, and leads a chase back to the kids house, where he is shot as he tries to run up the steps. The movie ends with a narration, he is alive, and has decided to take care of the kid, but is in prison for a year (I think) and so the woman (who I believe he already married, but I am not sure) is taking care of him for the time being.

This seems like a heartwarming Christmas story, and it is. It is more about the true meaning of Christmas than most other films (such as Christmas with the Kranks, see Roger Ebert’s review). The true meaning is relationships, that you can start over and be forgiven, so to speak, that the best present isn’t the one that costs a lot of money and is the biggest, it is the one that requires sacrifice, and is truly heartfelt.

However, the movie that this plot belongs to has raised the ire of Christians, conservatives and even some liberals.

The movie is Bad Santa.

Now, I will be the first to say that a movie with A LOT of language and some pretty coarse scenes (though no nudity) is not the greatest thing to see. And, frankly, I don’t encourage anyone to see this film because of that fact. BUT… I take issue with the reason most people have given for despising the film.

Bad Santa was universally reviled because it made Santa look like a drunken slob, ruining the image kids have of him.

First of all, the guy isn’t Santa, that is the point. He is faking being Santa, as a con artist (and this scheme actually looks like it would workJ) and not very well.

But, even if he WAS Santa, what is the big deal? Santa is a fabrication, a mixture of St. Nicholas and other ideas, and he is NOT the real image of Christmas that kids should have. They should think of Jesus Christ’s birth. The fact is, most parents blatantly lie to their kids about there being this guy. If it isn’t right to lie, and lying is saying something is true that isn’t, then saying there is a real Santa is a lie, and therefore it is WRONG. You can explain that this is a nice story, but don’t pass it off as truth… But anyway…

This film, for a certain segment of the population, will really bring home the true meaning of Christmas, of selflessness, of compassion, of duty. These are good things. It may destroy the sanctity of Santa, but maybe that is a good thing. We have become to preoccupied with Santa and the commercial, secular side of Christmas, and have forgotten the true meaning. Again, I am not advocating this film. I have other reasons for not seeing it, but the one most people give is one I think is hypocritical and really just a reaction.

So, before you just dismiss a film, any film, as being to offensive, look at the content. Sometimes it isn’t what you think. Sometimes it will cause you to reevaluate your thoughts, to see something in a different light. Also, be very careful WHY you say you don’t like a film. This film may bring up a conversation with someone who would never talk about these issues. If you simply react and say that you think the image of Santa should be protected, you are compromising YOUR message about Jesus. You don’t have to think Bad Santa is a good film, and you can give you reasons, but see that this person has never talked about these issues. And that is a good thing.