Shane Black has a thing for Christmas. In his first film, Lethal Weapon (which he wrote, Richard Donner directed), he also uses the winter holidays as background for movies plot a trend he would continue not only with the aforementioned Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, but also The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight (neither included on the list, sorry). The Christmas-themed touches in Lethal Weapon include the Jingle Bell Rock opening, the Christmas Tree-lined drug bust, a Bugs Bunny Christmas special playing on TV as Riggs first contemplates suicide, and the touching closing scene where Riggs, spending the holidays with the Murtaughs, gives his new partner the symbolic gift of the bullet he had been saving to kill himself with but now no longer needs (aww).
18. Brazil (1985)
The retro-futuristic set design of Terry Gilliams sci-fi fantasy film is bathed in muted colors and run-down industrial décor, a drab feature which only makes the sparse Christmas decorations sprinkled throughout the film stand out even more. The Orwellian-like film mainly uses the supposed season of giving and goodwill as a way to comment on the rampant greed and consumerism of the films characters and the actual decade in which the film was made (the 1980s).
Chris lives in New Orleans. He writes for several local publications and national websites - mostly about film, television, books, music, food, special events, and pop culture. Since writing unfortunately never pays much, he pays the bills with his day job in marketing.
