Lethal Weapon is the heartwarming festive tale of the seriously depressed and suicidal widower, Riggs, who is transferred from Narcotics to Homicide in the hope that this will help him calm down. Because there's nothing like being exposed to murders to help you get over the death of a loved one apparently. Happily his new partner Murtaugh is a stabilising influence: even if you've never seen so much as a trailer for Lethal Weapon you'll know him as the guy who's getting too old for this sh*t. So you know, not actually that heartwarming or festive. As with Iron Man 3, Lethal Weapon deconstructs Christmas by showing it as a difficult time of year for people already suffering with mental illnesses and depression. Lethal Weapon goes several steps further by showing Riggs as contemplating suicide with a loaded gun in his mouth while watching a cartoon Christmas special, a pretty stark reminder that the holidays are not happy for everyone. He finds a surrogate family in Murtaugh (they also bust an illegal prostitution ring) and gives him a present that is at once incredibly dark and oddly hopeful: the un-fired bullet he was planning on using to kill himself. Like most of the movies on this list, Lethal Weapon is a long way from being feelgood Christmas viewing but I think it's important to acknowledge a different side of Christmas to the carefully secular tributes to peace, goodwill and commercialism that we tend to think of as Christmas movies. Lethal Weapon (and possibly Iron Man 3) are very close to being Christmas movies because they do explore a side of Christmas, even if it's not the side of Christmas that we like to think about over sherry and mince pies. Do we have the right to define what is and isn't a Christmas movie defined purely on whether we like its message? I'm inclined to say no. But a huge part of Christmas is the desire to keep it as magical and unproblematic as possible for younger relatives. So, what do you think? Are any of these movies Christmas movies? Let me know in the comments.
Kate Taylor has a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing and an MRes in Creative Writing. Her nonfiction, reviews and other articles have appeared on Cuckoo Review and Mookychick as well as WhatCulture. Her fiction has been published in Luna Station Quarterly, Eternal Haunted Summer and in anthologies by Paizo and Northumbria University Press. She is 23 and lives in the North of England.
