Hot Bloods is back, baby, and this week, it’s all about Tim Allen throwing on the Big Jolly Man’s suit and growing a luxurious beard. This week, we reviewed The Santa Clause (1994), dir. John Pasquin.
Jeremy’s verdict:
I’m really glad we picked The Santa Clause this week. After watching El Camino Christmas, it felt good to give Tim Allen a second run this festive season, and I didn’t regret it. The Santa Clause is a film that I’ve not seen in so long that I barely remember it – and it turns out, it’s really very sweet.
The short of it is this: Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has his son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd) staying for Christmas. Scott hears someone on the roof of his house, investigates, and yells at the man who when surprised, falls off the roof and … dies? The movie jokes that Scott kills Santa, but surely death feels too dark here? Anyway, Santa disappears into thin air, leaving behind a sleigh, reindeer, and a big red suit. Charlie convinces Scott to put the suit on, and in doing so, Scott unknowingly enters into a contract to become the new Santa Claus and deliver presents all around the world.
Refreshingly, Scott’s relationship with his ex-wife, Laura (Wendy Crewson) and her new partner Neal (Judge Reinhold) doesn’t succumb to tired Hollywood tropes. Scott is not overly pessimistic or cynical, nor is he overly antagonistic towards Neal. There is a joke where Neal asks if Santa would beat someone up, in reference to himself, and Scott jokes that he’s not far off doing so – but no physical violence between the two actually occurs. It’s nice to see masculine familial tensions displayed in a way that doesn’t result in one person literally punching the other.
Allen’s quick wit and timing allows his jokes to land in ways that will amuse adults, and I really enjoyed the messages the film conveys. Namely, that others can believe in us all we want, but we have to believe in ourselves before we start to affect real change. And we can’t be selfish with our time – whether it’s the time we expect to spend with others, or the time we expect others to spend with us.
I should add, this is what most would call a “kid’s film”. If you’re a grown adult and can’t deal with that – The Santa Clause might not be for you. But I think the nature of Christmas films is that they’re most often geared towards families and kids. This allows them a degree of whimsy and fantasy. It’s the same fantasy that Scott has to embrace to understand that, yes, he is actually Santa Claus now, and yes, he has to deliver presents, and – yes, he has the capacity to give in a special way that he wasn’t giving before. If you can identify with that feeling, of wanting to give more to those around you, of wanting to spread more love in the world than you currently are, then you might be able to see this as more than just a “kid’s film”. The best Christmas films connect with the parts of us that want to transcend who we currently are, and it’s something The Santa Clause does very well.
So this festive season, forget about genres, set aside your expectations, and give Tim Allen another run. If you need a Christmas film for adults, you can always watch Die Hard later.
4 out of 5 murdered Santas 🎅
Lauren’s verdict:
As the opening credits begin to roll on 1994’s The Santa Clause, I found myself crossing fingers hoping that a re-watch of this family Christmas classic wouldn’t yield a slew of socially questionable jokes that would force me to set fire to the Tim Allen dedication shrine in my bedroom.
But as it turns out, my fear that this re-watch would shatter the nostalgia surrounding one of my favourite childhood films, was completely unfounded. Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, a workaholic toy sales exec, who is granted Christmas Eve with his young son Charlie. Upon finding out his ex-wife, Laura, and her straight-laced, therapist boyfriend Neal have decided to ‘tell Charlie the truth’ about Santa Claus, Scott vehemently refuses to go along with it. Instead he insists Charlie should be encouraged to embrace his imagination.
That night, a loud noise wakes up Scott and Charlie, Scott goes out to find a man standing on his roof. When Scott accidentally startles the man, he plummets to his death, landing in a snow drift on Scott’s front lawn.
At this point, can we just pause to take in the unyielding horror of this situation? Santa falls to his death, presumably breaking his neck on impact, right in front of Scott. Hey kids! This Christmas season be sure to sidle up to a warm, open fire with your loving family and delight in the festive whimsy of… wanton manslaughter?
Charlie encourages his father to don dead Santa’s costume and help deliver presents to all of the good children in the neighbourhood (and possibly the world? That part remains unclear.) Afterwards, they are spirited off to the North Pole, where Scott and Charlie meet Bernard, an angsty teenage elf who informs them that Scott is now legally contracted to be the new Santa. When he gruffly tells Scott it’s the way things have always been, “You put on the suit, you’re the big guy”. I found myself reminiscing on how much I used to hate Bernard when I was a kid. He was bossy and rude. But now, watching as an adult, it dawned on me that maybe Bernard’s flippant manner isn’t just about him being busy and fed up. He riffs off the contract with such businesslike carelessness that I suddenly realised why Bernard has no interest in building a rapport with Scott… Scott isn’t the first schlub to show up at the North Pole after negligently murdering Santa. Realistically, if a fall from a two storey roof into a pile of snow instantly kills a Santa, then someone might not last long in this role at all. So why the hell would Bernard bother being friendly to a man that is, for lack of a better word — disposable?
The next day, when Charlie recounts the previous night’s events to his mum and stepdad they brush it off, only to become worried when Charlie continues to believe his father is actually Santa Claus, and tells everyone and anyone who will listen. Neal and Scott argue, it becoming abundantly clear that the tension lies between Neal’s cold, hard logic and Scott’s encouragement of blind faith. It felt like Scott’s urging for Charlie to believe in Santa became more about him wanting his son to believe in the power of unseen forces, rather than just a fat, bearded man riding reindeer. While Neal, a therapist, sees this blind faith as something that should be ‘cured’. Later on its revealed that Laura and Neal once believed in Santa but ‘lost faith’ when he didn’t bring them the childhood toys they so desperately longed for.
So…. mythical Santa is a being of pure love and generosity, who holds the power to judge who in this world is a good and who is bad…
And look – I know comparing Santa Claus to Jesus may seem a pretty heavy-handed metaphor on my part. But you guys will agree, at the very least… it somewhat legitimizes the Tim Allen shrine under my bed.
Unforgivable nineties bowl-cuts aside, The Santa Clause was a true and honest delight. The wholesome earnestness of the film shone through even the goofiest of on-screen gags and I would gladly watch it again and again.
4 out of 5 murdered Santas 🎅
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