When it was released last Christmas, Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa had conservatives all over screaming bloody murder. What they failed to realize is, unlike Will Farrell’s Elf, this is definitely not a kids movie.
Willie (Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade) and Marcus (Tony Cox, Me, Myself, and Irene) are two thieves who use Christmas as a shroud for their dirty deeds. By respectively disguising themselves as Santa Claus and one of his elves, they take their show on the road, filling their stockings with money and goods from a different shopping mall each year.
This year, however, their plans are put in jeopardy by a suspicious mall manager (the late John Ritter in his final film role) and his head of security (Bernie Mac, Ocean’s Eleven) along with Willie’s relationships with a bartender and Santa fetishist (Lauren Graham) and a kid (Brett Kelly) who has his own issues going on.
In a way, Bad Santa has a lot of things in common with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Both films revolve around a loner, largely alienated from society, who befriend and attempt to help child.
Okay, maybe that’s where the similarities stop…
Quite simply, Bad Santa was one of the funniest movies of 2003. It is a refreshing, hilarious comedy because it breaks the rules and refuses to be pushed into the land of cliché.
The film is anchored by actor Billy Bob Thornton. His performance was more than deserving of a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a musical or comedy. His portrayal of Willie stays constant throughout the entire film: rude, vile, and just plain disgusting. He curses like a truck driver (regardless of if a child is present), has anal sex with big, beautiful women in the big and tall changing rooms, and drinks like it is going out of style.
It’s refreshing that Bad Santa does not sink into cliché. Of course, when it is based on a story by Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?), you can pretty much expect it to run right up against your expectations. For example, your usual movie involving a nasty protagonist who befriends a child would have the protagonist changing his habits within the first twenty minutes. In Bad Santa, this doesn’t really happen at all.
Director Terry Zwigoff knows how to handle off beat humor. His talent in doing so in Ghost World comes to good use in Bad Santa. There are some awkward moments of pure dark comedy that, in the theatre I was in, had some of us laughing and others glaring at us for laughing at something so distasteful. For example, when Willie is caught having anal sex with a woman in the big and tall changing room and tells her “You ain’t gonna shit right for a week!”, it left the audience in an incredibly awkward position: to laugh or not to laugh?
If you like films like Fight Club, Death to Smootchy, and other films from the Coen Brothers, you’ll be laughing yourself to tears.
There are two DVD releases of Bad Santa: the R-rated theatrical version and an Unrated version featuring seven minutes of mundane and pace slowing nudity. The seven minutes come within the first twenty of the film and fill in the one year gap between Willie and Marcus’s stints. It basically involves Willie stealing a car, buying lottery tickets, and visiting a stripper. All in all, much like the There’s Something More About Mary DVD, it was a good thing this stuff was cut. It’s a shame there aren’t both versions of the film on the DVD.
This seven minutes of un-rated footage is the main selling point of the DVD; the rest of the extras, which are available on both editions of the DVD, range between additional deleted scenes and alternate takes, outtakes, a gag reel, and your typical press kit fluff behind the scenes special.
On the technical end of the disc, the widescreen transfer is gorgeous. The colors of the Christmas lights and contrast range of lights and darks makes for a good presentation. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is good for a dialogue driven film and engaging in both the shopping mall scenes and when the film‘s soundtrack takes over. It should be noted that the additional footage is integrated seamlessly into the film both audibly and visually.
One criticism. This movie is definitely not for children. One of the most disturbing aspects about the film is you actually see Willie both swearing and saying just plain vile things in front of many children actors. There are no cut aways, no clear overdubs, Thornton is actually saying this stuff (Example: “Are you fucking with me?”, “Why don't you wish in one hand, and shit in the other. See which one fills up first.”) in front of kids.
All in all, Bad Santa is a dark comedy that is pretty much as dark as they come. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good comedy with a bit of a bite to it.
Beware, however, don’t let children near this Santa Claus.
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