16th Holiday Spectacular

Man, I had to work a bit the past couple of months and it's good to wind down. It’s the season and time for my 16^th Annual Holiday Spectacular. Every year I try and write it as I go without a lot of premeditation (although someone nasty could argue that about all my posts).  I’m feeling movies this year. Actually, I did Tom Hanks last year, but add a few others here:

Dustin Hoffman's Ten Best movies:

The Graduate

Tootsie

Rain Man

Meet the Fockers

Lenny

Family Business

Kramer versus Kramer

All the President's Men

Midnight Cowboy

Wag the Dog

The Graduate is what made him famous and is iconic. I suppose younger people don't know it at all. At the time it was considered quite risque. Now, not so much. Tootsie, with Bill Murray as Dustin's roommate, was a hysterical comedy that was actually about something other than a bachelor party.  Wag the Dog is probably the least well-known film mentioned here and was a political movie he did with DeNiro and an all-star cast. I remember thinking it was a lot better than I had thought it would be. He was hysterical as Ben Stiller's father in Meet the Fockers. Family Business, with Sean Connery and Matthew Broderick, about three generations of criminals was a sleeper. I doubt Lenny is shown a lot anymore. It's about Lenny Bruce, the comedian who was arrested and sometimes banned for his performance (and comedians today should thank him), but also very good. I guess I should add the film Ishtar, starring Dustin and his real-life buddy, Warren Beatty, was one of the worst movies I ever saw.

Jack Nicholson’s Ten Best movies:

As Good as it Gets

Batman

The Shining

The Departed

Chinatown

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

A Few Good Men

Prizzi’s Honor

Terms of Endearment

The Two Jakes

Jack has been making movies since before I was born, sometime in the ‘50s. And, not surprisingly, not all of them are gems, but many were. His persona is so powerful that even when he’s not the lead or it’s an ensemble film, he usually steals it anyway, such as in Batman and A Few Good Men. Jack’s character doesn’t even have to be likeable for it to be unforgettable (unlike say, Tom Hanks, who is likeable in every film). For me, his performance in As Good as it Gets was his perfect lead role, but he may have been even better in Batman where he set the incredibly high standard for the Joker.

Top ten Westerns (Is it possible I’ve never done one yet?)

The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Tombstone

High Plains Drifter

Pale Rider

Fistful of Dollars

For a Few Dollars More

True Grit (John Wayne version)

Cat Ballou

Silverado

I can’t really choose between The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Both are brilliant films. TGTBATU probably set the standard while breaking all rules for Westerns. You have to give Sergio Leone credit for his Westerns on the list along with Eastwood. But Josey Wales is probably my favorite and has as good writing and performances as any more celebrated non-Westerns. The list, is, of course, mostly Eastwood. But, he made the best Westerns. True Grit is my favorite John Wayne movie. But, the remake with Jeff Bridges was really good too. I recommend both. Cat Ballou is unlike other great westerns. It’s a comedy starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin and in which Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole provide the chorus. I’d brag for it that it made the American Film Institute's top 10 Western list, but it is a horrible list clearly made by people who did not like Westerns and this is the only one of their ten I'd agree on. As for Tombstone, it is also a tremendous film, and I have long said that the Academy owes Val Kilmer an Oscar and I’m definitely not the only one who thinks so. 

Top Ten Denzel Washington Movies

Glory

Inside Man

Malcolm X

The Equalizer

Devil in a Blue Dress

The Taking of Pelham 123

Remember the Titans

The Preacher’s Wife

Philadelphia

Man on Fire

Notes: Everyone likes Denzel. Probably literally everyone. Philadelphia is the type of movie I normally wouldn’t like (it’s more Hank’s movie but I think it is one of Denzel’s best roles). Glory is an ensemble piece and Denzel was not yet famous. But, his portrayal of a resentful black soldier in the Civil War absolutely stole the movie. Man on Fire, Equalizer and Inside Man are simply great intelligent action hero movies (meaning not like most Stallone or Schwarzenegger or Norris movies - not that I don't love them too). And along with Ben Kingsley’s role as Gandhi, Denzel’s Malcolm X is probably the best historical portrait I’ve ever seen.

MUSIC

All that said, those movies and stars are not as important to this post as what comes next. For quite some time now in most every Holiday Spectaculars, I unveil my top 20 Xmas songs, now recognized throughout the universe as the "official" Christmas song list (let me have it). Every year it’s a little different, but this year there are a number of changes. I’m so excited, I really can’t wait (and it’s a lot more fun than writing about fascism all the time):

THE LIST

1. Fairytale of New York. I play this crazy Christmas song over and over again. It's by The Pogues, an English punk band, seemingly more Irish than English and an Irish singer, Kristy MacColl. The Pogues lead singer, Shane MacGowan melodic but very raspy voice is hypnotic with the right song. Frankly, other than this Xmas song and Rake at the Gates of Hell, I don't like them at all. But I really like this (though some might find it offensive).

2. New York City Christmas by Rob Thomas. Maybe I'm getting tired of the more traditional songs. This first appeared on my list a couple of years ago and has risen dramatically. 

3. Baby, it's cold outside. Still a favorite. I raved enough in past years about the idiocy of the woke, who claim it is a date rape song and won't say more except - Morons! 

2. Game of Bells. By the French trio L.E.D., who I think only have one mainstream hit. But, this combo of the theme from Game of Thrones and Silver Bells is great. 

 
3. Cool Yule.  Louis Armstrong sings a Steve Allen song. Almost everyday I listen and it's just as good.  

4. All I want for Xmas is you. I love this Vince Vaughn and the Vandals one-hit wonder. It was recorded before the Mariah Carey hit of the same name.

5. From a Distance. There are so many people I can't stand who are just outstanding performers. Bette Midler is one of them. I love her version.

 
6. Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Almost impossible not to sing the chorus if you are listening . . . and then for hours afterwards.

7. Joy to the World. I still think the greatest voice I've ever heard.   

8. Oiche Chiuin (I left off the Gaelic accent marks) is also one of my favorites. In English, it is Silent Night. There are many great recordings, but I recommend Enya's version. She is only my second favorite Gaelic musician, but she's awesome. My favorite Gaelic musician, the ethereal Aine Minogue, who rarely performs outside the Boston area in small venues has a wonderful instrumental version.

9.  Linus and Lucy (from a Charlie Brown Christmas – I think of it as a Christmas song). I never get tired of Vince Guaraldi's classic piano piece.

10. Christmas Eve, Siberian Sleigh Ride and Carol of the Bells. As with other years, I call a tie for three Trans-Siberian Orchestra pieces.  

11. Frosty the Snow Man (Jimmy Durante version ONLY).

12. I'll be home for Christmas. Many great versions, but right now I like the one by Joy Williams.

13. Christmas by Maria Carey. For the time being I like this one better than her All I want for Christmas is You. 

14. Christmas Time is Here. Daniela Andrade, a youtube breakout star, is one of my favorite singers these days. Maybe my favorite. Her version of this song could put me to sleep, and I mean that in a good way.  The all-too unknown Mary Fahl, an incredibly powerful singer, has one of my favorite versions too.

15. Ave Maria.  Usually I choose the version by Andrea Bocelli, which is great. But this year its Christina Perri. She isn't huge star, but I love her voice.

16.  We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I know I'm going a little Irish crazy but right now I want to hear the version by Celtic Women.

17. The Perfect Christmas. Version by the above mentioned angel-voiced Daniela Andrade.  I've been listening to her for some years now, but she grows on me stronger and stronger. Her year, obviously.

18. March of the Wooden Soldiers composed by Victor Herbert. The real name is March of the Toys, but since I know it from the movie, that's how I think of it.

19. White Christmas. But, not the Bing Crosby version from the movie Holiday Inn (not, as many think, the sequel, White Christmas). I love the Otis Redding version, made popular by the movie, Love Actually.

20.  Silent Night.  In English, right now, I like Martina McBride's version.

An American Christmas Tale:

You are probably familiar with the Harry Belafonte rendition of I heard the Bells on Christmas Eve. He did not write it, nor did any jingle writer. The words were originally written by the famous American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in a poem Christmas Bells, written on Christmas Day, 1863, after he learned his son, Charles, who had enlisted in the Union Army without notifying his father, in order to, if necessary, give his life for his country, had been wounded in the little-known Battle of Mine Run in Virginia a few weeks earlier. 

If the poem is too Christian or religious for you, try not to let it bother you. For me, at least, it is easy to look at art divorced from the religious trappings its creator may have intended. It may not be so for others. But, whether they want me to or not, I wish they could. I say to unto you in my most pseudo of faux-religious words - No one owns pretty lights, great music, movies or inspirational words once they are out in the world. 

Though not on my top twenty list, this song stirred me when I just knew it as a Belafonte (or Bing Crosby) song, and it does more so knowing what it meant to Longfellow. As the writer Ray Bradbury wrote in Something Wicked this Way Comes, it is "immensely moving, overwhelming, no matter what day or what month it was sung." It is ultimately about just what he wrote, peace on earth and the hope for the triumph of good over evil. Comforting words in difficult times. I actually hear Belafonte as I read them:

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,
    And wild and sweet
    The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
    Had rolled along
    The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
    A voice, a chime,
    A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
    And with the sound
    The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
    And made forlorn
    The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
    "For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."