The one movie to blame for Shane Black’s Christmas obsession: “It just struck me”
If you’ve seen one movie either written or directed by Shane Black, then you’ll know that he fucking loves Christmas. Of course, he’s not alone in getting into the festive spirit, but he’s turned it into a career-defining motif, with virtually everything he’s worked on featuring some Yuletide iconography.
So what if The Nice Guys has absolutely nothing to do with the annual holiday? He’s Shane Black, he’ll slap a Christmas tree in the background of the film’s final scene, because it doesn’t feel like one of his creations unless there’s at least one reference to the most wonderful time of the year.
Iron Man 3 was a corporate-driven sequel to a blockbuster duology, and Marvel Studios’ first release since The Avengers, so what else was Robert Downey Jr’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang cohort expected to do other than set the comic book adaptation in and around the Christmas period? That’s what he does, what he’s always done, and based on his most recent effort, Play Dirty, what he’s always going to do.
He’s become almost as synonymous with the cinematic concept of Christmas as Frank Capra, which is arguably more impressive when you consider that his credits include not only the pictures mentioned above, but Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and The Predator.
It goes without saying that he’s a big fan of Christmastime, but what sparked the obsession that’s become so baked into his onscreen mythology? It’s unexpectedly expected, in that it’s not a movie that’s beamed into millions of homes annually in the run-up to December 25th, yet it still technically counts as a festive film due to its setting, backdrops, and certain musical cues.
“The first time I saw Christmas used in a movie, as a backdrop, was Three Days of the Condor, the Sydney Pollack film,” Black explained to The Playlist. “And it just struck me that against the very sort of tense, serious events being chased and pursued in New York, to just have carollers on the corner in the background singing, and this muted sort of joy.”
Based on what he’s been putting out over the last four decades, it was a life-changing experience, and one that informed everything that followed once he cracked Hollywood. “I realised that snow and Christmas provide this sort of odd hush; it’s very retrospective,” he continued. “It’s a very reflective time, Christmas, where you sort of look at where your life has been, how you got to where you are.”
Whether it’s Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs, Samuel L Jackson’s Mitch Henessey, Downey Jr’s Harry Lockhart, Val Kilmer’s Perry van Shrike, or Brian A Prince and Kyle Strauts wearing rubber suits as intergalactic bounty hunters with an axe to grind, those feelings have been integral to many of Black’s creations.
“And the regrets come out,” the writer and director added. “If you’re lonely, you tend to be lonelier on Christmas. If you’re sad, you’re morose. If you’re standing in the middle of the night, on a street corner, just staring at little decorations like that with no one around, it sums up loneliness, but it also sums up peacefulness.” All valid points, and all of them can be traced right back to Three Days of the Condor.
