Submitted for your approval: Wednesday, November 27th, 1985. Just another typical Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday; and in the midst of this November chill, you have me --- just another human being seeking the meaning of life, just like everyone else; and never more so than at Christmastime. In those days, I was not really sure about what Christmas meant; all I knew was that on Christmas Eve, Santa Claus would make his magical nightly jouneys around the world in a single night.
But then, almost from out of the blue, a motion picture emerged unlike any that I had ever seen before. Strangely enough, it was an adventure from the producers of the Superman movies.... and most amazingly of all, it was geared to the Christmas season. Its title: Santa Claus: The Movie. Almost instantly, as had been the case with Supermovies I through III and Supergirl, I had fallen in love --- and I was certain that the Salkinds had triumphed once again.... to make the whole believe something could fly. This time, it turned out to be reindeer.
But the critics, having taken Alexander and Ilya (not to mention the rest of Team Salkind) to task for simply casting Richard Pryor in Superman III, were out to throw as many brickbats as they could at this film when it first came out. No matter that it was destined to net only $23.5 million at the U.S. box office at the end of its first release. What mattered to me was that this was a movie about Santa Claus --- and, come to that, the ULTIMATE Santa Claus movie!
Y'know, after almost 20 years, it's a little bit difficult to appreciate a lot about what you have when a movie like this comes along only once every holiday season. Thankfully, Jeannot Szwarc still lives and still manages to make a killing as a movie director --- even if, alas, he has renounced the Hollywood in which of old he believed in favor working in his birthplace of Paris. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Jeannot, there are others who do appreciate your body of work; indeed, there are those who have dedicated an entire nonprofit organization (along with a companion website) to your most passionate film, Somewhere in Time. These folks, like myself, know the virtue of being a filmmaker in the purest sense of the word: one who is not willing to sacrifice artistic excellence to the temple of the almighty dollar. I guess, for all the many years you spent at Universal Television, and all your features prior to these four for which Americans will continue to remember you (this film; the aforementioned Somewhere in Time; Jaws 2; and, your previous adventure with Alexander and Ilya, Supergirl), we weren't really ready for you to begin with.
But I say that there is a generation that needs to be ready for Santa Claus: The Movie .... and if I did not believe this with my heart and soul, this website wouldn't be here. Hence, the appreciation which now follows, wherein, hopefully, I'll express a few of the really important things about this very special film which have mattered to me --- and, again hopefully, to a lot of you out there as well, during the past 20 or so years.
There's a lot more I want to say about this incredible Christmas film; but as the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve dwindle to a precious few, this segment will be re-edited into a cohesively more logical Appreciation; so stay tuned for that version. Meanwhile, here's a toast to a magical, lyrical, annual miracle of a holiday movie --- one that, if only for a moment, demands you to forget everything you thought you ever knew about Santa Claus.
And a little bit more.......