Thursday, December 30, 2004
The Polar Express...
Yes, I went to see The Polar Express today. In spite of being made aware of concerns that the movie sets up Santa to be a Christ-like figure, I didn't have any spiritual qualms about the content of the movie (there was no spiritual content in my opinion ... it was just a plain, old, animated Christmas movie). The cinematography was GREAT. There were even a few dance scenes that were SO much fun!! And it was awesome to hear Tom Hanks do so many of the characters' voices.
I had ONE BIG HUGE problem with the movie, though. The movie is basically about children who are at the "critical point" of not believing in Santa anymore. Fine. Whatever. This train transports these kids in question to the North Pole to have some sort of a Santa-experience. Fine. Whatever. Well, one of the children on this train was from the "other side of the tracks". (They said that!) He was obviously poor. He chose to sit in the back-most car of the train alone. When a couple of the other kids went to try to encourage him to join the group, he talked of never having had Santa visit him. It was as if he were saying, "Santa might be real to some kids, but not to me, because he's never visited me before." Well ... the kids befriend him ... he meets Santa ... and when the train drops him off at home again, there is his first present from Santa waiting for him under his tree. How touching. Right?
WRONG!! There are MANY children, even in our own communities, who Santa has never visited. And I'm not talking about children whose families don't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons. There are many children who wouldn't even consider belief in Santa Claus because the reality of Christmas is that they'd be lucky to have a MEAL on Christmas ... gifts are out of the question. Why does this movie choose to make light-hearted entertainment out of that fact. Billy magically received one present from Santa one year. Yeah, right. Nice Hollywood stuff, huh? Realistically, Billy will not ever receive a gift from Santa. Not a one. I, for one, was NOT entertained by this movie. In fact, I spent most of the movie weeping for Billy and all of the children like him.
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