MovieChat Forums > One Magic Christmas (1985) Discussion > Are you Kidding a Christmas Movie???

Are you Kidding a Christmas Movie???

posted 15 years ago by abstractist
24 replies | jump to latest

One of the main characters, Gideon, is only missing a van and a puppy or kitten.

"Don't tell your mother about me."

He is the creepiest angel ever dreamed up by anybody.

Long duster, cowboy hat, and talking to kids, in their bedrooms, without their parents permission, are you kidding, can you say Child Molester?

This story never should have gone past 1st half reading, then trash can here it comes.

Casting, what was the casting person doing, going through a divorce?

This guy Gideon was last seen on a sex offender's web site.

Don't get me wrong he may be a really nice human being, but he looks creepy, too creepy to be an angel.

Imagine some 5 or 6 year old child seeing this guy playing an angel; and then meeting a child molester and thinking he is an angel.

Duh dump this movie.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] YankeeDood 10 years ago

Good idea, teach all kids to live in fear, thinking every single man on the street who talks to them is a molester. That will enrich their lives greatly. Nope.
Personally, I think Pee Wee Herman is a lot more creepy than Gideon is. Any man who dresses up and acts like a child is a little odd in my book.

Bruce Lee was real. Batman was never real.

[–] bimchim 10 years ago

This is a great film. The character of Gideon is a good one, but I agree he is slightly creepy, but not at all in a child-molesting way! More because he secretly watches Ginny, sits in trees etc! I don't think you can possibly compare the attitudes of the 50s with today, and not even the 80s and today. We watch films with far more scrutiny and subjectivity these days, and for me, comments like a lot of these here take away much of the magic and innocence of older films, which is a great shame. This is more of an adult christmas movie anyway, as I don't think kids appreciate its message as adults would. If you want a fluffy movie for the kids, chose something else; leave this one well alone and let the more innocent minded of us enjoy it.

[–] neils7147933 9 years ago

Roger Ebert's 1985 review makes the original poster's point as well. He found it far too dark and unpleasant for children and said the angel character was 'who our parents told us not to talk to'

[–] dorseybelle 9 years ago

I took my daughter to see this movie. She was 2 years old. I had her all dressed up in a red-and-white-striped dress, little white tights, and shiny black shoes. This was going to be our first movie "date" that was just the two of us. We bought our tickets, got some popcorn and beverages, and found seats on the front row with her sitting in my lap. After all of the previews, the movie started.

WTF????????!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I tell my daughter that this was the first movie we went to together, she still can't believe I would take her to see such a thing. This is, without a doubt, THE most depressing movie (not just a Christmas movie, but out of all movies) I have ever seen.

Let's recap. Mom/wife is a bitch. Dad/husband is a good-hearted, lovable guy, who represents everything is wife is not. Son is a narc, plain and simple. Daughter is cute, bordering on annoying. (Does she want some cheese with that whine?) Dad/husband is killed in a bank robbery. Son and daughter drown in the thief's getaway car. Mom/wife is still a bitch. Son and daughter not dead; mom/wife still a bitch. Poignant moment when Mom/wife reads the letter that she wrote to Santa on Ramada Inn stationery (to highlight the poverty she grew up in.) Mom/wife starts to thaw. Dad/husband is alive. Hallelujah, everyone is happy and thankful, but mom/wife is still wearing that unfortunate down coat. The End.

By the way, to all of those people who deemed this movie "politically incorrect" or Harry Dean Stanton was a perv: this was way back when, a billion years ago, when there was no such thing as being politically correct. You did something,or you said something, you owned it. There was none of this hiding behind labels and threatening to sue people because they hurt your little feelings. And Gideon was not a perv. Angels don't always come wrapped in garland or trailing big wings or hanging out on Christmas trees, do they now? Real people who become angels; why is this so hard to understand?

I think that's it.

She did it! She did it! The lady with the grape!

[–] greenbudgie (2356) 6 years ago

I actually like the movie. But it's not really one for children as you found out. I like Christmas angel movies. I've rated this 7/10.

Talking about doom and gloom at Christmas time. The TV schedules this year are full of it. There's always tragedies and deaths in the soaps. And now they're making some children's stories a hard watch. They seemed to determined that we're all going to have a sad and thought-provoking Christmas instead of a happy one.

[–] Rinn13 (167) 2 years ago

I think you're reading way too much into the film, that isn't actually there.

The film is MAJORLY flawed. It tells a kinda good story, and has a good, heartwarming ending. But it trips ALL over itself and stumbles all over the place, going on this MAJORLY dark and unnecissary trip just to get there. It's incredibly convoluted, that this woman who is kinda broken and depressed, needs to think she lost her kids and husband, to find her Christmas spirit. They could have gotten to the same point, same place, by some MUCH less fucked up path lol