Is The Crystal Trap a Christmas movie? For Alfonso Cuaron the answer is clear

In promotion for his Christmas tale to watch on Disney Plus, the Mexican director gives his opinion on the question.

December. The month when we prepare gifts… and we relaunch the eternal debate on Crystal Trap. Is John McTiernan's feature film a Christmas film? HAS Firstwe decided. The answer is yes, and Die Hard was also included in the list of 50 Christmas films that we published last year.

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Crystal Trap is an action film that is not at all family friendly, which was “R Rated” (forbidden to unaccompanied minors) when it was released in the United States in 1988, due to its violence and vulgarity. It may therefore seem counterintuitive to consider it a Christmas film. But there are many elements that allow it to fall into this category.

As a reminder, Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve and features a cop (John McClane) who shows up at his wife's company holiday party (named HOLLY) with a gift. The spirit of Christmas is mentioned several times, the music is Christmas songs (from “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-DMC to “Let it Snow” version Frank Sinatra), a dead “terrorist” with a sweatshirt bearing the words “Now I have a machine gun ho ho ho“is wearing a Santa hat… Shall we continue or is that enough?

Obviously, we can argue to the contrary and find it a little snobbish, even forcing, to include Crystal Trap in Christmas movies. It was not the original idea of ​​its director, but McTiernan explained in 2021 at the American Film Institute how he became one.

Originally, McT had rejected this script where left-wing terrorists shoot people celebrating Christmas, before being seduced by the figure of John McClane, the nice cop who finds himself in the middle of this chaos. “There was joy in that. It wasn't our intention to make it a Christmas movie, but the joy that came out of it made it a Christmas movie.”

Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza also gave his opinion on the debate a few years ago, responding with humor to a journalist's question on Twitter:

“Yes because the studio rejected the version of the storyline that took place during Purim #DieHardIsAChristmasMovie“.

What makes a story a Christmas story? This is precisely the question posed by David Lowery's animated short film, A Christmas story, or almostreleased a few weeks ago on Disney Plus. His co-author and producer, Alfonso Cuaron, responded to the question of Hollywood Reporter :

“A Christmas story is when Bruce Willis tries to save his wife (…) Ultimately, Christmas is a very specific time of celebration at the end of the year. It is the end of darkness and the beginning of light. It is a celebration of hope and possibility, and it is a time of introspection before a new beginning. In the case of Die HardBruce Willis is trying to do what's right, and I wholeheartedly support the idea that it's a Christmas story. I can't define why and I don't need to.“

End of debate… until next year!