Gee, I don't wanna come off as the Grinch here, but I really didn't like this film at all! The plot was just the day to day life of 4 or 5 people involved in a church choir... I felt it pointless. And the ending blew too.
I give this movie 3 Bah-Humbugs.
Trust me,
Swan
Do you like Handel's Messiah? That might be the difference. In any event, I think it was about music, and how music (and laughter) overcome what we have to overcome. It might be mundane, but it's a good mundane.
shareThe very things you point out as dull are the very reason people are attracted to the film. It is day to day life. Some good, some bad, some tragedy, some laughter.
Hovering above all, is Christmas, like great halo of hope, in the form of Handel's glorious Messiah and through it we poor humans are allowed to transcend life and all it's banality, and observe a glimpse of the eternal.
"Music, the greatest gift that man can know,
And all of Heav'n we have below."
William Congreve, "Ode to St. Celilia's Day
Good point acilino. That is the reason I love this film, it show real people, REAL Christians dealing with REAL problems with humor and pathos, unlike most of the so-called "Christmas" TV movies made today, which are embarassing in their idiotic storylines and ridiculous situations. I wish it would be shown more often. I look for it every year, but have not seen it in years.
shareI have a DVD transfer of a recording I made of this film from back in 1985 when it aired on WPIX. I just finished watching it again, and I echo the point that the film's strength is its simple realism. We see a group of people for whom going to church and being part of the church community is a normal, essential part of their lives (this is something that Hollywood has managed to totally forget over the last twenty plus years), but they are not perfect people and they have struggles and travails in their lives that don't always end perfectly, but above it all they know how to bond together as part of their community. Having been part of church choirs at various points in my life, seeing this kind of realism depicted on-screen sticks out a lot more than the fact that John Houseman is just giving us another take on his Professor Kingsfield character, because that kind of demanding choirmaster *does* exist in many churches and community choirs across this land of ours.
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