Turkey Day movies

The Onion's AV Club offers up a list of "17 Memorable Thanksgiving Television Moments."

It hits the highlights for me, including the Buffy episode with syphilitic Xander and pincushion Spike ("You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story"), and the funny and poignant "Shibboleth" episode of The West Wing ("Morton, I can't pardon a turkey. If you think I can pardon a turkey, then you have got to go back to your school and insist that you be better prepared to go out in the world").

And, of course, they include the all-time classic WKRP Thanksgiving episode -- which, as God is my witness, ought to be replayed every year during the halftime of the Lions game.

It would've been a lot harder to come up with a list of 17 memorable Thanksgiving movies. My list is a bit shorter -- 14 shorter, actually.

So here they are, my Three Memorable Thanksgiving Movies:

1. Duck Soup. Hail Freedonia I love this movie. "Three men and one woman are trapped in a building! Send help at once! If you can't send help, send two more women!" What does it have to do with Thanksgiving? Nothing much, except that watching it results in Woody Allen's life-affirming epiphany in Hannah and Her Sisters, which is a Thanksgiving movie. Hannah is a great movie, deserving all the Oscars it collected (for screenplay, and for actors Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest). But while it's very funny in parts, it's also maybe a bit heavy for an annual holiday movie-thon type tradition. So I'd go with Duck Soup instead.

2. Planes, Trains and Automobiles. I kind of resent this film because it represents the end of John Hughes' great run of teen movies. After the Ringwald Cycle and Ferris Bueller's and Some Kind of Wonderful he switched gears to this kind of thing. Then Home Alone came out and Hughes never looked back. The change made Hughes a wealthy man, but left the world a poorer place. If you look past that, though, Planes is actually a pretty funny, and kind of sweet, movie.

3. Pieces of April. The post-Dawson, pre-Scientology Katie Holmes could actually act. Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt are both remarkable in this film, but the story is centered on Holmes and she comes through. I'm not usually a fan of dysfunctional-family-gathers-for-the-holidays movies, because they tend to be too aggressively "quirky." These characters aren't quirky, they're human. Considering the scarcity of Thanksgiving movies and the multitude of cable channels, I'm amazed that somebody -- TNT, Lifetime, AMC -- hasn't made airing this lovely little movie an annual ritual.

So that's my list. What am I missing?

P.S.: If you're in Philly and you don't have to work the night before Thanksgiving (grumble, grumble), I recommend checking out Don McCloskey at the Grape Street Pub for the Fifth Annual Turkey Testicle Festival. (Note: I do not recommend the deep-fried, unpleasantly chewy, delicacies themselves.)

Comments

[Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Goat]

Oh, how 'bout the wedding at the end of "Alice's Restaurant"?

Or is that too much of a downer?

[Darryl Pearce]

I enjoyed The Greatest Gift when I was younger....

[stinger]

Dan in Real Life seems to be set at Thanksgiving.

[hapax]

All I can think of is MST3K's:

We gather together to watch cheesy movies
On Comedy Central on Thanksgiving Day
On Myst'ry Science Theatre Three Thousand
For thirty straight hours; it's called Turkey Day!

[hapax]

Oh, and at our house we always watch the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving morning, so I think of "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original, please!) as a Thanksgiving movie.

And then there's "Addams Family Values", with the marvelous pageant: "I'm a turkey! Eat me!"

[Evan]

How about Miracle on 34th Street? It's primarily a Christmas movie, of course, but the first 20 minutes or so are all Thanksgiving, with the big parade, and "Did I ask all right, Mr. Gailey?"

Definitely a good movie to watch on Thanksgiving. Makes for a nice easy segue into the mistletoe madness.

[JessicaR]

It's not a thanksgiving movie proper, but maybe because of election day falling in november and the late fall setting I love to watch The American President. As a companion to "Shibboleth" or really as Sorkin's West Wing prequel seeing the early stages of characters, lines, and plots that would pop up in the series. It's an autumnal film, sumptously designed and it makes me feel happy and dreamy as syringe full of tryptophan. A holiday treat.

[Mike Molloy]

A Woody Allen film that's even more Thankgiving-riffic than Hannah and Her Sisters: Broadway Danny Rose.

Fred said:

as God is my witness, [the all-time classic WKRP Thanksgiving episode] ought to be replayed every year during the halftime of the Lions game.

Amen brother.

[Todd Larason]

I haven't seen the movie, but would like to point out that much of the soundtrack of "Pieces of April" was written by Stephin Merritt and performed under his various names. If you like it, The Magnetic Fields' "69 Love Songs" would be a good starting point.

[MatthewF]

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is excellent, and is my second-favorite John Hughes movie. I agree that they went downhill, but argue that is was after this one.

[daniel]

Mr. Bean. Technically a part of a Christmas episode, but since Thanksgiving in America is all about the turkey, you can't miss this one.

[CapnAndy]

The Princess Bride. When I was a kid we always managed to find it on TV after the meal -- it only occurs to me now that it might have been on VHS or something.

[Tonio]

While I never saw The West Wing, I found this anecdote about the Turkey Pardon:

Gene Weingarten: Every year, some poor schmuck reporter at the Style Section is forced to cover the Turkey Pardon. The assignment usually goes to the newest feature writer. The last year of Clinton’s presidency, I wanted to cover it. I even wrote the lede in advance. It had Clinton whipping out a cleaver, and as second graders and dignitaries watched in horror, he lopped the turkeys head clean off, lecturing the kids about how politics is an evil, vicious business and making fun of them for weeping at the death of a bird when Washington gleefully destroys people and their reputations over nothing.

Then it would have an asterisk...I’d explain at the bottom that this was fiction, and that the real event was too boring to report.

I wasn’t assigned to cover it, for some reason.

[Arcane Nitehawk]

Every year we watch Home for the Holidays. Funny and touching in equal amounts without ever becoming overly sappy.

[Tonio]

I have fond memories of Miracle on 34th Street. But the TV stations carry only the colorized version. Ugly. It looks like a dog ate a bag of holiday streamers and vomited.

[Tonio]

As we pause to give thanks this coming week, let us remember the American principle of religious freedom. Because there would have been religious freedom in Massachusetts if it weren’t for the Pilgrims and their fellow extremists, the Puritans. As soon as the Pilgrims arrived, they showed their respect for toleration by setting up a quasi-theocracy, using exile or imprisonment to punish their own believers who spoke out against ministers. Jews, Quakers and Catholics can give thanks that they didn’t live in colonial Massachusetts, which granted freedom of worship to those groups some decades after the other colonies. So let’s hail the Pilgrims, the 17th-century equivalent of the Religious Right!

(Source: James Loewen, Lies Across America)

[Salamanda]

Tremors. It's not even remotely a Thanksgiving movie, except that we always seem to be able to find it on some obscure channel, and we usually end up watching it because, well, it's always been that way, so why stop now?

And the exploded sandworms look a bit like yams, so, there ya go.

[mmack]

May I add The Simpsons second season episode "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" as a "Must Watch" for the holiday. I know it's a TV show, but it includes elements of everything necessary for a true 'murican Thanksgiving:

- Football
See Maggie, those silver-and-blue guys are the Dallas Cowboys. They're
Daddy's favorite team. And he wants them to lose by less than five and
a half points. Understand?

- Turkey
- Snide comments from inlaws
I have laryngitis. It hurts to talk. So I'll just say one thing...
You never do anything right.
- Heartfelt affirmations of faith
And Lord, we are especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest,
safest energy source there is. Except for solar, which is just a pipe dream.
Anyway, we'd like to thank you for the occasional moments of peace and
love our family has experienced. Well, not today, but... You saw what
happened! Oh, Lord, be honest! Are we the most pathetic family in the
universe or what!
- Pathos
I saw the best meals of my generation
destroyed by the madness of my brother.
My soul carved in slices
by spikey-haired demons.
- And a resolution with family togetherness in less than 30 minutes:
Homer: Oh Lord, on this blessed day, we thank Thee for giving our family
one more crack at togetherness.
All: Amen.

[BelovedBright]

It's another John Hughes involving travel during the holidays, but, I have to reccommend Dutch. I was never a fan of Ed O'Neill, but, I really enjoyed the film. The description isn't precisely accurate there. Dutch Dooley *is* unassuming & down-to-earth; however, he's also the *owner* of a very successful construction company.

[Bruce Baugh]

There's no holiday connection at all, but The Blues Brothers is one of my favorite movie with a theme of giving thanks and using one's gifts as best one can to help others.

[Blackadder]

Blood Freak - Antidrug message film where a man takes acid, grows a turkey head, and begins to bleed other junkies for the rush. Spoiler: it was just a dream.

(Okay, so I'm a vegetarian and also not fond of Puritans or holidays. Sue me.) :op

[PurpleGirl]

I vote for inclusion of Miracle on 34th Street as a Thanksgiving movie. The original remains the version to watch. And this post reminds me to start planning my tv watching for Thursday -- checking which movie channels are showing what movie since neither my VCR nor DVD players are current working.

Addams Family Values. Just skip everything that isn't Wednesday Addams at camp and go straight to the Thanksgiving play

[hapax]

The chorus (well, okay, three) of agreement on the Thanksgiving-ness of Miracle on 34th Street made me think a little about the nature of "miracles" in contrast to the LB-verse.

Make no bones, there were plenty of "miracles" in that movie. Gimbels and Macy cooperating; Nick's acquittal from being committed; the recreation of a family from three shattered lives. But y'know, there was nothing really showy about them. Nothing supernatural. Nothing that human beings couldn't achieve with or without supernatural meddling.

In fact, each one required active human cooperation. Not the rote "magic words" of little Natalie Woods (or her mother) saying "I believe, I believe..." but real human choices, actions that involved risk and risk. The store owners had to agree to put aside their rivalry; they put their money and their reputations on the line. Fred actually had to think of the dead-letter office ploy. Fred and Doris had to take out a mortgage to buy the little girl's house of dreams.

All of the Christmas presents had to be selected and purchased and wrapped etc. by ordinary folks like us, in fact. We never see Kris deliver a single gift (although, in a sweet moment, we get to see Alfred do so in a Santa suit). All Kris does is give people an occasion and an incentive to work the ordinary miracles they already have in them. And even the "bad guys" have that opportunity -- remember the prosecuting attorney running out to buy his son the football helmet?

Not that this is a "great" movie. Its morality and sensibility are definitely whitebread middleclass Americana. It's just such a more -- dare I say it? -- theologically profound understanding of grace and faith than anything you see in all of L & J.

[hapax]

Oh, frak. Scram, boldness!

[1982_Cygni]

RE: Addams Family Values. All the scenes with Wednesday Adddams starring as Pocahontas in the most racist, condescending performance piece about Native Americans ever made were hilarious and right-on. (And I've been unfortunate/tasteless enough to see the Disney version of Pocahontas starring G-Rated Pagan Nature Goddess Barbie and Mel "Legionnaire of Christ with a Machine Gun" Gibson.) This is why Mom has been using those scenes from the movie in her Directing and Children's Theatre classes (she's a theatre prof) to teach her students how NOT to do children's theatre. Having watched Addams Family Values about half a dozen times (enough times to see David Hyde Pierce and Tony Shaloub in some interesting cameos), I can understand one reason why schools don't do a lot of holiday pageants anymore--because they don't want to offend people.

For a couple of years in middle school in which I was deluded enough to think that I could be a good singer (this was before American Idol made money off of such deluded people), I was in a couple of holiday choral programs. But I don't ever remember any Christmas or Thanksgiving pageants in elementary school--just assemblies in which puppets warned preteens about the dangers of drugs and the importance of protecting the environment. Anyone here born after 1980 ever been in or actually seen one at their schools?

[Blackadder]

"As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly" should be the epitaph for the Bush administration.

[MikeJ]

I think it's interesting that two actors from the same CBS drama (Numbers) apear together in Addams Family Values.

[Tonio]

It's just such a more -- dare I say it? -- theologically profound understanding of grace and faith than anything you see in all of L & J.

While I also appreciated the movie's message, I don't understand what it has to do with "faith" as theology defines it. I had understood that definition to be simply belief in supernatural entities.

[Zzyzx]

There's the Sports Night Thanksgiving episode that had them invaded by the ghost of Thespis. Main highlight is a frozen turkey falling on the anchor desk since Dana decided to use the lights to defrost it as a test run.

[Geds]

Ahhh, Sports Night. We hardly knew ye...

[Geds]

By the way, that quote from The West Wing reminds me of a sad, sad story. Well, one of those "shake your head at the nature of people," stories, not, like, Old Yeller.

Back during the Terry Schiavo dustup I was at school in red-country Illinois. I happened to be in my car listening to the radio (which I almost never do) and I hit a talk radio show. Somebody called in to that program and said that she (I think) thought that Bush should "pardon Terry Schiavo" in order to keep her on life support a little longer.

Perhaps random crap like the annual Presidential pardon of a turkey on Thanksgiving has so distorted the President's role and powers as to make people think he can do crap like that. Maybe Aaron Sorkin should call the White House...

[ralph]

Ah, thanksgiving...

I’m from the Antipodes and a few years back moved to asia, thus coming into contact with lots of Americans also afloat in this neck of the woods. Thus, I was introduced to the Thanksgiving meal. Now, whatever the historical connotations of the event, I’ve got to say, after three short years of exposure, it’s my favorite holiday. Great food, good company, no gifts... Eh, I say your nation exports the wrong thing. Forget democracy, you will win many more hearts and minds with turkey drumsticks.

And each year I pray, next year in Jerusalem.

:) I’ll get my in-country Thanksgiving one day... I can almost taste it.

[not someone else]

But I don't ever remember any Christmas or Thanksgiving pageants in elementary school--just assemblies in which puppets warned preteens about the dangers of drugs and the importance of protecting the environment. Anyone here born after 1980 ever been in or actually seen one at their schools?

I was in a Christmas play in fourth grade, and that would've been... mid-nineties.

It was mostly songs, but it was pretty neat.

[jamoche]

That's twice now I've commented after signing in with TypePad and had it turn up anonymous. So much for "stay signed in for 2 weeks"

[Karen]

I agree with Hapax about Miracle on 34th Street being much more sophisticated than L & J. Then again, that's a really low bar. What ISN'T better than L & J?

On Thanksgiving movies or TV, we always watched The Sound of Music, which I believe usually showed on whichever network didn't have football. The other thing we always watched was the Southern Louisiana -- Grambling game, to see the halftime show. I have no relatives or friends who went to either school, but once I was in high school and all through college, that was the game to watch, especially in years the Cowboys and Longhorns stank. Since I was in high school from '78 through '81 and college and grad school from '81 through '87, the Cowboys and Longhorns generally reeked.

[McJulie]

While I also appreciated the movie's message, I don't understand what it has to do with "faith" as theology defines it. I had understood that definition to be simply belief in supernatural entities.

That's what people like L&J want you to think, but that's not really what faith means. Remember that people can have faith in causes, in humanity, and in their loved ones, as well as faith in supernatural entities. Faithfulness and keeping faith has to do with loyalty and trustworthiness, not belief. And it is possible to believe in the literal realness of a supernatural entity without having faith in that entity -- there are people who believe in god or gods, and they believe the gods are bastards.

In other words, your faith isn't what you believe to be factually true. Faith is what you believe is important. It's the path you follow. The thing you rely on. What you trust.

The L&J magic words style of Christianity isn't faith, it's more like a superstition -- you know, you throw a pinch of spilled salt over your shoulder because you're a little worried that maybe you'll have bad luck otherwise, or you say the magic salvation words because you're a little worried that maybe you'll go to hell otherwise.

[eyelessgame]

The Sports Night Thanksgiving episode (Thespis) was actually kind of weak. The one before it - "The Quality Of Mercy At 29K" is a far better story about Thanksgiving -- and one of the best half-hours ever seen on television. Sorkin, again, at the top of his game. The moment at the end with the homeless guy and the half sandwich, hammering home Casey's advice about giving, chokes me up every time I watch it.

[Fraser]

Glad to know someone besides me likes Pieces of April. It's a charmer.

But the local elementary school still does a Christmas play, though the last one I caught did have Santa's elves dancing the hora to celebrate Hanukkah. It made the bit in Love Actually about "There was more than one lobster at the birth of baby Jesus" much more plausible.

[SV]

What, no love for Rocky?

I would thing that nothing says Thanksgiving with the family than having your neurotically shy girlfriend's drunk, abusive brother throw the turkey into the street.

Other than that, the only movie I can think of is "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (Gene Wilder, etc). It's not particularly Thanksgiving-ish (other than the bit about over-eating), but it made an impression on me as a kid one year when it played on TV Thanksgiving night. We had just moved hundreds of miles from the rest of the family, and the Big Movie Event made the night seem special even though there weren't any aunts or uncles or cousins or grandmothers...

[Narya]

I was, in fact, in some kind of holiday play, when I was in kindergarten (which would have been 1963-64, but who's counting), but it might have been more Nutcracker-ish than Nativity-ish. Given that my parents are atheists, they might well have objected to the latter.

I have never seen Miracle on Whateverstreet. Not once. It's not a principled stand or anything, I've just never seen it.

I don't have any special thing to view. However, my local radio station plays "Alice's Restaurant" on Thanksgiving day, usually at 11 am, and I've heard it nearly every year since I moved here. I make it a point, even. And the morning guy on the same station has taken the WKRP ep and made a "rock opera" out of it, interspersing various songs and clips from the ep, culminating, of course, in the "I thought turkeys could fly" part.

[Kip W]

IMDB confirms my memory that there was a 1967 TV movie by Truman Capote called The Thanksgiving Visitor. There are other Thanksgiving titles that I leave as an exercise for the reader. I actually started this comment to say: Alice's Restaurant. Since playing the record is a Thanksgiving ritual at many radio stations, it's only a small jump to the movie. It's particularly meaningful for me this year, as I just realized after living in the Springfield area for a couple of years that the story takes place about 50 miles from here, in Stockbridge. (I've been there one time, and I pondered the Housatonic and wondered what part Ives was thinking of when he wrote "The Housatonic Near Stockbridge.")