Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this classic holiday tale has little objectionable content. The Macy's brand is a big focus, as is Santa over more religious aspects of the holiday.
Families can talk about why Doris doesn't want Susan to use her imagination. Why do Kris and Fred think it's important? Why is it important that Kris tells people to go to other stores to buy things they didn't have at Macy's? Why doesn't Mr. Sawyer like Kris? Why did Fred have Mr. Mara's son testify in the trial?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nell Minow
Ignore the pallid 1973 (television) and 1994 (theatrical) remakes. This original MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET is much, much better. Both Edmund Gwenn and the screenplay won Academy Awards for this heartwarming holiday entertainment about the importance of childhood wonder, trust, and standing up for what you believe.
Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), an executive at Macy's, is responsible for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. When the Santa Claus she has hired for the parade shows up drunk, she quickly substitutes Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn), who is an enormous success. She hires him to serve as the store's in-house Santa. There he is an even bigger success. He tells customers to shop elsewhere when Macy's doesn't have what they want. The employees are aghast, but it turns out to be a public relations triumph, and Macy's is known as "the store with a heart."
Doris has a little girl named Susan (Natalie Wood). She has decided to raise Susan without any fantasies or illusions, to help her handle "reality." Susan does not believe in Santa Claus. But Kris tells her that he really is Santa Claus, and when she sees him singing a song in Dutch to comfort a little girl who doesn't speak English, she begins to believe him. Kris teaches her how to use her imagination, so that the other children will enjoy playing with her. He has the enthusiastic support of lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne), who cares deeply for Doris and Susan.
But Kris' insistence that he really is Santa Claus leads to a hearing on his mental competency. Downtrodden, Kris doesn't even want to assist in his defense. So it's up to Doris, Susan, and kids everywhere to show adults the truth.
In a way, this is the opposite of Inherit the Wind. Both are courtroom dramas about how we decide what is true, based on faith or based on provable fact. They have opposite conclusions, however, and the great gift of the movies is that both seem right to us. (One similarity is that in both, the judges are warned that they must make a decision that will have favorable political consequences.)
Doris has been hurt, and thinks she can protect herself and Susan from further hurt by not letting herself believe in anything outside themselves any more. She finds out that both she and Susan have missed a lot, not just in imagination but in the ability to trust, and to allow themselves to get close to other people.
Fans of this film may also enjoy Elf and A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Rate It!
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ViolenceKris bops Sawyer on the head for mistreating Albert. |
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Social BehaviorTolerance of individual differences. |
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CommercialismMacy's branding throughout. |
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