Bad Santa: Director's Cut – DVD Review

Film, Reviews


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Own it on DVD October 10, 2006

Director

Terry Zwigoff

Cast

Billy Bob Thornton”¦”¦”¦.Willie
Tony Cox”¦”¦”¦.Marcus
Brett Kelly”¦”¦”¦.The Kid
Lauren Graham”¦”¦”¦.Sue
Lauren Tom”¦”¦”¦.Lois
Bernie Mac”¦”¦”¦.Gin
John Ritter”¦”¦”¦.Bob Chipeska

The Movie

Whenever Billy Bob Thornton is cast in a role as a foul-mouthed misanthrope, it seems, no matter how engaging he is on screen it always pales to his past work. Whether it’s as Morris Buttermaker in a remake of Bad News Bears or as Dr. P in the remake of School for Scoundrels, seeing Thornton be a toned-down version of Willie from Bad Santa is underwhelming.

It would be the role that would typecast him in further roles as foul-mouthed misanthropes, many of whom have drinking problems, but in one fell swoop it elevated Thornton’s status. Already known as a talented actor, with two Oscar nominations for Sling Blade and A Simple Plan, the sheer guts of taking on the lead role of Bad Santa is what made him a star.

Bad Santa follows the tale of Willie, an alcoholic safe cracker led around by his pal Marcus (Tony Cox). They have an ingenious scheme; during Christmas season Willie and Marcus dress up as Santa Claus and an elf respectively and ply their trade in a city’s mall. On Christmas Eve, after several weeks of carefully scouting and planning their target, they rob the store’s safe as everyone has gone home for the holiday. They live off the proceeds for the next 11 months and then reconvene in another city to do it all over again. It’s been a profitable venture for the duo, joined by Marcus’s wife Lois (Lauren Tom), and opportunity knocks one more time for the pair in Phoenix, Arizona. As they plan on robbing yet another mall over another Christmas Eve, Willie’s life is turned all around by a kid (Brett Kelly) who thinks he actually is Santa, a woman (Lauren Graham) with a fetish for his Santa suit and something one imagines he wouldn’t expect to find in a life he’s given up on: his soul.

And for Thornton it’s a gutsy move to do this movie if only for the fact that there isn’t anything truly redeemable about Willie from the get-go. He isn’t a nice guy gone wrong, nor is he some crook with a heart of gold we see from the onset. He’s a vile, nasty, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking degenerate with misanthropic tendencies. And Thornton puts the sort of bile and nastiness the character requires with a sort of glee that only he can provide. Willie isn’t a nice guy by any stretch of the means and there would be a tendency from some actors to take some of the bite out by paying it safe; it’s a gutsy role to take and an even gutsier one to play it to the degree that Thornton does. Thornton does his best to make the character as nasty as possible, as the film does have over 200 profanities in it, but it’s not the language itself that makes Willie such a vile but likeable character. It’s how Thornton uses it, as well as the other words that make up the dialogue, that makes the character work.

The film works beyond Thornton’s performance, though. While the film has plenty of slapstick gags to rely on, and there’s a scene between Willie, Marcus and the Kid in a boxing ring that is worth the price of admission alone, the film’s strong points are in the relationships between the characters. With plenty of chemistry to go around, it’s only a matter of letting the cast breathe life into the characters to craft some memorable scenes. With a cast of mainly television actors and several unknowns, it’s impressive to see such chemistry abound as the beautiful part of it all is that none of the cast is in familiar territory. Graham is usually straight-laced and uptight, Cox is a sidekick and the late John Ritter is the uptight manager after a career of much more relaxed roles.

It’s a strong story with great acting and a once in a lifetime performance that was criminally unrecognized by Thornton. With this new Directo’s Cut, Terry Zwigoff’s original vision of Bad Santa is finally set to light. Plenty of material has been cut from both the theatrical version as well as the unrated version that are already in circulation; this is a tighter storyline than before, as Zwigoff has deleted several scenes and one of Willie’s monologues from the film as well as substituted several alternate scenes into the film. There are also several new extensions of several scenes in this version as well. As in the case of the unrated version, it’s still a great movie. It’s just a different version of it, but to call it a better film than what was presented on the screen initially is something that can’t be done. While it’s one thing to still be a great film, this version of Bad Santa takes away a lot of the broader context and subtext of Willie for a bit smoother and quicker paced plot.

The Audio

Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format, the film’s sound is about the same as it has been in the prior tracks. The new material blends in with the older stuff well, as there are no moments when the audio is exposed.

The Video

Presented in a widescreen format, the film’s picture hasn’t had a significant upgrade since the last version was released. The new and alternate scenes mesh well with the bulk of the film that was retained.

The Extras

Eight Deleted and Alternate Scenes are the same deleted/alternate scenes from the first two releases. Nothing special or substantive is to be found in these, as they are deleted for a reason.

Behind the Scenes Featurette is the same EPK feature from the first two releases as it’s a short “Making Of” Featurette that has found its way on both prior versions of the film.

Audio Commentary with Zwigoff and Editor Robert Hoffman is brand new as the two add in commentary several years removed from their original tracks.

While it’s hard to argue about the directo’s vision of what Bad Santa should be, it’s pretty obvious that when the studio saw his “true” version of the film that the post-production changes were for the better. For fans of the film this is a definite buy, as it represents a third version of the film and is definitely much different than the prior two releases of the film. If one has held off on buying the film because of this edition, the smart man’s move would be to purchase the “Unrated” version as it’s the best version of the film.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for Bad Santa: Director’s Cut
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

9.0
THE VIDEO

9.0
THE AUDIO

9.0
THE EXTRAS

5.0
REPLAY VALUE

7.5
OVERALL
4.0
(NOT AN AVERAGE)