DeanSpeir

Why the film-makers chose to stick with "Jingle Hell" as a title, is a decision that ranks second only to that of Hitler's insistence that he open a second front against the Russians.

It's a wonderful little movie, all the more remarkable for the fact that it's a first time effort by some young independents. It compares very favorably with Jodie Foster's 1995 thematically-similar Home for the Holidays with its all-star cast. The writing is top-notch, the direction is polished, the editing seamless, and there's not a single mis-step by the cast of unknowns.

Jingle Hell did well on the smaller festival circuit, but never obtained a general or even limited release. While it's listed here as a "TV" movie, there's no information about who might have televised it or where, and in this age of untold numbers of cable channels with their voracious appetite for any sort of "content" (which term sounds a whole lot better than "filler"), the fact that the film isn't on someone's year-end holidays schedule, is all the more inexplicable.

I'm of the unalterable opinion that the problem starts with the title; it's impossible to hear it and not dismissively flash on, as an earlier comment suggests, "slasher-in-a-Santa-suit." If there's a God-of-Celluloid anywhere, this is a movie which will somewhere along the line, gain some just recognition. Fortunately, the film-makers are all relatively young, and might be able to wait it out in terms of some richly deserved artistic recognition.

Sadly, none those behind the camera seem to have done anything in the field since Jingle Hell. More's the pity.

Debuted on the Westerns Channel on 25 July, and features interviews with those who worked with him, and sometimes played with him. Short on the E!-type scandal-approach, although little is spared about Peckinpah's often depraved life. It focuses on the Westerns he made, a genre he (and although not mentioned, Sergio Leone) reinvented. Much is made of his problematic employability due to an unwillingness to submit to studio authority. (Wonder what his USMC service was like?!?) Lots of behind the scenes stills and footage from "Deadly Companions," "Ride the High Country," "Major Dundee," "The Wild Bunch," "The Ballad of Cable Hogue," "Junior Bonner," "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid," and the love-it-or-revile-it "Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia." Narrated by Kris Kristofferson, with contributions from, among others, the late James Coburn and the late Ben Johnson, as well as Billy Bob Thornton and, inexplicably, the mumbling Michael Madsen, whose sole connection to anything involving Peckinpah was his participation in the unnecessary 1994 re-make of "The Getaway," a Peckinpah non-Western. In all, this touching tribute should do much to spur DVD sales of the man's work, particularly "Director's Cut" editions.

...and far from "pointless," if I can offer a demurer.

Part vignette, part "skit," it was a humorous, but ultimately dark look at a pair of late 19th Century cowboys with a late 20th Century sensibility.

The only thing I could fault with this short (12 minutes) film is that the end credits were almost two minutes of the running time!