Writer/director Shane Black loves Christmas. This movie, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3 are all set in the latter part of the twelfth calendar month.
Lethal Weapon was his first produced script and, like LA Confidential, sets a dark tale of crime and violence over Christmas. Slyly subverting Christmas imagery, the film opens with a shot of cocaine substituting for real snow, and includes a shoot-out in a Christmas tree lot and a car crashing through a house and crushing both Christmas tree and the presents under it.
But, it’s Mel Gibson’s suicidal cop Martin Riggs that guarantees this a place on the list. With the Christmas period having the highest rate of suicide, the scene where Riggs attempts to shoot himself while a Bugs Bunny Christmas cartoon plays on the TV hits home with a bullet.
Merry Christmas…
