Broadcast News is many things: James L. Brooks rom-com, 1987 Oscar nominee, one of the few films to accurately portray the specific world of journalism (along with Spotlight, which will always be the most accurate purely because it took pains to dress its reporters poorly). One thing I’ve never heard Broadcast News referred to as, though, is a holiday movie.
Seeing as most of us are throwing out the rulebook on the 2020 holiday season as a whole, it feels like an opportune moment to reevaluate what we mean when we talk about “holiday movies.” Does a movie have to explicitly feature Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s in order to qualify? Or is it possible that the simple act of watching our favorite movies during the holidays can envelop them within the seasonal fold?
Vulture’s Rachel Handler recently made a skillful argument for the inclusion of the 2010 ballet thriller Black Swan as a Hanukkah movie, but I would go so far as to insist that a movie doesn’t even have to take place in winter to be holiday-relevant. Now we find ourselves back at Broadcast News, a movie I have watched on or around Christmas every year for the better part of a decade; but why?
In defense of my cinematic holiday tradition, Broadcast News boasts not one, but two moments that I would argue are Christmas-adjacent. In one scene, the film’s overworked news producer protagonist Jane (Holly Hunter) snaps at her handsome, goony crush-slash-rival Tom (William Hurt, who, I should mention, sucks) about his questionable news judgment and reluctantly gets on board with a major story he’s brought to her.
It’s a thrilling scene, but the thing that makes it Christmas-ish for me is Jane’s choice of headwear; a bright-red scarf is tied around her head, babushka-style, as she yells at Tom. In the background, we see trees festooned with Christmas lights, leading me to believe that it is—if not Christmas—then at least Christmastime. Also—also!—as an Easter egg, Jane actually says the word “Christmas” in this scene, though it’s not super relevant to anything in particular.