Entertainment
Christmas movie with 92% on Rotten Tomatoes will destroy you with brutal death scene-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro
The best festive flicks provide joy and grief.
The best festive films offer joy and sorrow in equal measure – and probably a good amount of snow (Picture: Alamy)
Christmas movies are often considered so due to festive setting, lots of snow, and perhaps even a major character being Santa Claus (a popular option with the likes of Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Claus and the first-ever X-mas film).
But not all seasonal flicks contain that much actual Christmas – for some it only forms part of the narrative, but they have still managed to nonetheless become synonymous with this time of year.
One of those films is the 1994 version of Little Women, sitting pretty on a splendid 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which just celebrated 30 years since its release – at Christmastime, of course.
The story absolutely merits its connection to Christmas though, as it opens in the middle of a bitterly cold (snowy) winter on Christmas Eve.
Louisa May Alcott’s enduringly popular books about the March family and its daughters, growing up in Concord, Massachusetts as the American Civil War raged in the 1860s, even famously open with the line, ‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents’.
Later there are festive balls and ice-skating incidents, but as the narrative progresses through the lives of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, we leave December 25 behind for the rest of the seasons, future years and even further Christmases.
Little Women, based on Louisa May Alcott’s popular books, tells the semi-autobiographical tale of the March sisters (Picture: Fine Line/Everett/Rex/Shutterstock)
However, there’s something else about Little Woman that seems to help it qualify as a Christmas film and that’s its close relationship with death.
While most festive flicks aim to bring joy and entertainment (which Little Women absolutely does too), a lot engage with loss and grief as well as they focus on differing family experiences.
Any adaptation of A Christmas Carol – and obviously The Muppet Christmas Carol is always number one – tackles death with Tiny Tim as Ebeneezer Scrooge is shown a devastating Christmas yet to come for the Cratchit family, while Jack Frost (Michael Keaton) is a dead father resurrected as a snowman in his film. There’s also Liam Neeson’s dead wife in Love Actually, the big twist in 2019’s Last Christmas and even the death of his father that keeps George Bailey (James Stewart) from fulfilling his dreams in festive classic It’s A Wonderful Life (1946).
Death actually is all around in movies at this time of year – and the famous one in Little Women is devastating. In fact, it even had its own pop culture moment on Friends when Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) offered to put it in the freezer, as was done for scary books, once Joey (Matt LeBlanc) gets to that particular part of the story.
It has been adapted several times for the big and small screens and is a popular Christmas movie (Picture: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock)
The 1994 version is well-regarded though, with 92% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 84% from over 50,000 fans (Claire Danes) (Picture: Alamy)
There have been multiple excellent adaptations of Little Women – one in 1933 with Katharine Hepburn, the 1949 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh, and Greta Gerwig’s tremendous take in 2019 with Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh and Timothée Chalamet among others.
But given its anniversary – and how it portrays this shocking loss – we’re focusing on the 1994 one directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst and Christian Bale.
As played by Claire Danes, Beth is the quieter, gentle sister, often portrayed as too good for the cruelties and realities of the Marchs’ sometimes tough existence. She contracts scarlet fever after visiting a sick local family, partially recovering with a weakened heart only to die three years later.
Fans of the books know that it’s actually the Little Women sequel, Good Wives, which reveals Beth’s death, but more than one Little Women adaptation has chosen to include plot points from beyond the first novel (there’s also Little Men and Jo’s Boys to complete the saga).
This movie’s depiction of Beth’s death is still utterly devastating, 30 years later (Picture: Alamy)
This is true for the 1994 Little Women, which heartbreakingly shows Beth quietly slipping away at home in bed, accepting her fate to die first after talking with her much-missed sister Jo (Ryder).
‘I don’t mind. I was never like the rest of you, making plans about the great things I’d do,’ she tells her, before revealing she doesn’t like feeling left behind following her three sisters’ departures from the family home.
‘Now I am the one going ahead. I am not afraid. I can be brave like you, but I know I shall be homesick for you even in heaven,’ she adds.
It’s a testament to her and Ryder’s acting that this is an incredibly affecting scene that doesn’t tip over into schmaltz.
Why Little Women was the first film to make me cry
Senior film reporter and Metro’s movie expert, Tori Brazier, shares her personal reaction to Little Women (1994).
The 1994 version of Little Women holds a special place among my favourite films as the first movie to ever make me cry. Nowadays, I blub through almost any remotely emotional scene – but watching Beth’s incredibly poignant death scene at the age of nine or 10 was a big moment for me. I didn’t quite understand why it was moving me so much at the time, other than the obvious. I’d never had to leave the room in search of tissues before.
But I was struck by Beth’s declaration that she’s not afraid of dying – it was the first time I’d been introduced to this idea and seen a young character display that kind of faith and courage. When Jo lets go of her hand to go and pull the window shut after a sudden gust of wind, you know what it signifies – and it sounds like the cheesiest metaphor, but it’s not thanks to the sincerity of the scene and its actors.
I was also watching Little Women with my mum who had declared it time for me to be introduced to the March family and pulled out the VHS. In the same way she suggested Wizard of Oz, It’s A Wonderful Life and Singin’ in the Rain, a lot about loving a film comes from being introduced to it at the right age. I’ve also formed a life-long attachment to Christian Bale following his portrayal of family friend Laurie in this adaptation.
Little Women provided an early breakthrough role for Christian Bale as Laurie, one of few important male characters (Picture: Columbia/Everett/Rex/Shutterstock)
This summer I even visited the real Orchard House in Concord, where Alcott lived with her family, to discover more about the autobiographical elements behind the story and how the author used her own family’s bonds and struggles to inspire a story that remains as wildly popular today as it did over 150 years ago.
I heard again there from staff, as has been covered before in the media, that Little Women is often a book that even keen male readers are usually ‘yet to get around to’. Studio executives were even shocked that a female-centred story like this could work in Hollywood in the ’90s. I guess it’s perhaps easy to dismiss given its title, but I can promise you that you’re missing out on a timeless tale of family as well as an epic Christmas viewing option.
So I hope you’ll go forth and enjoy this adaptation of Little Women 30 years on with my hearty recommendation – and plenty of tissues ready.
‘Armstrong and her team have made it an A-movie blubfest, a sisterhood fairy tale set in an almost operatic world of heightened emotional drama,’ praises Anna Maria Dell’oso for Sydney Morning Herald. ‘The film feels both nicely dated and timeless at the same time.’
‘Ladies, get out your hand-hemmed handkerchiefs for the loveliest Little Women ever on screen,’ adds Janet Maslin for the New York Times in her review, while Jay Carr for the Boston Globe insisted: ‘Little Women is solid, warming, bountiful, brimful of high spirits, a glowing treat that belongs at the top of any holiday movie shopping list.’
Fans on Rotten Tomatoes have also described it as ‘a tearjerker’ and admitted to ‘crying every time’.
The March sisters are exquisitely played by Trini Alvarado (Meg), Winona Ryder (Jo), Claire Danes (Beth) and Kirsten Dunst – later Samantha Mathis (Amy), while Susan Sarandon is matriarch Marmee (Picture: Alamy)
‘Claire Danes makes me cry twice,’ wrote Victor D in his review comments, while another anonymous user shared: ‘I cry at basically every scene. Jo’s dipping her ink pen? <flood> Meg’s pregnant? <flood> Marmee doesn’t believe in corsets? <flood> Beth’s DEAD? <you get the picture> Unfailingly moving.’
‘LOVE this. One of my favourite Christmas movies,’ chimed in another fan.
Combine its starry cast, excellent material and emotional wallop, and this Little Women is already a handsome package – but there’s also Colleen Atwood lavish period costumes and Thomas Newman’s incredible score.
Little Women is available to stream on Netflix, as well as on Prime Video for the next few days only in the UK. It can also currently be streamed for free on Channel 4.
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