DVD Review: Bad Santa (Director’s Cut)

By Jeff Swindoll Oct 11, 2006, 14:19 GMT

"Bad Santa" is the story of two conmen who go on a road trip to malls dressed as Santa and his elf. Rather than spreading good cheer, the duo\'s motive is to rob each establishment, a strategy that becomes complicated when they encounter an 8-year-old who teaches them the true meaning of Christmas ...more

Maybe calling this release Baddest Santa might’ve kept the tradition, but the tradition has also been to add more footage.  This new edition approximates director Zwigoff’s cut of the movie but it pares the movie down to 88 minutes. 

Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is only employed one month out of the year.  He’s a department store Santa.  He must do it for love of the kiddies, right?  Hell no, he does it because he and his little helper Marcus (Tony Cox) pull a big heist in the store that Willie has been Santa-ing in while everyone is out for the Christmas holiday.  Willie is not a very nice human being.  He’s a kid hating, alcoholic, sex fiend, and a dope head – and those are his good points.    They’ve picked their next mark and have weaseled their way into the store managed by Bob Chipeska (John Ritter). 

Willie usually shows up soused, pissed off, or both and when a kid isn’t pissing on his lap he’s usually pissing himself (very efficient, cut out the middle man).  Chipeska has his suspicions and brings in store detective Gin (Bernie Mac) to investigate the not so sober Santa.  Meanwhile a naïve boy (Brett Kelly) has latched onto Willie thinking that he’s the real Mr. Claus.  He gives the kid a ride home and discovers that he lives in a nice neighborhood and the only other adult in the household is his senile Granny (Cloris Leachman).  Want some sandwiches?  Willie is going to rob the place, but just decides to steal the absentee father’s car. 

He goes back to his fleabag motel but somebody is searching his room.  He then decides to hide out in the kid’s nice house.  Things are looking up for Willie since he’s staying in a nice place and has a girlfriend with a Santa fetish.  Sue (Lauren Graham) was raised Jewish and Santa was forbidden fruit so now she wants Willie to fill her stocking (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).  Gin is onto Willie and Marcus, but he doesn’t want to catch them.  He just wants in on the action, which doesn’t set well with Marcus or his greedy wife Lois (Lauren Tom).  So now Willie has to deal with the kid and that Gin is cutting in on the action. 

Gin tells Willie and Marcus what he wants for Christmas - half!

Bad Santa is really a dark comedy.  What could be darker than an anti-Santa - especially when he’s played with such moral abandon by Billy Bob Thornton.  Lovers of dark comedy will eat all this up – and you won’t sh*t right for a week.  However, one complaint might be that by the end of the picture that comedy is somewhat removed and only the darkness remains. 

One of the characters dies in a not so nice way.  Zwigoff mentions that test audiences did not like this turn of events.  It should be noted that this is a completely new version that runs 88 minutes.  Director Terry Zwigoff mentions in the commentary that this is his preferred cut. 

The movie originally ran 91 minutes theatrically and the unrated “Badder” cut ran 98 minutes.  I suppose that I should confess here and tell you that I’ve not watched the movie before – Mea Culpa.  My favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard.  I only mention I’ve not seen it because that means that I can’t really tell you what’s missing from this cut.

I can tell you that there’s a scene with Ritter interviewing Willie and Marcus that appears in the documentary that is not in the film or in the deleted scenes.  I’ll leave it to Bad Santa aficionados to fill in the differences later, but you’ll probably want to hold on to all three versions of the film. 

Willie and Mrs. Santa's sister

Bad Santa is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include a brand new commentary by director Terry Zwigoff and editor Robert Hoffman.

There are 4 deleted/alternate scenes on the disc (Santa Trainer scene [1 minute 42 seconds], Willies Leaves the Department Store [1 minute 49 seconds], Florida robbery [3 minutes 38 seconds], and Screaming Baby [1 minute 39 seconds]).  There also the 9 minute “Not Your Typical Christmas Movie” (which I think appears on the other DVD releases as well).

It has interviews with producers John Cameron and Sarah Aubrey, director Terry Zwigoff, Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, and Brett Kelly.  There are also 4 minutes of outtakes.  Finally there’s some previews for other DVD releases. 

Bad Santa is definitely not for the kiddies, but adults that like black humor will find a lot to like.  However it does take a turn towards the end (a character dies) that nudges it towards reality (Christmas noir?) instead of the usual comedy wacky ending.  Though it is nice to have the director’s vision finally out, I’m not sure if it will be appreciated by Bad Santa fans having to buy yet another release of this film.

Granny might've become the ghost of Christmas present

Bad Santa (Director’s Cut) is now available at Amazon. As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.