It's A Lethal Weapon Christmas

Please don't let the trigger warning stop you from reading on. Mental health conversations are perhaps even more vital at this time of year.

Trigger Warning: I will be talking about the portrayal of PTSD in this film.

Every year at around this time my husband and I embark on a Christmas ritual. The Christmas Movie marathon. Though it probably can't be called a marathon when it's spread out over so long, but you have to call it something.

This year we started with Lethal Weapon 1.

And what's not to love? We watched the movie on disc. I know woah, that's a bit old school. There is a reason for it though, we own the directors cut, it has an absolutely favourite scene of mine. It's at the primary school and Riggs just stands there while the shooter is taking pot shots at him.

Riggs is broken. I know what that is like, feeling broken. Mine was from different triggers but broken is broken. If you want to read my story you can find it here (The Broken Smile).

On the surface Lethal Weapon is neither a Christmas movie or study in anything substantial, it was marketed as a buddy cop film. The old cop (who by the way isn't old and man that took on new meaning this year given as I'm the same age as Murtaugh) and the younger reckless cop.

It is a Christmas film by virtue of the fact it is set at Christmas, and by the end we get more than one Christmas miracle, Rigg's bullet gift is only one of them.

Murtaugh is the family man, the image of Christmas that is familiar to us. Unlike my movie review from last year on Home Alone (The McCallisters are a Terrible Family), Roger is an engaged father. A cop with a rough job and a rough history (war vet) but his family matter and that plays out later when he clearly will do anything to save his daughter.

Riggs is the loose cannon, he does things a little different to Murtaugh's preferred slow and steady approach. He too has a rough history (war vet) but unlike Murtaugh he recently lost his wife.

This is cumulative trauma. Back then they just said Riggs was looking to draw a psycho pension. Me personally, I think Riggs was just trying to find a reason to keep putting one step in front of another because as brutal as depression and coping with the breakdown effects of trauma, is giving up isn't an option. Everyday he made the choice to keep fighting.

This year watching this I asked the question, was this the first time we've seen a man, a white main male character, an action hero, cry?

Pretty significant when you think about.

Lethal Weapon is full of all the things you expect from an eighties action film; boobs, guns, fight sequences, psycho drug running bad guys. It even has some incredible quotes, 'a lot of old timers use those,' 'so thin it's anorexic' , 'I was driving before you were an itch in your daddy's pants', and of course the most quoted line of all, 'I'm too old for this sh*#'.

This movie is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil. In that respect it is a great Christmas film.

But it is so much more. It shows us that trauma is present in a lot of lives, it shows us that a way to overcome is to just be present for the fight, and it shows us that we don't ever have to do it alone.

Another great Christmas message. You don't need to do it alone. For some people out there Christmas is a rough time of year, for what ever reason but like Riggs, you can reach out and take the hand that's offering you a lifeline. Be part of your own Christmas miracle.

My conclusion, Lethal Weapon is a great Christmas movie, it hits the carols, the family, the chosen family and the Christmas miracle tick boxes. Believe what you will, you won't change my mind.