Snow behind us. Snow ahead.
The forecast looks frigid for this January. And while cold-weather connoisseurs may rejoice in a season of icicles, snowmen, and skiing, the rest of us are thinking about galoshes, snow shovels, ice melt and tire chains.
If only you could enjoy winter, without actually having to go out into it!
In fact, you can.
Leave it to Hollywood – which loves a winter landscape almost as much as a sex scandal or a superhero franchise – to provide the escape. What Land of Oz, what Middle Earth, can compare to the magical realm of snow, stretching out as far as the eye can see? Cataracts of icicles! Driving blizzards! Frozen lakes of glass!
And what better time than now, when the outside is cold, the nights are long, and time hangs heavy? Thanks to the movies, you can enjoy winter indoors – in your Bermuda shorts and your tank tops, on your sofa, with a nice mug of hot chocolate.
‘Lost Horizon’
Battle that blizzard! Scale that unpassable mountain pass! Because on the other side is Shangri-La, a Himalayan paradise where people are nice and everyone lives forever. Frank Capra’s gentle 1937 fantasy struck home in a world on the brink of war. Avoid the 1973 musical remake. Streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV.
‘The Thing’
In the original 1951 version, The Thing (subtitled “From Another World”) was a kind of walking carrot. In its remakes, in 1982 and 2011, the alien is a shapeshifter, able to assume the forms of the polar scientists who – inadvisably – rescue it from the ice. That’s more in line with the classic 1938 short novel “Who Goes There?” by by John W. Campbell Jr., from which all three films were derived. But either way, the icy wastes of the pole (north in 1951; south in the two later versions) is a big part of the eerie atmosphere. Streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV (1951 version), Amazon Prime, Apple, YouTube (1982 version), YouTube, Apple, Amazon Prime (2011 version).
‘Dr. Zhivago’
It’s cold out there, in Revolutionary-era Russia. And the frigid clime allows director David Lean to do for snow, in his 1965 adaptation of the Boris Pasternak novel, what his previous 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia” did for sand. The best moment: Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie) enter their rural retreat and find the interior overhung with icicles. Streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple.
‘The Shining’
Feeling snowbound? It could be worse — a whole lot worse. Try being snowed-in at an isolated Colorado hotel that just happens to be haunted by an ectoplasmic bartender, the ghostly Grady twins, and assorted other apparitions. Stanley Kubrick’s famed 1980 adaptation of the Stephen King book (which he repudiated) gave Jack Nicholson one of his meatiest roles — meaty, as in butcher. And the snowy terrain makes it all the more shivery. Streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple.
‘Fargo’
“And here ya are. And it’s a beautiful day.” So Marge Gunderson (Oscar-winning Frances McDormand), the cheery detective, reproaches the killer (Peter Stormare) in the back seat of her police car, as she drives through a bleak snowscape that some might hesitate to call “beautiful.” But Minnesotans are a special breed. That, as much as anything, is the point of the Coen Brothers’ now-classic 1996 black comedy about a kidnapping gone wrong. The wintery visuals and the mournful music (Carter Burwell) somehow make the whole thing funnier. Streaming on Apple, Google Play, HBO Max.
‘March of the Penguins’
What’s cuter than a penguin? A whole troop of penguins, heading to inland antarctica to mate. This 2005 French documentary, which won an Oscar, is narrated (in its American version) by Morgan Freeman. Streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime.
‘Frozen’
The title says it all. And what it doesn’t say, Olaf the Snowman (Josh Gad) and Elsa the Snow Queen (Idina Menzel) say — or sing — in Disney’s epic 2013 reimagining of the Hans Christian Andersen tale. What, you’ve already seen it with your kids a million times? Let it go, let it go. Streaming at Disney+, Google Play, Apple TV.
‘The Revenant’
There’s chilling, as in cold. And there’s chilling, as in terrifying. “Revenant,” the 2015 film based on the true adventures of an early 1800s pioneer, is both. Left to fend for himself on the frigid American plains, trapper Leonardo DiCaprio’s life gets even better when he’s mauled by a grizzly bear. The same story was filmed, in 1971, as “Man in the Wilderness,” which might also be worth a look. Streaming on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Apple.
‘Snowpiercer’
A climate apocalypse has led to a frigid earth — over which barrels the train Snowpiercer, where the struggling remnants of humanity fight each other for supremacy in this 2014 thriller. The landscape is as grim as the story — which in 2020 was spun off into a TV series. Streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime.
‘Society of the Snow’
The 1972 Andes plane crash that culminated in the survivors cannibalizing the remains of their dead comrades has a harrowing fascination that has lent itself to three movies (so far). “Society of the Snow,” a 2023 Spanish-American film with a cast of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, has the bite of reality. But in all three, the snowy wasteland of the Andes is a terrible reminder of the odds. Streaming on Netflix.
