IMDb > Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Miracle on 34th Street
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Miracle on 34th Street (1994) More at IMDbPro »

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Miracle on 34th Street (1994) -- Long trailer for the 1994 version
Miracle on 34th Street (1994) -- Trailerfan.com - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
6.0/10   5,767 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Les Mayfield
Writers (WGA):
Valentine Davies (story)
George Seaton (1947 screenplay)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Miracle on 34th Street on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 November 1994 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Family | Fantasy more
Tagline:
Experience the Miracle. more
Plot:
A little girl discovers dreams do come true if you really believe. Six-year-old Susan has doubts about childhood's most enduring miracle - Santa Claus... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
1 nomination more
User Comments:
Do you believe? If so, why? more (45 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated PG for some mild language.
Runtime:
114 min
Country:
USA
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | Dolby Digital
Filming Locations:
Chicago, Illinois, USA more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Macy's department store refused permission for its name to be used in this remake. more
Goofs:
Continuity: While Bryan is giving his final statement, Susan is seen sitting away from her mother in one shot and cuddled up next to her seconds later. more
Quotes:
Dorey Walker: Are you still coming to dinner?
Bryan Bedford: Am I still invited?
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in A Hollywood Christmas (1996) (V) more
Soundtrack:
Song for a Winter's Night more

FAQ

Chapter Headings, an unofficial version:
more
6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful.
Do you believe? If so, why?, 23 December 2007
Author: Oct (wjphillips@clara.co.uk) from London, England

Richard Attenborough returned to acting after 14 years behind the camera in "Jurassic Park", and followed it swiftly by daring to challenge comparison with Oscar-winner Edmund Gwenn in this remake.

As a heartwarmer for those inadequates who won't sit through a 60-year-old monochrome movie-- albeit one which rivals "It's a Wonderful Life" as Hollywood's answer to "A Christmas Carol"-- this John Hughes revamp will probably serve. Anyhow, there are plenty of copies on sale at the checkout of my local supermarket. But it is a bit too laid-back and, latterly, too bogged down in argument for younger kids or older boys. It may warm more cockles among the grandparents.

The main thematic interest is how Hughes chooses to tweak the original screen story as adapted (unusually for the time) by the director, George Seaton. Whether he sought to or not, the remake has thrown up some intriguing twists for a more skeptical and secular time.

The oldie caught the mood of an America yearning to get back to normalcy amid the perils of the post-war, Cold War world. Location shooting in New York City, with much co-operation from Macys, gave a touch of realism to the fantasy, whereas in 1994 it's an imaginary store and (for Americans, at least) an incongruously "veddy British" claimant to the chair of Santa Claus- although his nationality is not the issue when the legal meanies of the State of New York try to get him confined to the bughouse.

What is striking is the judge's rationale for allowing Kris's plea for freedom. Because US bills have "In God We Trust" on them, he reasons, it means New York is allowed to have blind faith in the existence of a supernatural being who lays presents on 1.7 billion children in one night, operating from invisible workshops with reindeer which cannot be made to fly in a courtroom demonstration of his powers because it isn't Christmas Eve. Besides, the sneery prosecutor's kids were raised to believe in him, so there- case closed.

In real life the ACLU would be appealing such a judgement all the way to the Supreme Court for allowing too much religion into the law and the public square. "In God We Trust" was only put on the money during the Cold War, to cock a snook at "Godless bolshevism"; but this film is refreshingly disrespectful to the newer orthodoxy of playing down most Americans' beliefs in their films.

Kris asks if he should swear in the Bible, the Pope's ruling on Nicholas's sanctity is debated, and the ethos is quietly but unmistakably Christian. No "spiritual" Santa or "Happy Holidays" here. In a very light fashion, the film does revolve issues of how far it is legitimate to maintain a metaphor as a source of inspiration when rationalism of the Dawkins and Hitchens strain is sniping at it. The screenplay also looks quite beadily at the way commercial operators use holy myth to make money, even if the message comes muted from Hollywood.

That is the good news. There's plenty to carp at as well.

Attenborough's quiet, gentle but firm performance (most atypical of one who spent his previous acting time mainly playing unreliables or martinets) suffuses the film. He gets little competition, save from the contrasted crustiness of Windom. Most of the support is so-so, on the level of a Yuletide TV special, and not excluding little Wilson as the girl who has faith in Mr Kringle's claim to be St Nicholas. She is no Margaret O'Brien, if no worse in her way than the kewpie-doll Natalie Wood. In fact, she's a John Hughes moppet who did little later and nothing since 2000.

The narrative's departures from the well shaped original are no help. Once off the legal hook, Kris, wearing a brown suit, just disappears-- we don't see any triumphal sleigh ride to bid him adieu-- while attention shifts to a ridiculous post-midnight-mass impromptu wedding in a Catholic church. Then follows a trip out to a dream house in the snowy country, ushered by a silly salesman. The film does not seem to know when to call a halt, and there's not so much as Clarence's tinkling bell to bring back Kris at the close. It's as if the whole object of the exercise was to unite two bland characters in matrimony.

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in the category of the worst remake winner is ... miranda_ya
John Hughes 'Christian angle' change to plot coolcollie
what a beautiful house :) secondgeneration1
What year is this movie set? doanleslied
in god we trust jakejanse
Total Christmas Classic julia_from_me-u
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