Susan Keezer: Rudolph

A few days before Dec. 25, Daughters the Elder, Younger and I sat down to watch an early Christmas movie, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Hearing Burl Ives sing turned out to be the only enjoyable part of what we remembered as a wonderfully nostalgic movie.

We sat there with our mouths open as scene after cruel scene played out in front of us. For years we had thought this was a warm fuzzy movie. Watching it that night changed our minds.

Have you watched it lately?

If not, here goes.

Rudolph is born, as you remember, with a red nose, not a black one like the rest of his family and herd. He is immediately subjected to bullying and ultimately rejected by his own family.

Santa gruffly tells him he will never be part of his reindeer team flying through the night, orbiting the earth, so Santa can pop in and out of chimneys like a red Jack-in-the-Box. Why? It is simple: Rudolph is not like the other reindeer. He has a red nose. It is not black like the others. It doesn’t conform.

So Rudolph departs the village with Hermey, a young elf, whose boss ridicules him for wanting to be a dentist instead of working on the assembly line making toys. In the real world, a manager like that would be reprimanded and/or fired.

The only deer who isn’t mean to Rudolph is a little doe. She is kind to him but soon her father forbids her to play with Rudolph.

Poor Rudolph has no one on his side. His family are ashamed of him. Santa doesn’t want him. His friends are cruel to him. He’s bullied and rejected.

What kind of children’s movie is this? If it had been made today would it have been popular? I doubt it.

But then I think about previews I see at the theater. They are rated PG-13 and scare me witless. Giant metal creatures with pulsing orange and purple eyes waving arms that turn into swords charge across the screen on legs made of shards of steel. Do kids watch these things without cowering under their seats? I guess the parents don’t mind their children seeing this stuff or the film industry would not keep reeling them out. Perhaps the difference is that children know these monsters don’t exist … yet.

But I bet they can recognize rejection and bullying.

What effect does all this have on young minds?

But back to Rudolph. That movie sent many wrong messages while we watched it to the end.

It said it was OK to be mean to someone who was different. It said if you were in charge of a group of workers, it was all right to belittle one of them if he wasn’t in lock step with the others. If said that if one worker was thinking independently, his job was threatened. It said that, as a parent, it was fine to kick your child out of the family home if he was different because he was an embarrassment.

It said a highly regarded public figure could openly disparage a citizen.

All of these negative messages were in this movie. We were shocked. We hadn’t, as younger people, recalled the film as being like this. Perhaps, we didn’t want to.

What we did do was determine we wouldn’t want any children we knew watching it.

We all know the storyline changed and everything was fine at the end. But all the trauma should not have been there in the first place, should it? Yes, Rudolph was finally found and was back in the family fold. Yes, his friends were happy to see him again and yes, Santa decided he could use Rudolph to guide his sleigh through the dark and foggy night.

I squirm about that. Rudolph wasn’t good enough until Santa needed him due to bad weather conditions.

Nice message, Mr. Claus. You’re OK this year, Rudolph, because it’s so foggy none of us can see where we are going. But unless it’s this way next year, you better find another job for Christmas Eve.

The author, Richard May, first introduced Rudolph as a giveaway booklet for Montgomery Ward in Chicago in 1939. The book and song followed later. Mr. May said the sadness of the story reflected his own depression at the time.

“The Atlantic’s” December 2020 issue warned people not to let their children watch this film.

That article put to rest any ideas I had that I was the earliest alarmist about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I seem to be always a few steps behind.

— Susan Keezer lives in Adrian. Send your good news to her at lenaweesmiles@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Susan Keezer: Rudolph