Knit to This
Snow Movies to Love
Whatever your day brings today, we hope you have time for a bit of rest and, maybe, a bit of a knit.
No matter where we are, this whole winter season makes us crave snow movies—even if we have no possibility of seeing actual snow.
Watching a snowy movie is like eating spicy food when it’s hot. It warms us up—a relief to know that however cold and shivery we are, we’re not having as rough a time of it as those poor sods in that snowy movie.
Reader Faves
A few years back, MDK readers suggested the following. (Links are to Amazon, where these can all be rented. There are so many platforms that your best bet is to search the movie name, then go with whatever platform makes sense for you! Or just yell it into the air and it will show up on your phone, or something.)
Jeremiah Johnson. Robert Redford snow plus the dark scary wilderness.
Downhill Racer. Robert Redford snow plus ski racing.
Murder on the Orient Express. The 1974 one. Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, the whole gang!
Never Cry Wolf, based on the Farley Mowat book. Snow with wolves.
The Thing from Another World (the 1951 version) or the newer John Carpenter version, The Thing. Antarctic snow plus monster.
Our Shortlist
Here is our time-tested list of excellent snow movies—a batch for every possible taste.
Dr. Zhivago. Epic doomed Russian revolution romantic snow. Filmed-in-the-’60s snow.
Encounters at the End of the World. Documentary snow. Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica to meet the people who are willing to live on the edge.
The Shining. Stanley Kubrick superscary snow.
March of the Penguins. Morgan Freeman-narrated snow.
Fargo. Creepy Coen Brothers snow.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Suspenseful Daniel Craig Swedish snow.
Frozen. Animated, sing-a-long snow.
Finally, the best snow movie of all time:
Groundhog Day. Bill Murray living the same day over and over, trying to win over Andie MacDowell.
Would love to hear more snow movie ideas. Drop ’em in the comments.
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The answer is McCabe & Mrs Miller
Yes it is! Teared up just reading the title.
Also, Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, called The Claim. It’s reset in an occasionally vividly snowy gold-rush era Sierra Nevada mining town.
My favorite is ‘The Snowman’, and it’s sequel, ‘The Snowman and The Dog’. The first was based on a 1978 book by Raymond Briggs. I watch both every year around the holidays.
I used The Snowman film in my music classes. The children loved it . We also read the book with the soundtrack playing in the background. So wonderful. I need to find it for my grandkids. Thanks for reminding me.
I’ve loved the The Snowman ever since it appeared. The music often brings tears to my eyes. Just as the ending does. I’m a senior citizen and sometimes it’s just the beauty of something wonderful that reaches our hearts. Music also can have the same effect.
I love the Snowman, it has long been our holiday tradition to watch and listen to the beautiful soundtrack. My now adult daughter performed music from the Snowman at her winter piano recital, which meant we heard it a lot before and for some time after and I never tired of it. The music is just beautiful.
Long lost now, we recorded it to a VHS tape and when it was aired in the states it was introduced by David Bowie. Between the Snowman and Labyrinth, it explains why my daughter is a big David Bowie fan to this day.
Ive been listening to our local PBS holiday stream and this song kept coming on that seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it. Finally I found out that it’s Walking in the Air from The Snowman. A gorgeous, haunting, lovely song. Now I have to watch the movie again! And didn’t know there is a sequel! Thanks!
Back in the day, some of us early birds were stomping our feet in the freezing bright afternoon snow for half an hour waiting to see Fargo at a theater with no indoor lobby. When we were finally let into the very appreciated warmth and just as our toes and fingers were beginning to thaw, the opening credits came on for Fargo – where the entire screen was filled with a landscape of snow. The whole audience began to laugh as we put our coats back on again. Best start to a movie ever. (Netflix eat your heart out.)
The Goldrush
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Ralph Fiennes and snow (swoon). And Klaus for animated snow; or what was that one where Father Christmas’ younger technically minded son eventually gets the gig?
love Klaus! it’s the one where the main character is a postmaster in a frozen island where everybody is mean
March of the Penguins…so good. I took my 7 y.o. daughter, years ago, and [spoiler alert] when the seal eats the penguin, she cries, “But I thought seals were nice!!!!!”
The Revenant. Leonardo DiCaprio. Not for the faint of heart.
Two more – Smilla’s Sense of Snow, and Frannie & Alexander
And Gorky Park.
Good call – a forgotten gem. I once met William Hurt, while he was sailing on the midcoast of Maine. We had a short conversation about Finland, where Gorky Park was filmed. And we talked sailboats, of course.
Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah to you.
Thanks for the memory.
Nothing like Dr.Zhivago on A hot summer day! Crank up the air , get your favorite iced beverage and chill away!
Snow Day – about a bunch of kids trying to stop the Snowplow guy, teenage love. Just silly fun.
Snowpiercer. Dystopian thrill-a-minute snow.
I don’t think it would be good to knit to, though.
Eight Below—my dog loves it, too!
Frozen River, Force Majeure, and Winter’s Bone
Thanks, readers and MDK staff, for all the recommendations. You’ve covered my favorites, of course – Fargo and Groundhog Day – and now I have more to look forward to. I live in a no-snow part of the world, so it’s all fun! 😉
The Ground Hog Day trailer has be laughing over breakfast! Must watch more of it. That’s my pick for today along with starting a new sock. Thanks!
Gremlins — havoc in the snow in a small town at Christmastime, complete with a showing of the film Snow White.
Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, Transsiberian, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Polar Express, It’s a Wonderful Life, Serendipity, Aspen Extreme
Just watched “Christmas as usual” (Netflix) Lots of Norwegian snow, and a cute story line.
I showed the Snowman to my students every year. Fargo is one of my favorite movies. Just warped enough to be a hoot. Once you have seen it, you will never look at a wood chipper the same way.
Ice Age, the animated feature, from Blue Sky Studios
Smilla’s sense of snow
I checked before I wrote because the movie I immediately thought of was The Holiday. There’s something about that English cottage in snow that just gets me.
This is why I wanted to be friends, instantly. Writing little quips like this. 🙂 I can only imagine how fun it was to find friendship in that forum and get nuggets like this:
“Or just yell it into the air and it will show up on your phone, or something.”
The Bishop’s Wife – David Niven, Loretta Young, and Cary Grant playing an angel. Sigh.
I think DG recommended that one a while ago and I watched it! Really good! They remade it with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, which surely cannot be bad, all things considered.
I still love the tree decorating scene with Cary Grant. That special effect was remarkable for its time and still is for this time.
Here is a true adventure film but without gimmicks or giant budgets:
The Snow Walker – another adaptation of Farley Mowat’s novel (of the same title).
A heart warming tale taking place in the early fifties, of a yahoo type, young (white) pilot and an Inuit girl that he reluctantly picks up in the far North (in order to get her medical help). He verbally mistreats her during the flight south, but soon the plane crashes. The film is the story of their survival in the wilderness of the Arctic – thanks to the skills of the Inuit girl. The ending unexpected… at least to those who are not familiar with Inuit life as it was.
The Mortal Storm
I like the Swedish version of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.
Eddie the Eagle, about an underdog British ski jumper. Hugh Jackman adds eye candy.
Ummmm. Home Alone 1 and 2 obviously .
Smilla’s since of snow – another Nordic thriller
‘As it is in heaven’ is my favorite! About a Swedish choir and its conductor. Thanks for reminding me… i think i still have the dvd!