Unlike Christmas, there are not a lot of Thanksgiving movies.
That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Amongst those that are out there, here’s five movies for your Turkey Day that I’m happy to recommend.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
This is without a doubt the quintessential Thanksgiving movie.
Steve Martin’s Neal Page wants to get home from New York City to his family in Chicago for Thanksgiving.
He seems to have plenty of time to do so, with two days until Turkey Day.
But like all good movies (especially comedies), everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
Especially after he meets John Candy’s Del Griffith.
For a John Hughes movie it contains more profanity than most of his fare which years later is a bit stunning when it comes out of the characters mouths (but hilarious during the rental car scene).
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is easily in the top five of all movies John Hughes ever made, maybe even the top three.
And it is without a doubt on the top of any credible Thanksgiving movie list.
How about them bears?
Grumpy Old Men
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon made some great movies together, including 1993’s Grumpy Old Men.
This is easily one of the movies that I laughed the most in when I first saw it. I continue to do so when I watch it.
Lemmon’s John Gustafson and Mattau’s Max Goldman are the titular grump old men. They are widowers and next door neighbors in the snow covered town Wabasha, Minnesota who have known each other all their lives and have been feuding for decades.
Their lives become complicated when Ann-Margaret’s free-spirted and widowed character Ariel moves in across the street from them.
If every there a movie was expertly cast it is Grumpy Old Men. Especially Burgess Meredith in the role of the elder Mr. Gustafson.
The movie is set during the holiday season and several scenes take place on Thanksgiving, as you can see below.
Son in Law
In the 1990’s after the success of his show Totally Pauly on MTV, Pauly Shore starred in six feature films.
Of those six one of them that was not only watchable, but truly enjoyable.
That is Son in Law.
The movie is your basic fish-out-of-water two-worlds-collide story.
South Dakota Rebecca played by Carla Guino begins college UCLA where where Resident Advisor is Pauly Shore’s character Crawl.
For the Thanksgiving, Rebecca brings Crawl home with her to the family farm since he has no place to go for the holiday.
When her high school boyfriend proceeds to propose, Crawl and Rebecca pretend to be already engaged to the consternation of Rebecca’s family and friends.
And as they say, hi-jinx ensue.
Rocky
“Rocky is a Thanksgiving movie?” you might be asking.
Absolutely.
It’s also a Christmas and a New Years Day movie, but that’s a story for another time.
Now as much as Rocky is a sports movie, it is far more a movie about the relationship between Rocky and Adrian.
And when did those two go on their first date? Thanksgiving of 1975.
While we know that date led to one of the greatest movie romances in cinema history, it didn’t start out so smoothly as you can see in this clip from the movie.
Frickin’ Paulie.
The Scent of a Woman
Like Rocky, you might not consider The Scent of a Woman as a Thanksgiving movie, but the majority of the story takes place over Thanksgiving weekend.
Charlie played by Chris O’Donnell is hired to tend to Al Pacino’s blind army veteran, Colonel Slade for Thanksgiving.
When Charlie arrives on Wednesday afternoon, Colonel Slade whisks him away with him for a holiday weekend adventure in New York City.
They two even celebrate Thanksgiving with a surprise visit to the home of Colonel Slade’s brother Willie.
If you thought your family gatherings could be tense, the Slade family probably has you beat.
Hoo-Rah!
I hope these three Thanksgiving movie satisfy you as much as a deep fried Turducken!