Even in
fine Christmas season films from the US, Santa Claus has been tarnished with a cynical brush that paints him as a rather desperate loser or out - and - out nutcase — Gene Hackman's undercover cop Santa in William Friedkin's The French Connection (1970); Dan Aykroyd's smashed Santa in John Landis» Trading Places (1983); and the one - two combination of
cinema's worst shopping mall Santas, Jeff Gillen in Bob Clark's A Christmas Story (1983) and Billy Bob Thornton in Terry Zwigoff's bad - taste, big - heart
classic Bad Santa (2003).