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A Christmas Story |
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A
Reel Cinema Video Pick |
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Score: 9/10 |
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"You'll Shoot your eye out kid! Merry Christmas. Ho.....Ho.....Ho" |
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When this film was released in 1983, it wasn't exactly a smash hit. Yet it has managed to find an audience year after year upon it's airing each and every Christmas Season. Why are we drawn to this story of a man reminiscing a Christmas childhood memory? His determination to get a Red Ryder BB Gun, a whiny little brother who doesn't eat, the school bully that makes their lives hell, a father who swears and is obsessed with the heater...it isn't exactly A Wonderful Life. But Perhaps that is where we so closely relate to it, for its imperfect reality of childhood when things were simple, anything was possible, and adults just had no clue. |
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Set sometime in the 40's, Ralphy is your typical kid with perhaps more than anything, a typical family. Humorously narrarated by the "adult" Ralph, it pokes fun at family life. His dad is a working class guy who seems to clumsily get by as head of household, while his stay at home mother tries to instill values in her kids (and it sometimes involves a bar of soap in the mouth). Unfortunately those values include no bb guns, and Ralphy really wants one for Christmas. This is where the story begins - a little boy trying every conceivable way to get what he really wants for Christmas. Along the way we are endlessly entertained by the antics of those in his life. It seems like his father is just a large version of a child, what capture's his imagination manifestates itself in a lamp in the shape of a woman's bare leg - presented to him as an award... at the horror of Ralphy's mother. |
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He tries to write the mother of all reports on "What I want for Christmas" hoping the A++++ will sway his parents into getting it for him. But after a bad grade and a P.S.: You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, poor Ralphy realizes that he is still seen as a little kid. But he still holds onto the hope that Santa will come around.
The Funniest thing about this film are just the little things. The whiny little brother who never eats, and steals a scene when his mother overdresses him for the cold weather. There's the typical school bully who makes everyone's life a living hell. And the father obsessed with anybody touching his thermostat. Stupid dares that kids will take dead serious based on the level of the dare. The scene where the father wins a lamp in the shape of a woman's leg is priceless. To this day I still jokingly pronounce FRAGILE as frageelay! |
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Adults seemed to come from another planet , we often wondered if they were ever once kids as their job always seemed to be ruining the fun. They just never understood!
His father, needless to say, really steals the movie. The performances of all the actor's are really pefect. Even the school bully. It's the kind of movie that all ages can easily love, the movie is timeless in it's ability to appeal to each generation. It has quickly grown to be a near instant classic, probably more watched each season than "It's a Wonderful LIfe". It makes us remember, and laugh about our own experiences. |
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FLICK: Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That's dumb!
SCHWARTZ: That's 'cause you konw it'll stick! FLICK: You're full of it!
SCHWARTZ: Oh yeah?!
FLICK: Yeah!
SCHWARTZ: Well I double-DOG-dare ya! NARRATOR: NOW it was serious. A double-dog-dare. |
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"A Christmas Story" is a charming holiday comedy worth watching any time of year, really. Full of the hopes, dreams and horror that was once our childhood. |
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Aunt Clara had not only lived under the delusion that I was perpetually four years old, but also, a girl. |
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