Merry Christmas, moviegoers!
Today, in the penultimate installment of my 25 Days of Christmas marathon, I’ll be looking at another one which is deemed a Christmas classic: ‘A Christmas Story.’ Made in 1983 and based off the semi- fictional short stories and anecdotes of Jean Shepherd (Who also narrates the film), it was directed by Bob Clark, and stars Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley “Around which the entire kid year revolved.â€
It takes place some time in the 1940s. It centers around a little boy named Ralphie (Billingsley) who, for Christmas, desperately wants a Red Ryder range action BB gun. Problem is, his mother doesn’t want to get him one, out of fear that he’ll shoot his eye out. Appealing to both his teacher and a spooky department- store Santa produces similar results. Along the way to Christmas, Ralphie and his family experience various annoyances and mishaps, such as his younger brother Randy having to wear layers and layers of winter clothes so that he could barely move, his standing up to the downright scary school bully Scut Farkus (The epitome of the deranged school bully that every kid feared, making what Ralphie eventually does to him that much sweeter for formerly- bullied viewers to watch), their car blowing a tire on the road leading to a surprise outburst from Ralphie, and his dad getting a “Leg lamp†that he’s quite proud of but that the mom can’t stand.
Finally, Christmas morning comes. The kids get all kinds of presents, including Ralphie getting a present from his aunt Clara that is so hideous and so humiliating it should be considered a criminal offense for something like that to be given to an 8- year- old boy (Again, kind of tapping into the experiences of all the viewers who received similar humiliating gifts, especially in the form of clothes, from relatives). Then, just when Ralphie had given up hope, a surprise present emerges which was his beloved BB gun! When he tries it out, sadly, it ends up hurting him rather badly, but he recovers alright and makes a convincing story to explain away his injury. Then, making things worse, his neighbors’ pack of untrained dogs stampede through the kitchen and devour their Christmas turkey. Still, the family salvages things by having an unorthodox but fun Christmas dinner at a local Chinese restaurant (With the staff badly singing various Christmas carols, another famous part of the movie), and a quiet Christmas night at home.
I always had a few problems with ‘A Christmas Story,’ finding it a bit overrated among the typical assortment of Christmas films considered classics (The last time I watched all of it before now was when I was a kid, and I found it a bit depressing then). The narration by Shepherd is kind of a mixed bag, at times it’s funny (And demonstrates an impressive vocabulary), other times it’s unnecessary and even intrusive, during certain scenes in which Ralphie and the others’ facial expressions convey all the narration necessary (i.e. during a scene on Christmas morning when Ralphie and Randy run downstairs and stop at the tree, looking with joy at all the presents under it, the narrator says, “Santa had come!†Just the look of wonder on their faces as they gaze at the tree would have been enough to show that was what they were thinking). Second, there’s a scene in which Ralphie is shocked to receive a C + from his teacher on an essay he wrote about what he wants for Christmas. Problem is, there’s no indication of why she gave it such a grade, other than just disagreeing with what he wants for Christmas. That seems pretty unfair of the teacher, if he made his point well (And, from the sound of Ralphie’s narration while writing the paper, he did), she should give him a good grade for the paper regardless of whether she was in favor of him getting a BB gun for Christmas or not. Unlike in ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,’ in which the Griswolds’ various holiday mishaps are all played for laughs, the Christmas mishaps Ralphie’s family endures (Especially near the end) seem more serious in nature, and are harder to enjoy. The movie also ends rather abruptly.
However, ‘A Christmas Story’ still has plenty of bright moments. There are plenty of moments that have since become general pop- culture legends (i.e. When Ralphie’s friend Flick gets his tongue stuck to a frost- covered flagpole, and the fire department and police are called in to free him). The funny moments mostly come from that and other moments which don’t really have much to do with Christmas, but just the family interacting with each other. Similar to when I looked at 'Young Frankenstein' in October, the list of memorable quotes in 'A Christmas Story' could fill a phone book. The grand finale seems to sort of epitomize Christmas, between the parents downstairs in the living room looking at the beautifully lit tree and the snow falling outside, and Ralphie and Randy sleeping peacefully upstairs with their new toys clutched in their arms (Admittedly, it’s kind of creepy/ dangerous for a kid to sleep with a BB gun clutched in his arms, but at least his hands didn’t seem to be near the trigger). The acting is pretty good, especially Darren McGavin as Ralphie’s crude but decent enough father, and Peter Billingsley as young Ralphie, who has quite an expressive face.
There you have ‘A Christmas Story.’ While I still am not quite as big a fan of it as I am of the other films I’ve looked at, it’s definitely a good film (Better than I remember it being), and I can see why it’s considered a Christmas classic. Many of the situations Ralphie and his family go through are similar to what many viewers have gone through in real life or can otherwise relate to. My own mom even says that when my father was a boy, he looked almost exactly like young Ralphie in the film. They’re showing it over and over again all day today on TBS like they’ve done on Christmas for the past several years now, check it out if you haven’t yet or just wish to be reintroduced to it like I was. I’ve got just one more film left to wrap up my 25 Days of Christmas, stay tuned for it tonight.
