Thoughts After Rewatch: A Christmas Story
For some, this is the definitive Christmas movie. My favorite is Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, which I caught on NBC a couple weeks ago and found out it still makes me weep like a little girl at the end. A Christmas Story, though, has all the holiday spirit without suicide attempts and bankruptcy, so it’s far lighter fare for you to enjoy every December. I watched this for the first time only last year and I plan on doing so every holiday season!
The good: the writing by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark is just plain fantastic, and hearing such sophisticated sentences against images of a small kid who just wants an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle is pretty awesome and mainly why the film works so well. Another reason for that are the great performances by Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin as Ralphie’s (Peter Billingsley) parents.
The bad: the film is the tiniest bit dated.
The ugly: that thing at the end with the carolers in the Chinese restaurant is super racist.
Favorite scene: Miss Shields grading Ralphie’s theme in his imagination.
Favorite line: (narrated by Ralphie as an adult)
In the heat of battle my father wove a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.
It’s a great film. I’m not sure how it could be dated, though; the film is intentionally a period piece of the 1950s. I don’t think there’s anything to make it more “dated” today than there was when it was made in 1980.
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Haha, I know it’s a period piece set in the 50’s but I meant sometimes the humor and the feel are way too 80’s and that’s what dates it, imo.
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I read in a few places where this is set in the late 30’s early 40’s. The car his old-man drives in the film is 1937 Oldsmobile.
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Hmm. I hadn’t even paid attention to that, actually.
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I’ve seen loads of people blogging about this but I’ve never seen it! Sounds like I really should make the effort though!
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Yes! Please do. It’s really fun!
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Great holiday classic and filmed in my city, Toronto!
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That’s awesome! 😉
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I just wrote up a review of this as well. A great holiday film, I would concur that It’s A Wonderful Life is a bit better film. I know that ending is racist as hell but it always cracks me up.
So where is your review of Die Hard? Thats what I came here to read. 🙂
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Haven’t written it. I’ve been super busy, hehe!
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Nice review, Fernando. I’ll have to check it out during the next festive period!
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You definitely should. It’s very fun and the writing is just superb.
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“The definitive christmas movie” indeed, my family used to watch this every christmas without fail. I will admit though that the scene you mentioned is TOTALLY racist though, lol
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Yeah, it bothered me but I still enjoyed the movie a lot. The writing is just superb.
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