Ready to Rent Ready to Rent (December 17, 2004)

A Christmas Story

MGM/UA Home Video VHS & DVD

1 hr 33 mins

Director: Bob Clark

According to my father, if our family ever had a nugget of triumph, it would be that we saw the now perennial holiday television favorite "A Christmas Story" in the movie theater back in 1983. In fact, my father speculates that, along with maybe a handful of others, we were the only ones who actually watched the film in its native habitat, making him, my brother and myself eligible for some cult of Ralphie's adventures in late 1940s Indiana. I can only guess that now in my dad's twilight years, his yuletide yearnings secretly turn toward a surprise gift of a provocative lamp leg of his own, to lend to his boasting of our family's filmdom coat of arms to unsuspecting neighbors and guests year round.

If you have never seen director Bob Clark's "A Christmas Story," I can honestly say that it is the epitome of the American Christmas experience. It is taken from humorist Jean Shepherd's 1965 collection/novella "In God we Trust, All Others Pay Cash," and Shepherd doubles as the narrator. His warm and wily Midwest accent is the movie's playful spirit, with a young Peter Billingsley enacting Shepherd's alter ego Ralphie, whose quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun becomes the bane of his holiday. Shepherd's narration serves up the film as if he were a stand-up ghost of Christmas past.

"A Christmas Story" plays like an episodic NPR piece, going from one stylized anecdote to the other. It centers on Ralphie, a towheaded bespectacled boy growing up in Indiana, whose Christmas story seems to be made up of all our collective memories. Ralphie is obsessing over a Red Ryder Carbine Action, 200 Shot, Range Model Air Rifle, but his plan seems to be bombarded by the over protective forces of Mom (Melinda Dillon) and adults in general, whose mantra "you'll shoot your eye out" seems destined to ruin his childhood fun. To make matters worse, Ralphie has a whiny little brother whose winter snowsuit makes him as mobile as an upright turtle; a yellow-eyed bully ("I swear he had yellow eyes!") named Scut Farkas whose after-school torments finally drive Ralphie over the edge; and a dad (a perfect Darren McGavin), whose constant use of the word "fudge" will later invoke Ralphie's use of it, much to the horror of his mother (and Ralphie's taste buds).

What everyone seems to love about "A Christmas Story" is its universality that evokes feelings of shared Christmas experiences. From destroyed dinners, to finding a surprise toy, to parents watching poetic snow flurries by the light of the Christmas tree, the film seems to hit upon the romanticism of the holiday and recognize the powerful memories that are formed at this time of the year. The film's specialty is to replicate the texture of these memories as if a projector was hooked to Jean Shepherd's head. "A Christmas Story" never strives to say something profound and never feels forced in its execution, which leaves itself open for the viewer to participate in the experience. Director Bob Clark seemed to have known that Jean Shepherd's material (along with the writer himself) was a large enough presence to fill the film with the genuine warmth that a holiday film needs. -Joe Ramirez

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