Monthly Classic Movie Review

December is home to the most important Holiday of the year: Christmas. It is a time when families come together, friends fellowship, and Santa brings that new Red Ryder home! This month's classic movie is none other than A Christmas Story. This is one of my favorite films and is truly one of the top 5 best holiday films in American History. I would say it’s the best, but I’m sure many people think It’s A Wonderful Life, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas is better. Whatever floats your boat. It deals with a period in American History much desired by those living in the now. A time where walking to school did not involve worrying if your kid would be snatched up by a kidnapper, or involved in a sniper’s shooting spree. A much quieter, gentler time when the radio was your idiot box, and television was still a few years away.
The charm of this film is endless. Just about every single character is so loveable and funny you can’t help but root for them. The lengths one young boy will go just to get his greedy little hands on that shiny, slick new Red Ryder b.b. gun; he devises clever little schemes to get his mother to read the advertisements and subliminally put the idea of a b.b. gun, every boy’s dream, into her head. He doesn’t care if he would shoot his eye out, which is of course every adult’s mantra. The adventures of Ralphie and his little brother Randy almost pale in comparison to the adventures of Ralphie’s Dad, a hard working, blue collar joe who has constant battles with their house’s furnace, his coworkers, and his neighbor’s 765 smelly old hound dogs, who hate every human being on earth except him. A small part of the film involves a special prize won by Ralphie’s Dad, that sparks not only tension between his parents, but previously unknown desires within Ralphie, that should not be manifest for at least 5 more years! It is one of the film’s funniest gags. This is a very funny movie. The constant chasing of the kids by the school bullies goes from real-time to hyper-speed, complete with high pitch screaming, maniacal cackling, and Randy yelling “Come on guys, wait up!” Another great sequence involves Ralphie’s uttering of a swear, and his subsequent punishment and confession, in which he lies that he heard the word from a friend. His mom calls the mother of this boy and informs her, who in turn is heard screaming in anger as she runs down the hall, proceeds to put the fear of God into her child, while he screams “What I do!”, which can all be heard as Ralphie’s mom listens in horror on the other end of the phone line!

It has all the elements of a good holiday film: Laughter, nostalgia, fantasy, love, emotion, and laughter! It is part of the holiday tradition now. A Christmas spent without watching A Christmas Story is not a Christmas at all!