CHRISTMAS REVIEW OF THE DAY: A Christmas Story (1983)

Ever wanted that film that sums up your childhood, or perfectly envisions the world through your eyes as a child or through the eyes of everyday children in general, and hopefully the film would be clever enough to successfully present it. Well look no further because the 1983 Christmas classic A Christmas Story is just that film you have been looking for. The film tells the story of Ralphie, played by Peter Billingsley, as he as an adult, narrated by Jean Shepard, recalls a special Christmas when he was a young boy growing up in the 1940s. All young Ralphie wants more than anything in the world for Christmas is a Red Ryder B.B. Gun, but his parents, his teacher, and even Santa all tell him the same thing, "You'll shoot your eye out!". So Ralphie goes through several misadventures in order to get his B.B. Gun for Christmas while going through a handful of mischief ans mishaps including saying a bad word which causes his mother to put a bar of soap in his mouth, his father winning a lamp shaped like a woman's leg, beating up the local bully, witnessing one of his friends' tongue getting stuck to a frozen pole, and so much more while at the same time witnessing the joys and adventures of Christmas through a child's eyes. 

As always let us start off with one of the characters. Our main character Ralphie is sort of the every guy and the blank slate that observes everything around him. He is sort of the type of boy all of us can relate to when growing up, needy, attention seeking, materialistic, paranoid, a day dreamer, and persistent, which pretty much sums up what is like being a child. Telling the story of how a child sees Christmas and how they experience it is really fascinating and they do it very clever here. The situations and troubles that Ralphie gets into are almost identical to the mishaps most of us would get into as children. And who hasn't had that Christmas where there was that one gift that we wanted the most? The desire that Ralphie has for that B.B. Gun is almost as identical as our materialistic ways as children and how much we desired for that Christmas gift. Ralphie is very likeable because we know people like him, in fact we were probably once were him so that makes him very easy to relate to. There are other characters primarily Ralphie's family which include his little brother Randy, his mother, and of course his father. His family is sort of a goofy, over the top, but yet still lovable and believable family. Again it feels like we actually know these people. Randy is the typical younger sibling we all know, whiny, loves to cry, loves attention, gets away with everything simply because they're cute, annoying, refuses to eat their dinner, the works. I have to say that the mother is far too ditsy compared to real mothers out there, but she still succeeds in being lovable and being a caring mom, who of course has her limits especially towards cursing and the fact that she has a woman leg-shaped lamp in her house looking out the window. But for me personally I think the most enjoyable character out of the family, heck maybe out of this whole film is the father. He is such the over the top and strict man of the house who of course wants everything his own way and the only one who feels that his methods are right, it is hard not to enjoy him.

To this film I believe that there is no real three act structure, it just tells the story of the average boy and his family and how they experience Christmas. And you know what, I am completely fine with that. Much like films such as Citizen Kane and Bambi, it just shows what life is like or a special portion of life and this movie greatly does that by telling the story through a child's eyes, the story of what Christmas is like for a child, and who wouldn't be intrigued by something like that, Christmas is practically almost every kid's favorite holiday. I mentioned earlier that Ralphie represented us as children, especially the materialistic side of us. I made it sound like this film embraced materialism as if it were a good thing, but the truth is they are not embracing materialism. We still get to see situations with Ralphie, his involvement with his family, and other touching scenes that represent Christmas outside of him just wanting the B.B. Gun. In the end of the day Ralphie learns the true meaning of Christmas once he experiences it, embracing the renewal, the goodness of humanity, and spending time with the people you love which are of course your friends and family. I think almost all of us as children during Christmas, even as materialistic as we were, by the end of the day saw the joy and true meaning that Christmas brought once the 25th came around and we would wish for more than anything in the world to end it. That's why this movie is so special. It retells the story of an average child's Christmas and it reminds us of who were and how silly but yet still memorable and wholesome those times were and how different and mature we are today. We realize this by looking at our past and the film is a direct mirror of that. No matter how simple the film's title "A Christmas Story" is, it perfectly sums ups what it presents us with. 

GRADE: AE