A Christmas Story (1983)

Flick: Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That's dumb!
Schwartz: That's 'cause you know it'll stick!
Flick: You're full of it!
Schwartz: Oh yeah?
Flick: Yeah!
Schwartz: Well I double-DOG-dare ya!
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] NOW it was serious. A double-dog-dare. What else was there but a "triple dare you"? And then, the coup de grace of all dares, the sinister triple-dog-dare.
Schwartz: I TRIPLE-dog-dare ya!
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going right for the throat!

Director:  Bob Clark
Producer:  Rene Dupont, Bob Clark
Main Cast:  Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley and Ian Petrella
Runtime:  94 minutes

Some movies will hang around for a while then fade away into nothing whilst others will stick around only to re-emerge year after year.  In this case, A Christmas Story is one of those films that just keep coming back particularly for the North American viewers.  When released in 1983 the movie was so popular that people actually complained when it went finished at the cinema so they ended up running it again in select cinemas.  If that’s not enough proof that it has a big following, let’s just say that between 8pm Christmas Eve and 6pm Christmas day the show plays a phenomenal 12 times on American TV in that 24-hour period.  So yes, it is very popular and for good reason as it really is a classic family Christmas comedy that will stick in your mind for years to come.
I have included a link for the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvMLfSQrHKE

Growing up, each one of us no doubt had a dream to get something specific for Christmas.  Perhaps we would drop hints or just blatantly blurt it out to whoever asked us, but for Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) his greatest desire was to get a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun to defend his family from both imaginary and real suspicious characters like Scut Farkas (Zack Ward) that threaten him and his family.  
The story is narrated by an adult Ralphie as he reflects on one particular Christmas that would stick in his mind for the rest of his life.  A Christmas with the usual snow, school and toys but also at this time the difficult job of convincing his mother (Melinda Dillon) and father (Darren McGavin) of his need for the BB gun even after being told the most formidable thing one could imagine “you’ll shoot your eye out”.  Heck, even the shopping centre Santa Claus tells him that, yet he still remains hopeful.  

Set in the 1940’s the whole family performs brilliantly from the young Randy (Ian Petrella) who plays a typical young kid who doesn’t like to eat (Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beatloaf. I hate meatloaf.), to the father who battles with his Oldsmobile (brand of car) and furnace, the mother who is like your average everyday mother who tends to sacrifice so much to try to be the best she can and of course to Ralphie the dreamer.  Such a great cast who are skilfully directed and work together so well in a very natural sorta way.  In fact, it’s not hard to see a glimpse of my own childhood in this, though naturally not in America and not in the 40’s!  

Often a narrated story can feel odd however here it fits in perfectly as an adult Ralphie gives context to some of the actions of those around him almost leaving you with the impression that your gazing into the life of a real suburban 1940’s family along with the pain, tears, struggles, laughter and joy that comes with it.  There is the occasional blaspheming but overall I don’t recall any swearing or other questionable scenes (apart from the leg lamp) so it is family safe.  
If you are super keen, you can even travel to the U.S. and see the house in the film which has been restored to match the house in the film, both inside and out, including the mandatory Leg Lamp.  How’s that for keen.

The 20th Anniversary DVD reviewed was released in 2003 and imported from the U.S. and whilst it’s  no longer available, you can get a single DVD version with no extras (be sure to get the widescreen version!) and even a Bluray which has a similar bunch of features as the DVD in review but just don’t expect a big jump in image or sound quality.
The two disc DVD edition gives a pretty good image and certainly much better than the first version of the DVD that came out (this is my second dipping of this movie on DVD, the first was in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio and the image was, by memory, not that good at all) but the image presented really adds to the 40’s feel of the film so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was specifically intended by the director.  The DVD has the film in two versions of the film one in the old 1.33:1 aspect ratio (remember that widescreen TV’s were not thought of back in 1983 so the 4:3 image would cater for those who loved the movie on VHS and those old near square TV’s) for those who want to relive the show exactly how they remember it and we also have the widescreen 16:9 enhanced image in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio (fills up your widescreen TV) which is what I used here for the review.  The sound is a simple Dolby Digital mono that is effective for the film and the voices are quite clear.  

The two DVD’s give us the following extras:

• Commentary by Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon and Bob Clark
• Original readings by Jean Shepherd (the voice narrator of A Christmas Story)
• Another Christmas Story documentary
• Get a Leg Up and A History of The Daisy Red Ryder featurettes
• Triple Dog Dare interactive trivia
• Decoder match challenge
• Hidden Easter Eggs
• Original Theatrical Trailer

The “Hidden Easter Eggs” above are basically hidden special features that used to be popular in the early days of DVD but not really common these days.  There are a bunch of good extras on this DVD edition and the image quality is really quite good.  The commentary will give you quite a bit of interesting information and the extras are a bonus.
Apart from the DVD and Bluray format you can legally stream the film from your favourite steaming service like Google Play for a reasonable cost and even buy a HD version should you want to watch it more than once, which is likely ☺

Overall this is one of those Christmas movie classics that I am sure will last many more years to come.  It may not be a perfect movie but I suspect the reason why it is so popular is that it reaches out to the kid in us all and that is what keeps it coming back year after year.  Do yourself a favour and give this one a whirl when you want a not-so-serious movie around the Christmas period.

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