A story about "A Christmas Story"

I like this deconstruction of "A Christmas Story". I think it gets at the melancholy that underpins the movie without overdoing it.

Think of all the despair that grinds through the movie. The horrible department-store Santa Claus. The Old Man, played with such weariness by Darren McGavin. The furnace. The fire hazard of an overloaded electrical outlet.

The lapse in taste that is the leg lamp, the twinge of regret you feel for the Old Man when it is broken - until he begins to argue about it with his wife.

Ralphie's fantasy of academic success, dashed by a real grade. Flick's gauzed-up tongue after the flagpole incident. The pent-up rage in Ralphie when he finally turns on Scut Farkus; as intimidating as Scut has been, Ralphie unleashed is pretty frightening, too.

Getting your dream present, at last - only to, after all those warnings, nearly shoot your eye out.

And finally, as Ed Grant noted in Time magazine, the ache in [Jean] Shepherd's narrated acknowledgment when he refers to the rifle as "the greatest Christmas gift I ever received - or would ever receive."

Don't forget Christmas dinner in the (otherwise empty) Chinese restaurant after the neighbor's dogs eat the turkey.

Many Christmas movies wrongly believe that an ideal ending is the best way to give the message of Christmas. In fact, it's better to find the smidgen of happiness Ralphie feels at the end because life isn't really all that much better.

It's a Wonderful Life, the best Christmas movie ever made, understands that notion. At the end, George Bailey has still lost his money, his business is in trouble, his house is shabby and the evil Potter still owns the town.

Although George's friends' support will keep him out of jail, what will become of him in the following year? George's "wonderful life" is one in which he has helped others, not one that is materially great for himself.

The denizens of A Christmas Story are in a similar place. Ralphie's family will never have grandeur. The Old Man's dreams will go unrealized. So when he watches the snow fall on Christmas night, with his wife beside him and her arm on his back, that's a moment to cherish. You may not get anything better.

I suppose that's one way to look at it, though I'd say that what the Old Man is getting is pretty darned good, which is why we feel happy about how things turn out. Same thing with George Bailey, who finally gets that at the end of his movie. That's a pretty consistent theme with Christmas movies, after all, that things like home and family outweigh just about everything else. These movies are better than most at making us believe that without feeling manipulated. That's why they're worth watching, and watching again.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 29, 2006 to TV and movies | TrackBack