Another seasonal event, this almost impossible-to-avoid movie. From Wikipedia:
A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, based on his book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements derived from Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark. The film has since become a holiday classic and is shown numerous times on television during the Christmas season on the American network TBS, often in a 24-hour marathon.
The TBS marathon is going on right now. And TBS is not the only channel showing the movie. All this makes me long for marathon re-runs of totally non-holiday series, ideally things on the gritty side, to balance out the sentimentality of so much holiday television. Evil elves would be nice.
Just in case you’ve managed to avoid it, two notes from the Wikipedia article:
[the plot set up:] Nine-year-old Ralphie Parker wants only one thing for Christmas: a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and “this thing which tells time”, a sundial. Ralphie’s desire is rejected by his mother, his teacher Miss Shields, and even a department store Santa Claus, all giving him the same warning: “you’ll shoot your eye out”.
[reception:] [the Rotten Tomatoes] site’s consensus reads: “Both warmly nostalgic and darkly humorous, A Christmas Story deserves its status as a holiday perennial.”
