Film-mas Day 3# - A Christmas Story

Day 3 (?) it's A Christmas Story Time! Apparently this film is quite the American classic Christmas movie but I hadn't heard of it before and neither had my mum - so I guess it hasn't made it to overseas audiences just yet. A Christmas Story was released in 1983 so you could call it a bit of a lower scale prelude to Home Alone, which would come out 7 years later. 

A Christmas Story is narrated by an older version of the character Ralphie looking back on the Christmas he had when he was 9 years old in the 1940s. The story begins with Ralphie begging his parents to give him a bb gun for Christmas and his mother telling him "You'll shoot your eye out!", which becomes a bit of a recurring statement in the film. (nearly missed the FOB reference - Yule Shoot You're Eye Out anyone???) It's almost like no one in the film wants a 9 year old child to have a gun. crazy. The film has a few standout scenes - both good and horribly hard to watch. My favourite scene in the film is when Ralphie is writing an assignment for his teacher about what he wants for Christmas, which we now know is a gun. Ralphie writes: "What I want for Christmas is a legendary official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass and this thing which tells time built right into the stock.". Convinced this is the best thing anyone has ever written ever, Ralphie shows it to his teacher and imagines she will be so shocked by his talent that she'll persuade his mom to get him the gun. Unfortunately for Ralphie the essay is only C+ worthy, and like his mom, his teacher reminds him, "P.S You'll shoot your eye out!". 

The movie is relatively simple to follow along but then you reach the end and wonder what just happened in the last 1hr 30mins. The film really lacks any solid plot but it does have some rather good moments I'd watch again - not including the weird racist bit stuck on the end. Overall, I probably would watch the film again but only if someone else wanted to see it - for now, I think I'll stick with Home Alone. 

Christmassy rating: 8/10

Rewatch value: 5/10  

Overall rating: 6/10