With Christmas around the corner, Ralphie Parker just wants a Red Ryder BB gun, but there is strong opposition from adults in his life.
The film opens on our title character (Peter Billingsley) at his house meeting his friends to run downtown.
As other residents are caroling or rush around for Christmas, Ralphie, his brother Randy (Ian Petrella), and Ralphie's friends Flick (Scott Schwartz) and Schwartz (R. D. Robb) -interesting name coincidence, isn't it?- press themselves to the window of the Higbees store to look at toys. While plenty of things catch their eyes, the one thing Ralphie takes to admiring is the Red Ryder 200-shot range model air rifle. The next day, Randy struggles to find a subtle way to get his parents thinking about the BB gun. When his mom calls him and Randy down for breakfast, he first takes a trip to his parents' room where he leaves a Red Ryder ad in his mom's magazine. Downstairs, his dad (Darren McGavin) rants about sports info before getting into other news, then tells his mom (Melinda Dillon) about his latest "silly puzzle" as she calls it, that could be worth $50,000: naming the Lone Ranger's nephew's horse, which she immediately recalls as Victor. Ralphie then tries his hand at a "subtle" BB gun hint, telling his parents that Flick saw a grizzly bear at a candy store; they simply look at him like he's gone crazy. Knowing he's gone too far, Ralphie then has his dad try to guess his gift to the old man; he jokes about getting a new furnace, with the older narrator Ralphie (Jean Shepherd) saying his father is a fierce furnace fighter. Ralphie becomes frustrated as their mom hurries them along and his dad leaves, and when his mom asks what he wants, he accidentally blurts out his exact desire. As he expected, his mom immediately turns him down, saying he'll shoot his eye out, and though no kid has ever gotten past this defense, he decides to keep trying. Even he doesn't buy it when he says he'd like some tinker toys instead, and after explaining her feelings about BB guns, she struggles to get the picky Randy to eat. Ralphie then goes into the first of his many youthful daydreams of the movie, in which his pioneer family is hiding from a group of bandits. He, a gunslinger with a BB gun, Ol' Blue, bravely defeats the marauders one by one with single shots until their leader, Black Bart, retreats. As his family cheers him on, the daydream ends, and Ralphie finds his dad returning to get water for his frozen car. The old man gets distracted, however, when he hears their furnace act up, and he storms downstairs when he sees smoke billowing from the basement. The boys can only listen horrified as their father takes a fall down the stairs and rants about the furnace, and his mom opens the damper for him. Later, their mom struggles to prepare Randy for the weather, covering him in numerous layers of winter clothes; Ralphie compares her cautiousness to preparing for extended deep-sea diving. At one point she accidentally covers the boy's eyes, then when she finally finishes, he complains and reveals he can't put his arms down. Though repeatedly trying, she finds she can't get them to go down either, and sends him away saying to just put them down when he gets to school.
Randy screeches about is as they leave, and Ralphie runs to catch Flick just before Schwartz joins them.
The latter feels cocky about his dad confirming that, as he in the past said to Flick, sticking your tongue to a frozen light pole in winter would get you stuck. Flick is skeptical, but Schwartz says his dad knows because he knew a guy who stuck his tongue to a railroad track on a bet and couldn't get it off. ​Randy falls behind, and a passing boy knocks him over. He can't get back up, so Ralphie is forced to come back and help his brother. At school, the kids play a prank on their teacher Miss Shields (Tedde Moore) by wearing goofy teeth, which she immediately takes for her gag drawer. The students later head outside for recess, with a group forming around Schwartz and Flick arguing at the flagpole about sticking one's tongue to metal in winter. In what Ralphie says is an important ritual, Schwartz eventually triple dog dares Flick to stick his tongue to the flagpole. Finally relenting, Flick does so, but is horrified to find he indeed got stuck, and when the bell rings, every student, including Ralphie and Schwartz, runs back inside. Miss Shields notices of course, and one student points her to the window, where she is shocked to see Flick flailing at the flagpole. She rushes outside and stands with him as emergency services arrive and free the boy, and he returns with a gauze-wrapped tongue. Miss Shields lectures about how Flick refuses to say who pressured him, but that she knows they likely feel terrible, staring at Ralphie and Schwartz the whole time. The boys get a laugh out of not getting caught, and Ralphie is overjoyed when Miss Shields tells them to write a paper about what they want for Christmas, as he believes she'll be able to help him get his BB gun. After school, the boys are heading home when they hear the cackle of Scut Farkus, the neighborhood bully who has yellow eyes. He pushes Randy over and scares them toward a fence where they find themselves face-to-face with his toadie Grover Dill, who grown Ralphie says has green teeth. Scut manages to catch Schwartz, forcing him to say "uncle," then the bullies scare the boys off after Ralphie says kids are either bullies, toadies, or victims. Ralphie arrives home, frustrated to find he still hasn't gotten the Little Orphan Annie decoder pen he sent away for weeks ago, then writes his theme for Miss Shields, feeling proud and confident in his words. The old man arrives after work, facing the annoying force of the dogs of their neighbors, the Bumpuses. They can't ruin his mood however, as he reveals he's won his contest and is going to get some sort of prize that night. He even mocks the dogs, accidentally getting one's ear stuck in the door, and wonders what prize he'll be getting. The family sits down for dinner, though the picky Randy refuses to eat, and the mother is constantly getting food for the others. With the family becoming annoyed with Randy, his mom takes a new route: she has him pretend to be a pig and eat like one, and though her husband and Ralphie are disgusted, she and Randy get a good laugh out of his messiness. They are interrupted by a knock at the door however, and the old man leaps up to accept his prize, though the deliveryman doesn't know what it is. A box is wheeled in, with a more-known joke about the word "fragile" and the father pries it open and rifles through the straw inside. Though his wife believes the people may have forgotten the prize, he eventually finds a leg statue, along with a lampshade and light fixture. Against his wife's wishes, as she doesn't seem to like the lamp, he promptly sets it up in their living room window. While Ralphie's mother struggles to protest, her son and husband turn the lights out and the latter heads outside to say how she should arrange things. His boisterous orders attract a crowd, and he earns admiration after telling his neighbor Swede about how it's a major award that took great mind power. The night comes to a close when Ralphie's mother has them go to the radio for Little Orphan Annie, despite his father's annoyance that the lamp was turned off.
After a morning running from Scut again, Ralphie turns in his theme and goes into a fantasy about how well it will go.
Miss Shields, distraught about failing so many papers, is left breathless after reading Ralphie's, and declares it the theme she's been waiting for all her life. After reading it to the class, declaring it poetry, she grants Ralphie an A with numerous pluses, and his classmates lift him to their shoulders as they cheer. The real Miss Shields breaks him out of his stupor and has him go to his seat, which he does as his classmates giggle at him. Scut Farkus chases the boys home again, and the Parkers head out to get a Christmas tree, with Ralphie's mom irritating her husband by turning off his lamp again. They struggle to find a tree as the salesman brings out ones they don't like, and when they find a good one, the old man immediately turns to haggling. Convincing the salesman they're considering a plastic tree, the old man gets the man to throw in some rope that he'll use to tie the tree to their car. The family is singing "Jingle Bells" during the drive home until they blow a tire, and the old man gets out to change it, with Ralphie's mom convincing him to help. Though his dad lets him help, the old man accidentally knocks away the lug nuts he was keeping track of, and Ralphie shocks his father by saying the "f--- word," which he here substitutes with "fudge." Once they're both back in the car, the old man tells Ralphie's mom, who screams, and the boy gets a mouthful of soap when they get home. She asks where he learned the word, and though it came from his dad using it daily, Ralphie gets scared and blurts out that it was Schwartz. Ralphie's mom calls Schwartz, and the horrified and angry mother begins screaming and beating her son, whose cries we can hear through the phone. Sent to his room, an angry Ralphie imagines a future where he has gone blind, which surprises his parents when he comes by the house. They beg to know what happened to him, and he states it's a result of "soap poisoning," so his grief-stricken parents break down blaming themselves. The next day, students are bringing gifts to Miss Shields, and Ralphie is the last up with a basket full of fruit as a bribe for his paper. When he gets home that day, he is excited to find his decoder pen has finally arrived, and he goes inside to read his club letter and wait for the evening's broadcast. A message comes on giving a secret code, and Ralphie hurriedly scribbles it down before rushing to the bathroom to decode in privacy. Wondering what it could be and with his mom and brother rushing him outside, Ralphie's situation gets tenser until he finally finishes the message: "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine." Realizing the "secret message" was nothing more than an ad, the Ralphie leaves, heartbroken, and goes downstairs. As he and his mom prepare for dinner, they hear his dad downstairs with the furnace, and his mom, with a strange expression on her face, goes into the living room. Moments later there is a crash, and his dad rushes upstairs to find she has "accidentally" broken his lamp while watering her plants. Yanking the pieces away, he snarls that she was always jealous of the lamp because he won it, and she snaps back that it's the ugliest lamp she's ever seen. When he learns they're out of glue, he accuses her of using it all on purpose, and later manages to poorly reconstruct his lamp. As he goes to put the lampshade on, however, it all collapses, and as Mrs. Parker stifles laughter, the older Ralphie says his father buried the lamp. As Ralphie continues the movie trying to get his BB gun, he faces unexpected trouble at school and the mall, but at one moment he is pushed too far, and there are some good things he doesn't expect coming.
This Christmas classic has long been important for my family, as we watch the TBS/TNT 24-hour marathon each year.
For me personally, it's my favorite Christmas movie, and honestly my favorite movie in general, and I'm always glad to be able to analyze it. Part of the charm of the story for me comes from how it's meant to follow the kinds of experiences most people have as kids and how family and friend relationships work. The kids are written to be relatable to viewers and remind them of their own childhoods, and I've always felt Jean Shepherd was effective in doing this. The biggest example of this is in Ralphie's daydreams that occur throughout the movie, which are full of the kind of exaggerations you would expect from a kid. When he's picturing himself with his BB gun, he's instantly an incredible gunslinger that everyone looks to or fears. Similarly when imagining Miss Shields reading his paper he thinks is well-written, he pictures her gushing about how it's the greatest theme she's ever read. Then on the other hand, you have a negative daydream when he's been punished, where his rage toward his parents gives way to a dramatic fantasy in which they apologize profusely for what he considers to be wrongs. When I think back to my childhood, this fits with the kinds of things I would daydream, even if they didn't match fully. I might not have ever wanted a BB gun, but I can recall wanting to be a power ranger or being a strong member of the Dragon Ball Z Z-Fighters. Whenever we go into one of these dream sequences, the filmmakers distinguish it from the real world by putting a kind of haze on the border of the screen, which I think also works with how daydreams wouldn't be crystal-clear all the time. The shots in these daydreams also contrast to other scenes, to show the exchange of power that happens when we enter Ralphie's mind. For most of the movie when Ralphie is seen, especially with his parents, they are seen from low angles while he is from higher ones. While obviously this would be partially because of him being a kid and them being much taller, it also expresses that they have more power over situations than him. Compare this to his daydreams, where he is often shown with low angles and they are put in high angles, thereby putting him "above" them. In a time where his one desire is constantly met with cries of "You'll shoot your eye out," and he gets chased or beaten up daily, it makes sense that Ralphie would be feeling powerless. The seemingly mundane aspects of this movie are part of the brilliance for me as well, as it really sells the goal of making the family relatable. The parents fight sometimes and the father is obviously tough, but it's clear they love each other and he isn't abusing them. At the beginning of the movie we get a great interaction between Ralphie and Randy that seems minimal when they are called to breakfast. The two begin fighting over getting into their clothes drawers, with Randy smacking his brother, and like the parents arguing but loving each other, it just feels like the kind of sibling fighting that happens in every multi-child family. Everything that is brought into the story becomes important at some point, whether it be the quick payoff of Flick sticking his tongue to the pole or the Bumpus hounds, which make a shocking return near the end of the film. Even again at the start there is a moment like this, as Ralphie's parents talking about his father's puzzle seems like average chatter, but this puzzle leads to him winning his precious lamp that Ralphie's mom hates so much. Like Ralphie's daydreams, everything in this movie from the kids' perspective is made to be much grander than it really is. We see this with the older Ralphie's narration a lot of the time, like when he says the exchange of words in the "ritual" of daring someone is important. When he is decoding the radio message, the moment is actually made pretty tense despite it just being Ralphie taking part in an ad game. I'd be pretty surprised if someone couldn't remember a time where they did something as a kid that seemed like a big deal to them at the time and made them feel important. Ralphie thinks he's decoding something incredibly important, and the music spikes up along with quick cuts to make things tense. This feeling is increased because of his mom and brother as they demand he come out, as it makes it seem like he has a limited time to decode the "secret message." This is the story of a kid who desperately wants a particular gift for Christmas, his attempts at getting it, and the growing up he does along the way. For me and thousands of other people, it's a staple of the Christmas season, and I'm always excited to see it every year.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
|