What Is The Big Deal About "A Christmas Story" (1983)?!?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ky658, Nov 10, 2014.

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  1. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I'd be surprised that the notoriously litigious Mouse didn't sue MGM.
     
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  2. That's quite an assumption to make when you've never heard of the movie. There are no Christmas movies that cover the same ground, unless it was done in imitation after the fact.
     
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  3. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    If we're going to be nominate obscure Christmas movies, I'm going to suggest Breaking Glass with Hazel O'Connor.
     
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  4. stereoguy

    stereoguy Its Gotta Be True Stereo!

    Location:
    NYC
    From National Lampoons Christmas:

    Clark Griswald: "Cousin Eddie...I Cant Believe You're Here.......... in My living Room"....

    Cousin Eddie : " I'm Excited About It Too, Clark!".....
     
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  5. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    I'll have to add that to Die Hard and Gremlins for my Christmas movie list. It at least has a great soundtrack.
     
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  6. SmallDarkCloud

    SmallDarkCloud Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    It may be. I have no idea why Kermode did not include the film in his book. A Christmas Story performed moderately in U.S. theaters. But the movie became very popular, here in the U.S., from broadcasts on American cable television throughout the 1980s (and beyond). It was a word-of-mouth success story over a long period of time, but it was very much an American television phenomenon (leading to the TBS network broadcasting the movie for 24 hours on Christmas for the last few years). The movie was adapted from the writing of Jean Shepherd, a radio performer whose work likely isn't known much outside the U.S., either.

    On the subject of unconventional Christmas movies, The Silent Partner is fantastic.
     
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  7. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    Since you're a UK citizen, I completely understand your POV on this USA Christmas classic because every time I watch a UK made and culturally centered movie I can tell right off how different American culture is from British (especially the Beatles). I could even detect this reading Agatha Christie novels in high school in how she described the quaint UK country side and their obsession with manicured gardens. My German/American grandmother would describe her trips to these places that often matched up to Christie's descriptions in her novels. It was like an unspoken language. You just sensed it.

    It's one the reasons I like Hammer Films, British Technicolor and PBS's Father Brown. There's this pronounced nuance that's hard to describe but some of it can a bit boring, no offense.
     
  8. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Wasn't there an American show based on Father Brown, with a young nun as the 'sidekick'

    I know what you mean about US vs UK culture. The Holiday seemed to go for a culture clash between the two but the American sentiment seemed to dominate.
     
  9. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    No American film producer or director can replicate the nuanced feel and look of Father Brown. If they tried so with a nun I wouldn't have noticed it or watched it anyway. I can immediately pick up on these kinds of nuanced creative styles between the two cultures.

    I was first introduced to noticing this kind of nuance when I was around 6 years old watching the British spy series Diana Rigg's "Avengers" and the marionette driven series "The Thunderbirds". I even noticed the puppet design facial proportions mimiced Sean Connery's after watching "Gold Finger". Ever notice the resemblance in the marionette faces? I did.
     
  10. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    Nuance like calling Scut “Sid”?
     
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  11. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Father Dowling Mysteries (TV Series 1989–1991) - IMDb

    It says it's based on an original series of novels, but it was close enough to Father Brown to make a lawyer nervous (if G K Chesterton had been alive).

    However if I was picking an American actor for Father Brown, I wouldn't go far wrong with Mr Cunningham from Happy Days.
     
  12. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
  13. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    "After the fact" would be right - reading this thread, this movie sounds like the type that John Hughes has built his career on. Though the 40's setting might be out of his comfort zone.

    I don't intend to offend anyone, I just find it remarkable that I (and probably most Brits) could be ignorant of a movie that is such a cultural phenomenom in the USA.
     
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  14. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    You need to get out more.

    That way you'll develop a better skill set at reading the room so you can come up with more interesting and compelling comments than quoting mine out of context I put a lot of thought into.
     
  15. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    I Googled it and it came up that way, but you're right, it's Scut. I just Googled it again using Sid and it does show up as Scut. I must have looked at it too quickly the first time.

    Any more insightful comments?
     
  16. JohnG

    JohnG PROG now in Dolby ATMOS!

    Location:
    Long Island NY
    Ralphie!

    ‘Love the exploration of the brands of soap available back then.
     
  17. numer9

    numer9 Beatles Apologist

    Location:
    Philly Burbs
    It was in the 50's and 60's....but given that it released in August of 39, it wasn't back then.
     
  18. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    The actor who played Ralphie was one of Santa's elves in the Will Ferrell movie Elf, which we saw in the theater last night.

    It also starred Zooey Deschanel at maximum cuteness, and my avatar Leon Redbone as a stop-motion snowman.
     
  19. Matthew Tate

    Matthew Tate Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond, Virginia
    that's because Peter Billingsley co-produced Elf and is very good friends with Will Ferrell , Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau
     
  20. SmallDarkCloud

    SmallDarkCloud Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    My guess is that, The Wizard of Oz being a new film for the time the movie is set, winged monkeys in a Christmas parade for children makes sense.

    Not to go down a rabbit hole, but depending on different references, the movie may be set in 1939 or 1940. Given that A Christmas Story is an adult’s recollection of his childhood, it makes sense to me that the whole film is an amalgamation of memories, maybe from different years.
     
  21. Matthew Tate

    Matthew Tate Forum Resident

    Location:
    Richmond, Virginia
    just like the packers playing the bears near x-mas in 1940 right ? ;)
     
  22. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    Yeah, “nuance”. I actually don’t care about “reading the room”. Declaring “portrays the time period I never grew up in most realistically” is one of the funniest things I’ve read here.
     
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  23. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Our annual viewing was last night. I was in the middle of watching college football and the kids wanted to see A Christmas Story. I thought "what the heck, I'll DVR football then FF thru all the commercials and boring time outs".
     
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  24. ben_wood

    ben_wood A traveler of both time and space

    One of my all-time favorite Christmas movies! I especially love how one of the Turner channels does the “24 hours of” on Christmas Eve!
     
  25. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I'm not reading 25 pages, but another reason the film works is that it's basically a series of vignettes, albiet with an overarching story, so it moves at a faster pace.
     
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