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Cynical ‘Story’ a classic |
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Written by Rich Heldenfels, McClatchy-Tribune
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Thursday, 30 November 2006 |
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 “A Christmas Story” hasn’t just seeped into the culture, it has swamped it.
A tale with considerable anger is now so clearly regarded as lovable, a store has issued gift cards with the tongue-on-the-flagpole scene.
Pain and misery. Things to keep in your wallet all year long.
Still, while “A Christmas Story” is also fall-down funny, the undercurrent of disappointment is central to its greatness.
It is not a case, as writer Stephanie Harrison once said of family films set in years gone by, of “nostalgia for an unlived past.” It goes more to what “Christmas Story” director Bob Clark has called “warm-hearted cynicism.”
Clark said that about Jean Shepherd, the radio raconteur and writer whose short stories provided the basis for the movie. (Shepherd is also the film’s narrator.)
Raised in Indiana, which gave him a strong foundation for tales of Midwestern life, Shepherd became a legend as a late-night monologist for New York radio station WOR from 1955 to 1977. His stories, seeming to ramble but always headed toward a point, captivated insomniac listeners.
Although children are central to it, “it’s not really a children’s film,” Clark says in a DVD commentary.
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.
And finally, as Ed Grant noted in Time magazine, the ache in Shepherd’s narrated acknowledgment when he refers to the rifle as “the greatest Christmas gift I ever received — or would ever receive.”
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 small smidgen of happiness.
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, that’s a moment to cherish. You may not get anything better. | Only registered users can write comments.
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