A Christmas Story

Dir: Bob Clark, 1983 (8.8*)

This touching and nostalgic story is as much about growing up in middle America as it is about a kid's Christmas, beautifully adapted from Jean Shepherd's book of humorous stories "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash". An adult Shepherd (as Ralph "grown up" and looking back) narrates the tale and co-wrote the screenplay. The film actually merges several stories, but is primarily concerned with Ralphie's (played by Peter Billingsley, where did he go?) desperation to get the "Red Ryder range model 100-shot carbine action air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time", and everyone he mentions that to says "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin are perfect as his jaded and lifeworn parents ("mom hadn't had a hot meal in eight years"), the entire cast is perfect, and the film is now a bona-fide Christmas classic. PBS filmed two others of his: "The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Coznowski" and "Ollie Hoopnoodle's Haven of Bliss". This should inspire everyone to read Shepherd's award-winning stories, they're terrific, the best of their type and better even than this adaptation.
Some Shepherd characters: Grover Dill, Scut Farkas, Leopold Doppler, Delbert Bumpass, Ludlow Kissel, Flick and Schwartz