A Christmas Story is a Family/Comedy movie based on Jean Shepherd's novel In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. It is the first in it's series and has four sequels, My Summer Story, A Christmas Story 2, A Christmas Story Live!, and A Christmas Story Christmas, ordered respectively. The list of the thirty-two scenes of A Christmas Story is listed here.
Plot[]
The film is about a boy named Ralphie Parker who wishes for an official Red Ryder Carbine-action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle for Christmas. He tries to get this BB gun while getting through childhood problems like two menacing bullies, a protective mother, grumpy father, a whiny younger brother, and a mean Santa Claus.
Cast and Crew[]
Crew[]
- Directed by: Bob Clark
- Author of the novel In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash of which the movie is based off of: Jean Shepard.
- Screenplay by: Jean Shepard, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark.
Cast[]
- Mrs. Parker - Melinda Dillon
- Mr. Parker - Darren McGavin
- Flick - Scott Schwartz
- Adult Ralphie (voice) - Jean Shepherd
- Randy Parker - Ian Petrella
- Miss Shields - Tedde Moore
- Schwartz - R. D. Rob
- Scut Farkus - Zack Ward
- Grover Dill - Yano Anaya
- Santa Claus - Jeff Gillen
- Ralphie Parker - Peter Billingsley
- Christmas Tree Man - Leslie Carlson
- Head Elf - Patty Johnson
- Male Elf - Drew Hocevar
- Kid with Goggles - David Edward
- Black Bart - Dwayne McLean
- The Wicked Witch of the West - Helen E. Kaider
- Chinese Father - John Wong
- Waiter #1 - Johan Sebastian Wong
- Waiter #2 - Fred Lee
- Waiter #3 - Dan Ma
- Street Kid - Rocco Bellusci
- Boy in School - Tommy Wallace
Reception[]
A Christmas Story is a huge success. When it was released it wasn't as popular as it was today, but in recent years, it has grown in popularity as one of the best Christmas movies of all time. It holds generally favorable reception with a 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.9 on IBMb, and 77% on Metacritic. There is a 24 hour marathon on TNT and TBS with 12 consecutive airings of the movie from Christmas Eve evening to Christmas Day evening. This event has been reoccurring since 1997. The film, despite much positive reception did get criticized for some racism in the scene, "Chinese Turkey?", or the fact it is not completely about Christmas and rather Ralphie's (and most other kids) childhood problems.
Transcript[]
See: A Christmas Story: (Transcript)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The reactions from the Parker family's actors in the thirty-first scene of the film, "Chinese Turkey", were their actual reactions. This made it easier to get the reactions the director wanted, which were shocked reactions.
- The movie wasn't a big hit until sometime after its release.
- Despite being the star of the film, Peter Billingsley and his role as Ralphie Parker is listed very low in the cast list at the eleventh spot.
- Jean Shepherd, the author of the novel, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash is also the voice for Adult Ralphie and part of the screenplay team.
- The scene where Flick's (played by Scott Schwartz) tongue is stuck to the flagpole, they placed a hidden suction tube to safely do this scene in the film to make it look as if his tongue was stuck.
- The family eats meatloaf, red cabbage, and mashed potatoes at the dinner table every night.
- Close viewers may catch on to this, but Ralphie says he wants a "Red Ryder BB Gun" 28 times in the film.