Christmas Story (1984)

"Here is a movie to treasure, to throw your arms around and hug.  Chicago Daily Herald
"The cast is wonderful...the laughs nonstop and the whole thing deserves to become a Christmastime classic. A must see.  Motion Picture Guide
"Fun for everyone.  VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
"A classic.  Christopher Smith, Chicago Tribune
"Charming. Consistently funny. Full of delightful, recognizable episodes.  Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic
"...an instant classic, a film that will give pleasure to people not only this Christmas, but for many Christmases to come.  Jay Carr, Boston Globe
"Shepherd narrates in the first person and Billingsley portrays him (delightfully) as a boy. Truly funny for kids and grownups alike...  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"The cast is wonderful...the laughs are nonstop...and the whole thing deserves to become a Christmastime classic.  TV Guide

Editor's Note This vignette-laden, nostalgic view of Christmastime in 1940s Indiana follows nine-year-old Ralphie, who desperately wants a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas--and is waging an all-out campaign to convince his reluctant parents that the toy will be safe in his hands. By turns warped and winsome, the comedy follows Ralphie as he prepares for the big day with his rather idiosyncratic family. Based on the novel by humorist Jean Shepherd (who also narrates the film), A CHRISTMAS STORY gained popularity long after its theatrical run, through frequent holiday broadcasts that turned its schoolyard "triple-dog" dares, family neuroses, and childhood indignities into a Yuletide tradition.

	Darren McGavin
	Ian Petrella
	Melinda Dillon
	Peter Billingsley
	Bob Clark - Director
	Bob Clark, et. al. - Screenplay
	Bob Clark, et. al. - Producer
	Carl Zittrer - Original Music By
	Gavin Mitchell - Art Director
	Jean Shepherd - Based On Novel By
	Paul Zaza - Original Music By
	Reginald H. Morris - Cinematographer
	Stan Cole - Editor

Variety
"...A version of Christmas as it exists only in the imagination....Shepherd has always been best at evoking the texture of life as it used to be in his midwest childhood..." 11/16/1983

Chicago Sun-Times
"...There are many small but perfect moment in A CHRISTMAS STORY....There is a real knowledge of human nature beneath the comedy..." 12/24/2000 p.3

Entertainment Weekly
"...Think of it as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE for post-Reagan generations as it morphs from cult to classic 20 years down the road..." 10/10/2003 p.107

USA Today
"...[A] modern-classic telling of Jean Shepard's '40s-based Midwest yarn..." 10/10/2003 p.6E

Reel.com 9 of 10
The year it premiered, A Christmas Story didn't play in theaters over Christmas. It opened around Thanksgiving and was pulled shortly before the big holiday because it lost money. Since then, the film has paid big dividends as one of the season's most beloved-but-irreverent classics...It's a Wonderful Life is king of the wholesome, feel-good Christmas flicks, the original Miracle on 34th Street has a lock on the top whimsical, heartwarming spot, A Charlie Brown Christmas edges out the other cartoons, and Holiday Inn splits the musical honors with White Christmas. But in the crowded Christmas-comedy field, A Christmas Story was tops in a recent poll citing it as one of the best family-friendly holiday laughfests. - James Plath

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
One of the details that "A Christmas Story" gets right is the threat of having your mouth washed out with Lifebouy soap. Not any soap. Lifebouy. Never Ivory or Palmolive. Lifebouy, which apparently contained an ingredient able to nullify bad language. The only other soap ever mentioned for this task was Lava, but that was the nuclear weapon of mouth-washing soaps, so powerful it was used for words we still didn't even know...There are many small but perfect moments in "A Christmas Story," and one of the best comes after the Lifebouy is finally removed from Ralphie's mouth and he is sent off to bed. His mother studies the bar, thinks for a moment, and then sticks it in her own mouth, just to see what it tastes like. Moments like that are why some people watch "A Christmas Story" every holiday season. There is a real knowledge of human nature beneath the comedy...In a poignant way, "A Christmas Story" records a world that no longer quite exists in America. Kids are no longer left unattended in the line for Santa. The innocence of kids' radio programs has been replaced by slick, ironic children's programming on TV. The new Daisy BB guns have a muzzle velocity higher than that of some police revolvers, and are not to be sold to anyone under 16. Nobody knows who Red Ryder was, let alone that his sidekick was Little Beaver. - Roger Ebert

ReelViews 9 of 10
A Christmas Story has something no other holiday film - new or old, comedic or serious - can boast: perfect nostalgia. That quality fuels this modern-day classic and has made it one of the season's most beloved motion pictures. One of the Turner cable stations annually runs the movie non-stop for 24 hours and that's the mark of something with which people feel comfortable. A Christmas Story takes place in the early 1940s, but so much material in the film is universal that, irrespective of your birth date or religious affiliation, you're likely to find more than one familiar thing contained herein...Director Bob Clark, whose resume is nothing if not diverse (Black Christmas, Porky's, Rhinestone, Baby Geniuses) is the right choice for the material. He understands Shepherd's script and achieves the tone necessary to make this an enduring movie rather than a holiday throw-away. When it was released, MGM saw this as a minor blip on their release schedule - a Thanksgiving morsel designated for a two-week run. They were surprised by the movie's theatrical staying power in 1983 and even more surprised by its long-term appeal. If you're a fan of Christmas movies or films that use nostalgia as a driver, A Christmas Story cannot be missed. Then again, if you're in either category, you have probably already seen it. - James Berardinelli