A tribute to the original, traditional, one-hundred-percent, red-blooded, two-fisted, all-American Christmas.
The comic mishaps and adventures of a young boy named Ralph, trying to convince his parents, teachers, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect Christmas gift for the 1940s.
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Character
Nostalgic, comic, warm and resolved.
- contemporarynostalgic
- gravecomic
- warmbleak
- resolvedopen-ended
- effortlessdemanding
Who loves it, who doesn't
55 profiled raters. Loved most by The Prestige Hunters; disliked most by The Genre Devotees.
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Answer first; then see how everyone, and your circle, split.
“Is the nostalgia doing the heavy lifting?”
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“Is this Bob Clark's best work?”
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“Is it really for children?”
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A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
Reviews
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Curator Co.'s numbers.
- Peter McGinnon TMDB · Dec 202010/10
Okay, I know this isn’t a perfect movie, perhaps not close to it. We just watched it again and I teasingly pointed out small plot or action gaffes here or there. But for me it is my all time favorite Christmas movie. Partly I suppose because it feeds into my memories of growing up in a snowy, cold small town, though this predates my childhood by several years. And rarely do I feel like an ensemble cast made up of both adult and child actors do so well together. The Parkers, husband and wife, have their duel over the “major award,” and at times their sensibilities reside on different planets: his love of sports and her submersion into the details of raising children, but they are a unit and comically in love. And I even think part of the charm for me is the voice of the narrator. Adult Ralphie is of course Jean Shepherd, one of the screenwriters and the author of the source book “In God we Trust; All Others Pay Cash, a book I once owned in paperback. For years I listened to his radio show, late at night, my ears glued to a small transistor radio. He spoke in a hushed, dramatic voice about his childhood and other stories. I remember once he intoned about a magic place called “Maine,”
Read the whole review on TMDB - Filipe Manuel Netoon TMDB · Jan 20248/10
**Without no doubt, a good film, where things work very well in a very simple way.** When we talk about Christmas-themed films, the choice is so huge that the difficult part has been showing things that are substantially different or original. What this film does is simply tell us a good story… and it works like that! It's not a film that enchants us, and I, personally, hardly see myself seeing it again. But the fact is that it manages to be much better than a lot of the rubbish that appears around Christmas. The script is simple and so direct that it can be summed up in one sentence: it is a description of a child's Christmas and the way in which he, through various means, tries to get the gift he most wants to receive, and which his parents seem disinclined to give. give him: an air pressure gun. And this leads me to talk about the first point that really surprised me about this film: the fact that a child is offered a gun. I'm not from the USA, I'm Portuguese, and when I was a child I had toy shotguns and pistols, but they didn't shoot, they were made of plastic. An air rifle, in my understanding, is still a weapon. Therefore, I was shocked by the idea of seeing an air gun for s
Read the whole review on TMDB - honeybee <3on TMDB · Aug 20268/10
Ralphie's mind works in ways similar to my own, I see myself in him, and that bothers me > (4/5, originally reviewed 12/24/24)
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Cast
- Melinda DillonMother
- Darren McGavinThe Old Man
- Peter BillingsleyRalphie
- Jean ShepherdRalphie as an Adult (voice)
- Ian PetrellaRandy
- Scott SchwartzFlick
- R.D. RobbSchwartz
- Tedde MooreMiss Shields
- Yano AnayaGrover Dill
- Zack WardScut Farkus
Crew
- Bob ClarkDirector
- Bob ClarkScreenplay
- Leigh BrownScreenplay
- Jean ShepherdScreenplay
- Jean ShepherdNovel
- Reginald H. MorrisDirector of Photography
- Carl ZittrerOriginal Music Composer
- Paul ZazaOriginal Music Composer
- Stan ColeEditor
- Bob ClarkProducer
Where to watch
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Similar in taste
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Curator Co. Other media included when they land close.
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The Peanuts Movie 201569% alikeBoth warm, effortless, comic.
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The Goldbergs 201369% alikeSeries · Both comic, nostalgic, warm.
Often watched with
Recommendations from TMDB. Opening one adds it to Curator Co.
