by Flack » Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:21 am
I rewatched A Christmas Story Christmas because something was bugging me that I couldn't put my finger on the first time.
People write stories because they have a story to tell. What invariably happens, more so in movies than novels, is that for multiple reasons -- could be because it's a sequel, could be due to an advertiser or product placement deal, whatever -- you end up with scenes that "have" to be there. To work these in, writers have a couple of options; they can either come up with a logical reason for the scene that also serves the story, or they can simply have the characters say and do unrealistic things to put them into those situations. When this happens, the illusion is completely shattered as the characters begin to act more like puppets than real characters.
For example, in A Christmas Story Christmas, despite the fact that The Old Man has died the week before Christmas, it's never really mentioned. When Ralphie arrives at his mother's house, she says "hey, your dad would have wanted us to have normal Christmas, so don't be sad and don't bring it up." And they don't. Like, not at one point does Ralphie sit down and say, "boy, it sure sucks that my dad died." Instead they're off and running, getting a tree and doing their shopping and building snowman.
There's another scene early on where Ralphie calls his little brother Randy, who happens to be in India on a business trip. Randy doesn't mention the death of his dad at all, and only decides to try and come home to visit his mother when Ralphie guilts him by saying their mom isn't doing so well. Of course the reality it, the movie doesn't work with Randy there, too -- there would be nothing for him to do other than be a third wheel to Ralphie's family's adventure, so from a writing standpoint it makes sense to keep him out of the plot -- but the way they did it felt forced and unrealistic. What guy in his 30s has zero interest in returning home after his father dies? The film makes it seem like Randy wouldn't have even come home for the funeral if Ralphie hadn't guilt tripped him into returning home. None of this is presented with any sort of avoidance due to sadness on Randy's part -- he's just "you know, I'm kind of having a good time in India, yo."
At least a dozen times in this movie, characters do completely unrealistic things solely because the plot needs them to, which makes the film seem less like a movie and more like a series of cartoon sketches. In the original film when Flick gets his tongue stuck to the frozen flag pole, I felt like that was something that could have happened. In this movie, Flick (now 40 years old) gets goaded into sliding down a giant wooden jump ramp on a sled by having another adult "triple-dog dare" him. This ramp is designed to launch people into the air with no chance of them landing safely on anything. And you know it's going to happen because, gosh, who can turn down a triple-dog dare? But maybe when you're 40, you should.
I rewatched A Christmas Story Christmas because something was bugging me that I couldn't put my finger on the first time.
People write stories because they have a story to tell. What invariably happens, more so in movies than novels, is that for multiple reasons -- could be because it's a sequel, could be due to an advertiser or product placement deal, whatever -- you end up with scenes that "have" to be there. To work these in, writers have a couple of options; they can either come up with a logical reason for the scene that also serves the story, or they can simply have the characters say and do unrealistic things to put them into those situations. When this happens, the illusion is completely shattered as the characters begin to act more like puppets than real characters.
For example, in A Christmas Story Christmas, despite the fact that The Old Man has died the week before Christmas, it's never really mentioned. When Ralphie arrives at his mother's house, she says "hey, your dad would have wanted us to have normal Christmas, so don't be sad and don't bring it up." And they don't. Like, not at one point does Ralphie sit down and say, "boy, it sure sucks that my dad died." Instead they're off and running, getting a tree and doing their shopping and building snowman.
There's another scene early on where Ralphie calls his little brother Randy, who happens to be in India on a business trip. Randy doesn't mention the death of his dad at all, and only decides to try and come home to visit his mother when Ralphie guilts him by saying their mom isn't doing so well. Of course the reality it, the movie doesn't work with Randy there, too -- there would be nothing for him to do other than be a third wheel to Ralphie's family's adventure, so from a writing standpoint it makes sense to keep him out of the plot -- but the way they did it felt forced and unrealistic. What guy in his 30s has zero interest in returning home after his father dies? The film makes it seem like Randy wouldn't have even come home for the funeral if Ralphie hadn't guilt tripped him into returning home. None of this is presented with any sort of avoidance due to sadness on Randy's part -- he's just "you know, I'm kind of having a good time in India, yo."
At least a dozen times in this movie, characters do completely unrealistic things solely because the plot needs them to, which makes the film seem less like a movie and more like a series of cartoon sketches. In the original film when Flick gets his tongue stuck to the frozen flag pole, I felt like that was something that could have happened. In this movie, Flick (now 40 years old) gets goaded into sliding down a giant wooden jump ramp on a sled by having another adult "triple-dog dare" him. This ramp is designed to launch people into the air with no chance of them landing safely on anything. And you know it's going to happen because, gosh, who can turn down a triple-dog dare? But maybe when you're 40, you should.