December 15, 2004

A Christmas Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)

I hate Christmas movies.

Well, that’s not entirely true -- I have a completely indefensible affection for White Christmas, but I always thought of that one as the exception that tested the rule.

My problem with the genre is the blatant emotional manipulation. Villains, if present, are horribly evil, families are annoyingly nice to one another -- and everything works out for the best.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol set the template -- especially the 1951 film starring Alastair Sim. The novel was sentimental, but it was also incredibly dark in its depiction of Scrooge’s wretched childhood. That bleakness was necessary for us to understand Scrooge’s joy when he is finally released from his lifelong burden of resentment. Alastair Sim, bless him, captured that giddy glee, even if the film offered us only the merest glimpse into old Ebenezer’s dark ages. And Bob Cratchit’s family still had that Dickensian wholesomeness that prompted Oscar Wilde to comment, on Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop, that "One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."

But I digress.

The best antidote to excess holiday movie schmaltz is the 20th-anniversary double-disc release of A Christmas Story. The movie didn’t attract a lot of attention in its theatrical release, but in the years since it has become such a staple of the holidays that, last Christmas, at least one cable channel showed it -- and only it -- for an entire 24-hour period.

But even if you sat through several of those hours, you’ve never seen A Christmas Story look like this. For one thing, TV shows the panned-and-scanned version; this Special Edition is in glorious widescreen. That means you see a lot more of the peripheral world of the Parker family -- and that’s a very good thing. Director Bob Clark has constructed a fabulously detailed world for his film, much of it laugh-out-loud funny in its perfection.

The film has been digitally restored. I say that admiringly -- there’s a sharpness and a clarity that I’ve never seen in televised versions, with nary a trace of digital edginess. Colors are vivid -- mostly. After all, Cleveland in winter can get pretty gray and grim, which A Christmas Story doesn’t gloss over a bit.

The sound is Dolby 2.0 mono, so there’s no dramatic "opening up" of the soundtrack for this edition. That’s not such a bad thing, because it’s not a movie that relies much on sound. You get Jean Shepherd’s voice-over and the actors’ dialogue -- what could surround sound add to that? In any case, we don’t find out here.

There’s a pretty decent audio commentary track on the movie disc, but the real treats are the extras on the second disc: featurettes on the Red Ryder BB gun and Leg Lamp (both featured in the film), some interviews with cast members, and two "readings" by Jean Shepherd that are worth the cost of the set.

Shepherd, who narrates the film, wrote the monologues, stories, and novel on which A Christmas Story is based, and it is his incredible retention of the details of childhood that makes the film such a delight. He remembers all that stuff that kids swear they will never forget when they grow up -- and inevitably do. Ralphie, the story’s protagonist, is neither incorrigibly naughty nor cloyingly nice -- he’s simply real. He fibs, he schemes, and he notices all the stuff his parents would rather he missed. And even though he wouldn’t dream of trusting his parents with the whole truth of his inner life, he loves them.

It’s pretty much impossible to watch A Christmas Story without exclaiming, "I remember that!" -- even if nothing like it ever happened to you. I think that’s what makes it art. I know that’s why I can watch it again and again -- and now we have a DVD edition that makes that an even greater pleasure.

...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com