December Magazine Movie Moods/ Everyone has a Christmas Story!
12/04/2007 11:56 AM by Gretchen Schauffler
This Holiday Season you will most likely sit down with your family and enjoy a film fest of movies.
I believe that holiday movies fall into several story categories, and in our family, we carefully choose the movie according to what story line we are in the mood for. There are stories about the actual Holiday (Santa Clause, Rudolph, Scrooged), stories about the crazy family during The Holiday (Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Jingle All The Way) and there are unrelated stories about people that occur in the middle of The Holiday (Love Actually, Die Hard, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Ref). Some of the most recent cinematic story attempts have been the “someone-has-to-die” story to teach an important lesson about appreciation (The Family Stone) or the empty-nesters-have-feelings-too during this, The Season With A Reason (Christmas With The Kranks.).
And then there is A Christmas Story. Made over twenty years ago, this movie has been clichéd by every holiday movie since that has tried to capture family dysfunction with humor, drama, and sentiment during the holidays—otherwise known as the “vulnerable season”. The story is told through a colorful, and idealistic view of children, siblings, and schoolmates, all of which run parallel to a very realistic portrait of marriage, parenting and family at that the-Most Wonderful-Time-of-Year. It may seem that the focus of the movie is one thing, and one thing only, the official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle, But it is it is the unique perspective on this “gift-focused” movie that makes it a story about so much more. The story is about trust. the kind of trust it takes to have expectations, not only of Santa, but also of parents, husbands, wives, or siblings is what makes A Christmas Story a story on to itself in the holiday movie genre.
It repeatedly demonstrates that taking the risk of being disappointed is of the utmost importance. The strength of this truth proves to be a child-like fantasy about Christmas that captivates the desire, unpredictability and faith of the season in our minds as adults. Today, nothing captures both ends of the rainbow like A Christmas Story. While you are watching this film, being swept away in its more-than-seasonally-important meaning, don’t forget to look closely at the fantasy-like reds, which appear just as you remember them in those old-fashioned yet timeless wrapping papers, soaps, sleds, Santa suits, plaids, and chenille. Not to mention, those gray flannels and brown knits that warm you up, no matter how cold it is outside. While the incandescent yellow mellow light of “The Leg Lamp” might be the film-show stopper, in the end, it is and always will be the blue in Ralphy’s eyes that say it all, take a chance and risk, believe in something or somebody other than yourself, especially this time of year…
Gretchen Schauffler
Artist and Founder of Devine Color®
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