#140RVW
Proud to say I saw the initial theatrical release 30 years ago. Spent years trying to convince others to watch it. I think I can stop now…
What’s more:
For a long time I couldn’t watch this movie. We were early to the party on this one. My dad loved Jean Shepherd from his performances on WGBH in Boston and a show run on PBS American Playhouse “The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters”. (I haven’t seen that in 30 years but would love to see it again (time to search the interwebs). According to iMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084022/) it starred Matt Dillon and was shot in Boston.
So when A Christmas Story was announced, my dad made sure we got to it. I tried in vain to tell everyone I knew how funny it was, and dad screened it at his school for years. We taped it off of tv at some point and any time friends came over to the house it was one of the movies they always wanted to watch (along with Holy Grail). So I got sort of sick of it. And when it started running 24 hours a day at Christmas, I no longer needed to actively plan to sit down to watch it. I’d catch a bit here or there, and enjoyed it exactly as much as any other annual Christmas special.
But this year I wanted my daughter to see it properly, not piecemeal. So we sat down and I re-discovered a nearly perfect movie. There were no revelatory moments; everything was just where I’d left it. But it was a true pleasure to accompany my girl into her first viewing and remind myself just how funny each gag is. And, yes, it holds up. Not just for me – she laughed herself silly…
