Product Description

This is the 1983 film "A Christmas Story" (co) written, Produced & Directed by Bob Clark

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1012 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-01
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Americana humor
The film has become an American cult Christmas comedy classic. The story, told through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie, is about a boy and his Christmas wish. He goes through all of the trying times we all remember as children and does it through his actions, imagination, and his "inner" voice (Jean Shepherd) until the film's climax. The film is set in the 1940's, long before my time, but still owning the same desires we all have as children at Christmas. Through the ups and downs of his dysfunctional family life (in the guise of complete normality) we laugh and end up with a warm-and-fuzzy Christmas feeling. I love this film!

Should be a classic on both sides of the Atlantic
There are enough reviews of the different versions so I won't go into detail. Just two things to add that may be helpful to UK viewers:

1) This is not a Hollywoodised Christmas. It was a low-budget film produced from an excellent script and very true to life. I spent the first 26 years of my life in England and have no problem whatsoever relating to this U.S. version of Christmas. Family interactions, kids' Christmas obsessions (every kid of my age at some point got or wanted a gun for Christmas or birthday), Bing and Ovaltine on the radio, everyday kid life, it's all here. The schoolteacher I could swear is taken straight off one of my early teachers and both dad and mum contain so much of the best (and not-so-best) of most people's parents. It's a film that withstands repeated viewings and has long been a Christmas standard in our family.

2) As outstanding as the film itself is, the extras I've seen on various versions aren't up to much. After your jaw has dropped at how much Peter Billingsley still looks like his 13 year old self, there's not much else. As much as the film eschews corn and cliche, the extras revel in it. So if you want to replace your old tape, go for it, but if you're looking only to update your version for extra entertainment from the add-ons, I personally wouldn't bother.

A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story
This movie is so very typical of American Christmases in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The film was set in the Midwest, in northwest Indiana and is as true to life of that time as possible. This isn't a typical Hollywood glitter and fairy tale ending film, it is as if a film maker went back in time and captured it all on film. I am from the exact area in which this film was set and it brings back so many memories from that time in childhood. Exceptional film, gentle, funny and well worth your time to watch and to turn into your holiday tradition of movie viewing.