A Christmas Story
"A Christmas Story" (PG) (1999) (98 mins) from Warner Brothers.
This is the famous A Christmas Story movie shown on TV almost every year!
(The following information comes from the movie jacket.)
Peace, Harmony, Comfort and Joy ... Maybe next year!
The funniest thing about Christmas, according to Jean Shepherd's over-the-top holiday comedy, is spending it with your family. In 1940's Indiana, nine-year old Ralphie dreams of his ideal Christmas gift: a genuine Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Action Air Rifle. But when his gruff dad and doting mom regularly respond with "You'll shot your eye out!", Ralphie mounts a full-scale, hint-dropping, Santa-begging campaign. In this tale you'll be caught up in all kinds of childhood calamities from snowsuit paralysis to the yellow-eyed Scotty Farkus affair to the dreaded tongue-on-a-frozen-flagpole gambit.
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This movie is based on Jean Shephard's book "Trust In God: All Others Pay Cash". The person in the background who narrates this story is Jean Shepard himself!
Personally, I discovered this story while I was driving through the New York City and northern New Jersey in the early 1970's and listening to the famous WOR radio station. I heard Jean Shephard telling this story and in subsequent days, many of his other stories. He was an excellent story teller and had a very good radio voice. Later they made two movies from his book: this Christmas Story movie in 1983 and My Summer Story which I need to review someday.
The movie was released on VHS tape and later on DVD in 1999.