A Christmas Story

"You'll shoot out one of your eyes."
You either know that quote, start laughing and come right back with a quote of your own, maybe the triple dog dare or the yellow eyes of Scut Farkus, or you don't know it which means you have never seen "A Christmas Story".

Ralphie and his desperate Christmas wish for "an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle" have been part of my life for years and years, first brought to me by German TV, then after they stopped showing the movie for reasons unknown, on English DVD.
The season would not be the same without this movie, without Ralphie in his bunny suit, a gift from Aunt Clara who suffers from the delusion that he is a perpetually four year old girl, without The Old Man obsessing over his prize for a puzzle competition, a lamp in the shape of a lady's leg, and accusing his wife of destroying it on purpose, without Ralphie trying to drop (not always so) subtle hints about the Red Ryder everywhere, and of course without the neighbors' dogs stealing the turkey.
Oh, and if you want to know if Ralphie gets his BB gun, you should watch the movie.

Did you know that the stories in the movie are part of a collection called "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash" by Jean Shepherd?

1st edition 1966, picture fair use
via Wikipedia

Jean Shepherd was an American humorist who performed on radio. Eventually he was convinced to write his radio stories down, fictional stories mixed with facts from his own childhood.
He was a writer for the movie, by the way, and narrated it himself brilliantly (after all he was a radio performer).
So the book would be good as well, right? Nyah (this is supposed to be a sound of not being sure) .... I got the book, struggled with it on too many of my commute rides, barely made it through and never touched it again.
Don't get me wrong, there were parts when I snickered, giggled or laughed, but there were many, many words, many, many descriptions, and the frame - a grown-up Ralphie returning home and telling of his memories in his old friend Flick's bar - didn't really work for me, either.
As always, not everyone has the same opinion from the reviews I read, but some feel exactly the way I do.
I guess I'll just stick to the movie, thank you very much.

P.S. I hadn't been aware of the sequels and will skip the summer one, but I'm waiting for the second sequel at the moment, so I may add a short review for that to this post once it's here.
And here we go now - A Christmas Story Christmas from 2022.
It's 1973. Ralphie has grown up and has a family of his own now. He's taken a time out from work to write a Science Fiction novel, but his epic work of 2,000 pages is rejected by every publisher.
Shortly before Christmas, his mother calls to tell him that his father has died, so the family heads home to spend Christmas with her.
Thinking of his father, Ralph wants to make this the best Christmas ever, but things don't quite work out that way (as expected ;-)).

Actually, I was a bit surprised - wary about sequels as I am - that I really enjoyed the movie.
Of course it's a different mother (Melinda Dillon was already 82 at the time and had stopped acting years ago), but there are a few familiar characters from the first movie which added a lot to the fun, I think. Will it become cult like the first one? I doubt it because the parents were such an important part, but I was not disappointed.