CHRISTMAS STORY, A - HD DVD review

Everybody's got a favorite Christmas movie. For some people, it's "Miracle on 34th Street." For others, it's "Christmas in Connecticut" or "White Christmas" or "Holiday Inn" or the animated "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" or "The Santa Clause" or "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" or "Elf" or even "Bad Santa." But for me, there are only three: "A Christmas Carol" (1951), "It's a Wonderful Life," and the subject of discussion here, MGM's "A Christmas Story," now on a high-definition HD-DVD from Warner Bros.

Just how close is "A Christmas Story" to reality? In 1955, when I was in the fifth grade, I wanted more than anything in the world a BB gun for Christmas. My father had no objections, but my mother was adamantly against it: "He'll shoot his eye out!" After a year of nagging and cajoling, I got a BB gun the Christmas of 1956, and although my eyesight today is poor, my eyeballs remain intact.

I don't know if BB guns are still popular among youngsters, but for anyone over a certain age, my experience appears to have been universal, making it the perfect focal point for this 1983 Christmas classic. "A Christmas Story" may be the one Christmas movie that touches people closest to home, and WB's HD-DVD is a fitting tribute to the film's enduring appeal.

Based on the book of short stories "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" by humorist Jean Shepard, who also narrates, the movie tells the story of one Christmas season in the life of a nine-year-old boy, Ralphie Parker, living in a midsized city in Indiana in the late 1940s. Everything that might happen to a nine-year-old boy around Christmas time is crammed affectionately into the story line, with the BB gun the centerpiece.

As Ralphie puts it, "The Red Ryder 200-shot, Range Model air rifle" was the "Holy Grail of Christmas gifts." But it was also the last thing a mother wanted her child to have. Yes, "You'll shot your eye out" was every Mom's stock reply to this gift request. So Ralphie has to scheme his mightiest to direct his parents' attention toward the matter and scheme even harder to persuade them to buy it for him. For instance, he subtly leaves a BB-gun advertisement tucked away in his mother's copy of "Life" magazine, where she is sure to find it and immediately realize the gun's worth. Like most nine-year olds, Ralphie has a well-developed and ever-hopeful imagination.

The movie is made up of a series of short vignettes involving Ralphie and his family, Ralphie and his school friends, and Ralphie and his teacher. You'd think that among them there would be at least a few that didn't work, but, in fact, almost all of them are equally appealing. Preparing to go to school in the winter in a new snow suit, Ralphie's little brother, Randy, is described as looking like he's going "deep-sea diving," his stiff garb rendering him unable to move his limbs. A triple-dog dare forces a friend, Flick, to place his tongue on a frozen flag pole, where it naturally gets stuck until the fire department comes to his rescue. Miss Shields, Ralphie's teacher, gives the class an assignment to write a paper on "What I want for Christmas," and Ralphie writes what he considers a Pulitzer Prize-winning paper about his BB gun. Dad wins a prize in one of the many contests he enters and wins the most god-awful lamp you've ever seen, shaped in the form of a female leg, which he proudly insists upon displaying in the front window. The neighborhood bully, Scut Farkus, whose eyes Ralphie swears are yellow, terrorizes the kids on the way to and from school. Ralphie lets slip the Queen Mother of dirty words, the dreaded "F-word," and gets his mouth washed out with soap. From the buying of the Christmas tree, the Little Oprhan Annie secret-decoder ring, and the department-store visit to Santa to the Christmas socks you never wanted, the movie represents everything a person might remember from his or her own childhood holiday season.

Moreover, the cast is dead-on perfect in their roles, adding to our acceptance and enjoyment of the stories. Ralphie is played by Peter Billingsley, who is not only cute and cuddly but the very picture of youthful innocence. Mom and Dad are played by Melinda Dillon, patient and long-suffering, and Darren McGavin, whose outbursts of invective are legendary and hilarious. Randy and Flick are played by Ian Petrella and Scott Schwartz, respectively, both of them looking and behaving like every kid everywhere. The bully, Scut Farkus, is played by Zack Ward as the fellow we've all met and hoped for a comeuppance. And it's all brought together by the warm and knowing narration of the author himself, Jean Shepard, as an adult Ralphie.

Yes, Christmas was the center of every kid's universe, and I suppose it still is. It was the day of the year that every child waited for, and the nostalgia surrounding the holiday has become mythic for most of us. "A Christmas Story" mines this territory the way Woody Allen's "Radio Days" mined the fertile ground of radio drama in the thirties and forties, with sharp, insightful observations, a careful attention to period detail, and, most of all, a gentle good humor.

I should mention, too, that the movie was directed by Bob Clark, whose career as a filmmaker has been anything but a smooth succession of critical successes. You may remember that one of his first feature films was "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things," a movie whose only saving grace was its title. You don't remember that one? OK, how about "Porky's" and "Porky's II"? Ah, now you know who I mean. He also did the excellent Sherlock Holmes film "Murder By Decree," a definite plus, and more recently "Baby Geniuses" and "Karate Dog," definite minuses. Oh, well. To have created so winning a film as "A Christmas Story" makes up for everything else.

Video:
I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I have yet to see a film that didn't look better on HD-DVD than in standard definition. However, that isn't to say that all HD-DVD video is the same; obviously, some HD-DVDs are better than others, depending on the quality of the original print. In the case of "A Christmas Story," we have but a modest original print. Like its standard-definition counterpart, the HD-DVD exhibits some variations within the film itself. Sometimes the colors are deep and rich, while other times they are a tad faded or too dark to admit much inner detailing. Like the SD image, when the HD-DVD is good, it is very, very good, and when it's not so good, it is still more than acceptable. Needless to say, in side-by-side comparisons, the HD-DVD definition is superior, although there are times when the original print was probably soft or gritty. I noticed more grain in outdoor, nighttime shots on the HD-DVD, probably because the HD transfer sharpens up every object and every tiny defect. Still, while the differences are only marginal, videophiles, especially, will appreciate the small improvements.

Audio:
Like the Dolby Digital monaural sound on the movie's SD edition, there is not much to talk about regarding the Dolby Digital Plus 1.0 on the HD disc. Since the soundtrack only needs to reproduce dialogue, it does just fine. The DD+ audio is admirably clean and clear, rather limited in bass output, but fairly impressive at the high end. There is a fairly smooth, balanced response, too, with almost no background noise to hamper one's listening. In head-to-head competition with the SD's audio, the HD-DVD's sound is a tick fuller, crisper, and more transparent.

Extras:
The HD-DVD's bonus items carry over from the movie's 20th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition of a few years earlier. There is an audio commentary with star Peter Billingsley and director Bob Clark, who are earnest and informative. Next, there is a five-minute featurette on "A History of the Daisy Red Ryder" air rifle. After that is an eighteen-minute documentary, "Another Christmas Story," in which the major child actors and the director reminisce about the film and how it has affected their lives. Then there is a scripted peek at a scene that didn't make it into the final cut; followed by a brief, four-minute bit, "Get a Leg Up," telling us about Leg Lamps today; and, lastly, a thirty-eight-minute "Radio" segment in which writer Jean Shepard reads "Flick's Tongue," among other things.

In addition, there are thirty-two scene selections; a widescreen theatrical trailer; a Leg Lamp spot; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired. As always with their HD-DVDs, Warner Bros. also include pop-up menus, a zoom-and-pan feature, a bookmark feature, an indicator of elapsed time, and an Elite Red HD case.

Parting Thoughts:
It would take a pretty cold heart not to be moved by "A Christmas Story." Male or female, young or old, the story contains enough varied experiences to make everybody remember a similar episode in his or her life. And the film's experiences are so sweet, so tenderhearted, and so common, they should touch virtually any audience. Like most of you, I've seen the film again and again, and each time I do, I find myself giggling and smiling all over again. Indeed, if there is any problem with "A Christmas Story," it's that it may exhaust you from laughing so hard. It is a joy to watch any time of year, especially so now that it looks and sounds better than ever on HD-DVD.