A CHRISTMAS STORY
A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, based on his book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements derived from Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark.
YOUTUBE:[]
PLOT:[]
Nine-year-old Ralphie Parker wants only one thing for Christmas: a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and "this thing which tells time", a sundial. Ralphie's desire is rejected by his mother, his teacher Miss Shields, and even a department store Santa Claus, all giving him the same warning: "You'll shoot your eye out".
Christmas morning arrives and Ralphie dives into his presents. Although he does receive some presents he enjoys, Ralphie ultimately is disappointed that he did not receive the one thing he wanted more than anything. After it appears all of the presents have been opened, Ralphie's father, who is referred to throughout the film as "The Old Man", directs Ralphie to look at one last present that he had hidden. Ralphie opens it to reveal the Red Ryder gun he wanted.
Ralphie takes the gun outside and fires it at a target perched on a metal sign in the backyard. However, the BB ricochets back at Ralphie and knocks his glasses off. While searching for them, thinking he has indeed shot his eye out, Ralphie steps on his glasses and breaks them. In order to cover for the fact that he broke his glasses, Ralphie tells his mother that a falling icicle was responsible for the accident. His mother, not having seen what actually happened, believes him.
The film ends with Ralphie lying in bed on Christmas night with his gun by his side. A voiceover by an adult Ralphie states that this was the best present he had ever received or would ever receive.
MONITOR'S NOTES: Flash Gordon cut scene[]
Flash Gordon meets Ralphie Parker
So Flash Gordon would have been squarely in the wheelhouse of someone like Ralphie. A recurring theme in A Christmas Story is the depiction of Ralphie’s inner thoughts, as he has an active imagination. He fantasizes his composition about why he wants the Red Ryder air rifle is so compelling his teacher convinces his parents to get him one; he dreams he goes blind after his mother forces him to wash his mouth out with soap; and he daydreams about saving his parents from burglars and rescuing his teacher from the evil desperado known as Black Bart (both scenarios involved him using his trusty Red Ryder air rifle, of course). Originally, Clark intended to film even more dream sequences in which Ralphie using the Red Ryder air rifle to save the day. On top of the Black Bart and the burglar scenario, Ralphie was also going to rescue Santa Claus from burglars and, amazingly enough, Flash Gordon from Ming the Merciless!
In a scene set right after Ralphie imagines his teacher loving his composition, we see Ralphie going home and reading a bunch of comic books, including Further Adventures of Flash Gordon on the Planet Mongo. It then cuts to a fantasy sequence in which Flash Gordon (played by Paul Hubbard) is captured by Ming the Merciless (Colin Fox), who taunts him with a threat to use his Turbo-Xenon Space Balloon, with its deadly Z-Gamma Rays, to destroy Earth. Ralphie shows up and rescues Flash and then uses his Red Ryder air rifle to shoot down the balloon and save the Earth.
