A Christmas Story: A Child's Point of View

     I heard someone on the radio a couple of years ago saying they hated the movie A Christmas Story because they didn't find it heartwarming. They said it was stupid because there was no emotion on the part of the father until the one scene where (SPOILER ALERT!) Ralphie opens his secret present and finds the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle he's been asking for all year and previously met by comments from his mother, teacher, and even Santa with the now famous rebuttal "You'll shoot your eye out!" It's sad that someone can sit through this entire movie and be so cynical as to not recognize the heartwarming message behind it, and laughable that they totally missed the purpose of the whole movie. This film is not presented in the form of facts or from an objective point of view, but rather perceptions, or rather, the perception of life through the eyes of a child. We see the world through Ralphie's eyes, and the narrator is not exactly what we call dependable, as he is subject to the whims that all children are subject to. For instance, in the beginning of the film, he imagines his mother as a sort of witch for not wanting him to have a rifle, but after she covers for him with his father after he gets in a fight with a bully, he begins to understand her a little better, and gains a greater respect for her. Call me sentimental, but I find it to be a very heartwarming scene. When you look at A Christmas Story in this way, it makes a little more sense, am in all honesty, if you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself, because it is pretty self explanatory that that is the point of the entire film. But let's play a little devil's advocate and pretend that the critics of the film are right and that is nothing touching in the film until the end,that for me would be enough. We go through the entire movie with Ralphie's perception of how mean his father can be; Ralphie's little brother even fears their father will kill his brother, and nothing is shown in the movie that the father takes any interest in his children. However, when he buys Ralphie the gun, you come to realize that it was all Ralphie's perception of his father, and that his father was thinking of him all along, he just didn't know, because let's face it, as kids, how many times were we actually so sure our parents would buy us the gits we wanted? Isn't that why we wrote to Santa Claus in the first place? A Christmas Story is the perfect movie in telling a story through a child's eyes. If you imagine yourself as a eight year old, the movie will make sense and will be an enjoyable experience, if for no other reason than personal nostalgia.