They didn't need words. They had faces.
"Ellen. I want to have Christmas here in our house. It means a lot to me. All my life, I've wanted to have a big family Christmas."
"I know. It's just that I know how you build things up in your mind, Sparky. You set standards that no family event can ever live up to."
"When have I ever done that?"
"... Parties. ... Weddings. ... Anniversaries."
"Good night, honey."
*Clark, whose hands have plenty of tree sap on them, ends up getting one caught in Ellen's hair and the other stuck to a lamp he pulls onto the bed*
"Funerals. Holidays. Vacations. Graduations. ..."
I chose these two moments to represent National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation because they so closely relate to what's at stake. It isn't really about the 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights or the backyard pool. Heck, Clark (Chevy Chase) even admits as such while lisping and staring at the tree*. It's a symbol of the spirit of the event. The spirit itself is expressed through Clark's pining for perfection, when by most accounts, he already has it**.
*Adored by a patriarch, not especially belonging in its new home and ultimately destroyed by a callous individual, the tree is not unlike the leg lamp in A Christmas Story. Leg lamp memorabilia exists and maybe there's a market for Griswold tree ornaments, centerpieces, etc. I see Hallmark did release an ornament depicting the tree and its roots atop the family car.
**Of the original movies, National Lampoon's Vacation is the only one with a logical enough explanation for Clark's behavior. He wants to bond with his family. A sound idea, it's reused for Vegas Vacation. Yes, that's right, Vegas Vacation has a more solid structure than Christmas Vacation.
European Vacation is just kinda there and I never saw the Ed Helms movie.
Clark's motivation is so pronounced, I figured it must have come directly from screenwriter John Hughes' story, "Christmas '59." Not so. It's actually the mom and an aunt who were longing for "the fun old-fashioned Christmas that people on TV have." The dad, Clark, points out that they're only having fun because they're getting paid for it. He also doesn't go off the deep end after getting a lame bonus (in this case, a personalized cigarette lighter with his name misspelled).
"I find it interesting that Hughes wasn't afraid to get the most out of an idea or even just a fragment. ... The problem is, once something's perfected, it's hard to appreciate the prototype or followup." -- from my commentary on Uncle Buck.
A good amount of "Christmas '59" made it into Christmas Vacation, directed by Jeremiah Chechik. It's kinda fascinating to find an element or character that was cut or modified because it was included in a previous Hughes script. For example, the character of Xgung Wo, an Engrish speaker and thief brought by two of the grandparents. He's essentially Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles. A pet still dies by electrocution in "Christmas '59." It's the dachshund belonging to Aunt Hazel, the Aunt Bethany analogue. He died in an especially grim fashion, with the lights being fed going in his mouth and out his behind. I'm assuming the deceased animal changed from a dog to a cat because dogs died in the last two Vacation movies.
In addition to plugging in the more or less recognizable Griswold characters -- Clark, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and Eddie (Randy Quaid) for sure; it's debatable regarding Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) -- Hughes also infused Christmas Vacation with more slapstick than I remembered. Between Clark's cartoon-like ability to fall off the roof, take a wooden board to the face, etc. without apparent injury and the amount of property damage going on, it's like the seeds of Home Alone were being planted.
"Welcome to our home. What's left of it."
By my estimate, I've seen Christmas Vacation 28 times. I've watched it on tape, on TV, on DVD and through streaming. This latest viewing was at least unique because it happened outside of the holiday season. Anyway, it's not the movie's fault that I've seen it too often and don't really have anything interesting to say about it.
I'm still going to give Christmas Vacation a positive enough grade. It's not just based on nostalgia. The chemistry between the actors is strong and there's a decent amount of heart beneath the mayhem.
"I did it."
Recommended with reservations.
Thoughts:
-- Box Office: Grossing over $71 million on a $25 million budget, this opened at No. 2 (and hit No. 1 closer to Christmas 1989), coming in at No. 15 for the year.
-- Critic's Corner: "(It) may not be a fancy package, but it is a diverting stocking stuffer," wrote Rita Kempley, Washington Post. People wasn't impressed with Chevy, saying the falling down "grew terminally tiresome around 1983." The magazine did like Quaid, calling him funny without being a caricature, and felt D'Angelo's talent was being wasted. Roger Ebert was disappointed that there wasn't much of an ensemble. "The in-laws are handled almost as a tour group, to be shunted around in the backgrounds of shot after shot or lined up as a quartet to react to Clark's dilemmas." People also felt Nicholas Guest and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were "strikingly colorless ... nonexistent as comic foils." They suggested the likes of Rick Moranis and Andrea Martin, or Sam Kinison and Judy Tenuta.
-- I'm now imagining Judy opposite her then-husband, Emo Philips. They certainly would be, uh, interesting as yuppies. "And why is the carpet all wet, Todd?" "I don't know, Margo!"
-- Fanservice Junction: Nicolette Scorsese as Mary. I forgot she showed side boob during the "Mele Kalikimaka" dream sequence.
-- Musical Moments: Up until this last viewing, I didn't know "Christmas Vacation" was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. When I was little, I thought a guy was singing the song, so my apologies in the here and now to Mavis Staples. Speaking of the more or less present, I'm not really surprised "The Spirit of Christmas" hasn't become part of the holiday music canon. Ray sings well and it's put to good use in the movie, but it's also five minutes long, which probably doesn't appeal to radio station programmers. It's also funny to realize composer Angelo Badalamenti went from this movie to his work with David Lynch.
-- I've told you all about the time I mentioned Chevy Chase's poor reputation to my sister, right? It was like telling a kid there wasn't any Santa Claus. Anyway, I thought about Chevy recently and realized that Anthony Michael Hall, Lewis and Galecki have all said nice things about him over the years. Thus, if there's one thing to admire about the guy, it's that he seems to work well with youth.
-- This was the first movie I'd ever seen with an ad for "Wade's Wintergreen Gum."
-- A few more points of interest from "Christmas '59": The family's only Christmas tree is the one that comes from their yard. Clark cuts it down after Mom gets upset for him not buying one (he refused to pay $12.50, raised to $25 when he comes back to a near-empty lot). Rather than a squirrel, it's a bird that emerges from the tree. The grandparents' rivalry is there. At one point, it becomes a matter of Swedish Americans vs. Norwegian Americans. Mom concludes the story by falsely IDing the Christmas star. In this case, it's an airplane.
-- Next: The War of the Roses. On deck: She-Devil.
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