A Christmas Story is still pure gold
A football? What's a football?
It's hilarious to see how much the elves -- wearing those ridiculous hats -- enjoy sending the freaked-out kids down the big slide. Perhaps the most bitter elves ever, although I don't know a lot of them.
But, in my opinion, the greatest line in a movie of great lines is uttered by narrator Jean Shepherd (whose novel the movie is based on).
It, and a couple of others, after the jump:
The line comes after Ralphie says the f-word and is asked by his mom where he heard that word:
"Now, I had heard that word at least ten times a day from my old man. He worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master."
Another great, profanity-related one from the narrator:
"I have since heard of people under extreme duress speaking in strange tongues. I became conscious that a steady torrent of obscenities and swearing of all kinds was pouring out of me as I screamed."
Another tremendous moment is when Ralphie looks around the classroom, trying to look innocent, as Miss Shields says this:
"Now I know that some of you put Flick up to this, but he has refused to say who. But those who did it know their blame, and I'm sure that the guilt you must feel would be far worse than any punishment you might receive. Now, don't you feel terrible? Don't you feel remorse for what you have done?"
Ralphie's thoughts: "Adults loved to say things like that but kids knew better. We knew darn well it was always better not to get caught."
And, because I wore glasses as a kid, my favorite moment is when Ralphie accidentally steps on his glasses when he's in the backyard trying out his gun. He puts the glasses on his face and thinks to himself:
"For a moment, I thought, I'll fake it. They'll never know the lens is gone!"
I feel so lucky to have actually seen this movie when it came out in 1983. I had just turned 12 years old, and it was the perfect movie to me at the time. It still is, really.