National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
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| National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation | |
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 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie poster |
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| Directed by | Jeremiah S. Chechik |
| Produced by | John Hughes Tom Jacobson |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Starring | Chevy Chase Beverly D'Angelo Juliette Lewis Johnny Galecki Julia Louis-Dreyfus |
| Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
| Cinematography | Thomas E. Ackerman |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | 1 December 1989 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | European Vacation |
| Followed by | Vegas Vacation |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik and produced by Warner Bros. It is the third installment in the National Lampoon Vacation series of movies.
It stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Griswold, Johnny Galecki as Rusty Griswold and a young Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold. Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn reprise their roles as, respectively, "Cousin Eddie" and "Cousin Catherine," from the first National Lampoon's Vacation film. Other supporting roles are played by Brian Doyle-Murray (who also appeared in the original Vacation film, although in a different and smaller role), E. G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, Nicholas Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen and Sam McMurray.
As head of his family, Clark W. Griswold attempts to follow American family Christmas traditions with elaborate Christmas lights and decorations on the exterior of the family home. He then attempts a Grand Illumination outside the house.
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[edit] Plot summary
The movie begins with Clark taking his family on the search for a perfect Christmas tree. After aggravating nearby motorists, getting stuck under a big rig, and walking in the woods for a long time, Clark finally finds said tree. (He digs the tree out himself because he forgot the saw.) Clark breaks several windows and gets covered in tree sap setting it up, as it barely fits in the yard, let alone the living room.
While shopping for gifts at a mall, Clark meets a saleswoman named Mary. He makes a series of double entendres to her on their first encounter, and later fantasizes about her skinny-dipping in his future pool.
Clark has been working on a project at his firm which he expects will bring in a good Christmas bonus. Clark plans to use said bonus to put in a swimming pool, which he has already laid down a $7,500 deposit on.
As Christmas approaches, the many members of Clark's extended family begin arriving to stay with him. Clark and Ellen's parents were the first to arrive. This drives him to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. He covers nearly every inch of the home's exterior and yard with lights. Clark becomes very frustrated after many attempts to get the lights working. Unknown to him, the electricity wasn't on to begin with. After the lights are up and running, Clark's cousin, Eddie, and his family show up to stay with him for a month, with their dilapidated, rusty RV parked in the driveway the whole time.
Clark and Ellen are concerned about Eddie's children, as they won't have many, if any gifts, for Christmas, due to Eddie's seven year unemployment.
On Christmas Eve, the family's eldset members, Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany, arrive for dinner. Numerous disasters occur that evening: The turkey is cooked for far too long and dries out, the aunt's cat is killed when it chews on a strand of Christmas lights, Lewis burns the tree down, and a manic squirrel "terrorizes" the family. A delivery from the company arrives at the house that evening, everyone expecting it to be the long-awaited bonus. Unfortunately, Clark's boss cut out bonuses without informing his employees. As a substitute, Clark is enrolled in a jelly club.
Clark has now reached his boiling point, going through several outbursts out of severe frustration. The family attempts to leave due to the events of the evening. Eddie then kidnaps Clark's boss, and the boss finally sees reason about the Christmas bonuses. The police, called by the boss' wife, raid the home, but the boss explains that it is all a misunderstanding.
Uncle Lewis' cigar ignites the gas from the sewage Eddie had earlier dumped down the street drain while emptying the holding tank on his RV, blasting a Santa ornament into the sky. Everyone watches the strange but touching sight, as Clark realizes his dream of the perfect, albeit weird, family Christmas.
[edit] Box Office Performance
The movie debuted at #2 at the box-office while grossing $11,750,203 during the opening weekend. It went on the gross a total of $71,319,546 in the United States while showing in movie theaters. In addition to its box-office performance, the movie has made $34,800,000 in rental profits.[1] [2]
[edit] Quotes
- "Oh, Eddie. If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now." -Clark Griswold
- "That cat had nine lives - it just spent 'em all." -Cousin Eddie
- "Shit'rs full." -Couisin Eddie
- "WORSE?!? How could things get any worse? Take a look around here, Ellen. We're at the threshold of hell." -Clark Griswold
- "That's pretty low, mister. If I had a rubber hose, I would beat you into a..." -Police Chief
- "Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse." -Clark Griswold
- "Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is. Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?" - Clark Griswold
- "Yes, officer. It seems my husband has been abducted. The man was wearing a blue leisure suit. And the plates were from Kansas. I... He was a huge, beastly, bulging man." -Helen Shirley
- Audrey: "He worked really hard, Grandpa."
Grandpa: "So do washing machines."
- Margo: "And why is the carpet all wet, Tood?"
Todd: "I DON'T KNOW, Margo."
- Grandpa: "Hey, Buddy, wanna give me a kiss?"
Eddie: "I'd take a rain check, Art. He's gotta lip fungus that ain't been identified yet."
[edit] Sequels
This is the only sequel in the Vacation series to have spawned its own sequel: a direct to video 2003 release entitled Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn are the only Vacation regulars to reprise their roles.
Christmas Vacation is preceded in the Vacation series by:
Aside from its direct sequel, Christmas Vacation is followed in the series by:
- Vegas Vacation (1997)
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003)
This film was the last of the series to feature "National Lampoon's" in its title.
[edit] Television coverage
The broadcast television rights to Christmas Vacation are held by NBC, which currently airs a censored version of the movie every December, usually on a Sunday night. It appears that in 2006, NBC decided not to air the movie, possibly in part due to the addition of Sunday Night Football. Instead, the movie appeared on the TBS, which listed it six times on its schedule between Sunday, Dec. 17 and Sunday. Dec. 24, 2006. The TBS broadcast included at least some of the risque language of the theatrical release, including the series of double entendre remarks a flustered Clark utters when he encounters sexy department store saleswoman Mary (Nicolette Scorsese) at the negligee counter.
[edit] Trivia
- The Chicago Blackhawks donated the specialty jerseys to the producers with "Griswold" written on the back for Clark and Rusty to wear.
- In Rocky V, just before Paulie comes in as Santa Claus, Rocky Jr. and his friends can be seen watching the film.
- The film's director, Jeremiah S. Chechik, is on the cover of People Magazine that Clark is reading in his bedroom.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=christmasvacation.htm Box Office Mojo box office information
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/business IMDB box office and rental information
[edit] External links
