| National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Jeremiah Chechik |
| Produced by | John Hughes Matty Simmons |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Starring | Chevy Chase Beverly D'Angelo Randy Quaid Juliette Lewis Johnny Galecki John Randolph Diane Ladd E.G. Marshall Doris Roberts William Hickey Mae Questel Miriam Flynn Nicholas Guest Julia Louis-Dreyfus |
| Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
| Cinematography | Thomas E. Ackerman |
| Editing by | Jerry Greenberg |
| Studio | John Hughes Entertainment Warner Bros Pictures |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | December 1, 1989 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Christmas Vacation is a 1989 Christmas comedy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, and was written by John Hughes, based on his short story in National Lampoon Magazine, Christmas ‘59. The title song was written for the movie by the husband-wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and was performed by Mavis Staples of The Staple Singers fame.
Since its release in 1989, Christmas Vacation has received critical acclaim and is often considered a modern holiday classic.[1][2][3][4]
Contents |
Chicago resident Clark Wilhelm Griswold Jr. (Chevy Chase) has really got the Christmas spirit this year, and his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty (Johnny Galecki), and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis) have noticed that. On a quest for "The Griswold Family Christmas Tree," Clark has planned a "good, old-fashioned family Christmas." His family is wary of his plans, but Clark is oblivious.
Clark has invited Ellen's parents Art Smith (E. G. Marshall) and Francis Smith (Doris Roberts), his own parents Clark Wilhelm Griswold Sr (John Randolph) and Nora Griswold (Diane Ladd), and his Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) and Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) to spend the holidays at the Griswold house in Chicago. But in spite of all the good intentions and careful planning, Christmas plans start to go awry.
Clark is obsessed with making everything go perfectly during the holiday season, but as soon as everyone arrives, things start going haywire, especially when the Griswolds receive some uninvited surprise guests from Kansas -- cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn), her sloppy husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), and two of their kids, Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), who have arrived in their old RV.
Clark decorates the outside of the house with 250 strands of lights with 100 bulbs on each strand for a total of 25,000 light bulbs, enough to make the power company turn on their auxiliary nuclear generator. Clark also annoys his snobby next door neighbors, Todd Chester (Nicholas Guest) and his wife Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Also, Clark has nostalgic moments of Christmas past when he is accidentally locked in the attic, and watches an old home movie from a past Christmas (which ends with the attic door was opened and he fell out of the attic).
Even with his bumbling ways, Clark, who works for a company that produces food colorings, additives, and preservatives, manages to keep things going as he waits for his Christmas bonus from work so he'll have enough money to have a swimming pool put in the back yard.
But it turns out that Clark's boss, a scrooge whose name is Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle Murray), has decided to cut Christmas bonuses this year, without informing his employees. And Clark learns that Eddie and his family have lost their home, and are living in the RV. And in the place of his Christmas bonus, Clark is enrolled in the "Jelly of the Month" club. That causes Clark to snap and unleash a string of insults regarding Frank.
This situation gives Eddie the idea for the perfect Christmas gift for Clark after Clark offers to help Eddie treat Rocky and Ruby Sue to a good Christmas -- Eddie goes to Frank's house, puts Frank in the RV, and brings Frank to the Griswold house, so Eddie and the Griswolds can help Frank see the error of his ways.
Frank finally sees reason about the Christmas bonuses. A SWAT team, called by Frank's wife Helen (Natalia Nogulich), raids the home, but Frank explains that it's all a misunderstanding and admits he was wrong to withhold bonuses from his employees. He then decides to give Clark his bonus, along with an added 20%.
Uncle Lewis's cigar ignites the gas from the sewage Eddie had earlier dumped down the storm drain while emptying the holding tank on his RV, blasting a Santa ornament into the sky. Everyone watches the strange but touching sight, whilst Aunt Bethany sings a part of The Star-Spangled Banner, as Clark realizes his dream of the perfect family Christmas. The Santa and reindeer lawn ornaments fly across the sky, having been propelled by the explosion.
The movie debuted at #2 at the box-office while grossing $11,750,203 during the opening weekend, behind Back to the Future Part II. The movie eventually topped the box-office charts in its third week of release and remained #1 the following weekend. It went on to gross a total of $71,319,546 in the United States while showing in movie theaters.[5]
Despite several popular songs being present in the film, no soundtrack album was released. In 1999, bootleg copies of a "10th Anniversary Limited Edition" began to appear on Internet auction sites with the claim that Warner Brothers and RedDotNet had pressed 20,000 CD's for Six Flags Magic Mountain employees to give to customers entering the park. The discs were individually numbered out of "20,000" and were sold with most of the music featured in the film along with select cuts of dialogue. Forums on movie music sites such as SoundtrackCollector and Movie Music have declared the disc to be a bootleg put together by a fan. For instance, the cut, "Christmas Vacation Medley" (claiming to be the work of composer Angelo Badalamenti), is really a track called, "Christmas at Carnegie Hall" from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York by composer John Williams and does not actually contain any of Badalamenti's score from the film.
This is the only sequel in the Vacation series to have spawned its own direct sequel: a direct to video 2003 release entitled National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn returned as Eddie and Catherine, along with Dana Barron again appearing as Audrey, which she played in Vacation, and Eric Idle, who played "The Bike Rider" in European Vacation reprises the role, only this time being credited as "British Man on Plane". Christmas Vacation is preceded in the Vacation series by:
Christmas Vacation is followed in the series by: