This week I have picked an Icon of a movie....one of the best in my opinion. Even my dad (who hates most comedies) Loves this one and will watch it each year.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Yes, I know, that's all that needs to be said and your already laughing about one of the thousand Hilarious points in the movie.
If you have been under a rock since 1989, below is a description of the movie.
(description from Wikipedia)
Chicago suburbanite Clark Wilhelm Griswold Jr. (Chevy Chase) really has the Christmas spirit this year. The film opens with Clark taking his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), son Rusty (Johnny Galecki), and daughter Audrey (Juliette Lewis) 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 and his family finally find the perfect tree. The tree has to be dug out of the ground because Clark forgot to bring a saw.
Upon arriving home, the Griswold's snobby next door neighbors, Todd Chester (Nicholas Guest) and his wife Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) ridicule Clark for getting such a large tree. Clark breaks several windows and gets covered in tree sap setting the tree up.
Clark has invited Ellen's parents Arthur Smith (E. G. Marshall) and Frances 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.
While shopping for gifts at a downtown Chicago department store, Clark meets an attractive saleswoman named Mary (Nicolette Scorsese). He makes a series of Freudian slips to her on their encounter.
Clark has been working on a project at his firm which he expects will bring in a good Christmas bonus. Clark plans to use the bonus to put in a swimming pool, on which he has already laid down a $7,500 check that his bank account can't cover yet. He's counting on his Christmas bonus from work will cover it.
As Christmas approaches, the many members of Clark's extended family begin arriving to stay with him. Clark and Ellen's parents are the first to arrive. This drives Clark to go set up the lighting on the house with his son Rusty. During the struggle to put the lights on, Clark falls off the ladder and hangs to a gutter, which causes a gutter-shaped bar of ice to break through the Chesters' window and break their stereo. Clark covers nearly every inch of the home's exterior and yard with lights -- 250 strands of lights with 100 bulbs on each strand for a total of 25,000 light bulbs. Clark becomes very frustrated after many failed attempts to get the lights working. Ellen discovers that the outlet in which the lights were plugged wasn't powered and so switches it on in a brilliant flash of light.
After the lights are up and running, Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn), her sloppy husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), and two of their kids, Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), show up to stay with the Griswolds for a month, with their dilapidated, rusty RV parked in the driveway. Stifling his disappointment at their surprise arrival proves difficult for Clark. However, 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. Later, Clark fantasizes about Mary skinny-dipping in the pool he hopes to get.
On Christmas Eve, Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany arrive for dinner. Numerous disasters occur that evening: The turkey is cooked for far too long and dries out, Bethany's cat is electrocuted when it chews on a strand of Christmas lights, and Lewis accidentally burns the Christmas tree down, forcing Clark to quickly search for a replacement. Clark takes one from his yard and sets it up (while doing this, the tree breaks through the Chesters' window), and inside the house, a manic squirrel leaps out of the tree and "terrorizes" the family before jumping onto Margo followed by Eddie's dog as she comes over with the intention to slug Clark for the damages he caused them.
A delivery from the company arrives at the house that evening, with Clark expecting it to be the long-awaited bonus. Unfortunately, Clark's boss, a scrooge named Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle Murray), has sent Clark an enrollment in the "Jelly of the Month" club. This final insult causes Clark to go over the edge, going through several outbursts out of severe frustration. The family attempts to leave due to the events of the evening, but Clark says they're not leaving.
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 and brings Frank to the Griswold house, and then Eddie and the Griswolds help Frank see the error of his ways about the Christmas bonuses. Frank changes his mind, deciding that he will give out Christmas bonuses this year, adding 20% to what the bonuses were last year -- more than enough to cover the check Clark wrote to pay for the pool. The police, called by Frank's wife Helen (Natalia Nogulich), raid the home, but Frank explains that it's all a misunderstanding while Helen disagrees with Frank's original intent to cut the Christmas bonuses.
Outside, 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 family Christmas, saying simply: "I did it."
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