For the first time in Glazed Cinema’s history, we’ve ventured into December. A month of holidays including Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Eve to name a few. While we enjoy commiserating with those e love we all have movies we love to watch this time of year and become an annual tradition. For me, it’s our subject today and is movie that’s been on my list to do since I started Glazed Cinema four years ago and I figured, why not now? It’s a movie that is a beloved classic and one that like me might also be on you watchlist this holiday season.
So if you’re like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey, then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next little while. For me that’s a mug of warm mulled apple cider. So sot back, relax, and let’s talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.
I usually like to end a season of Glazed Cinema with a movie celebrating my favorite holiday of Thanksgiving. However, this hear I wanted to switch it up a bit and recommend my favorite Christmas movie of all time.
Home Alone follows an eight year old boy who’s been accidentally left behind in Chicago while his family has flown off for a Christmas vacation in Paris. Kevin wakes up alone in a large empty house without any guidance, thinking a wish he made the night prior has made his family disappear. At first he’s remorseful, but after remembering how they’ve teased and picked on him he soon relishes in it. At first being alone is fun, being able to do things he’s not allowed to do. Soon though being alone begins to weigh on him as he needs to fend for himself. While doing so he must navigate a myriad of foreign obstacles including a scary furnace in the basement, a stoic and cold neighbor, and navigating the grocery store. The largest obstacle of all however are the two home burglars who have targeted his house as their next job. Mustering all his courage, resilience, and creativity Kevin must defend himself and his home from the two bandits as his mom rushes home from Paris to be with him after realizing they’ve left him behind. It’s a race against the clock and a battle of wits for Kevin, his family, and the burglars in a Christmas classic.
Home Alone was written by the great John Hughes. Hughes wrote and directed a slew of classics in the eighties, largely dealing with teen angst. He wrote and directed films like Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and The Breakfast Club, while having written screenplays for a number of other classic movies. His filmography is extremely impressive and is certainly one of the most prolific comedy writer directors in the last fifty years. With this episode, Hughes is also among the most talked about directors in Glazed Cinema up to this point. The first episode I did on Hughes was Uncle Buck, the movie that led up to today’s subject. Without Uncle Buck there would be no Home Alone.
Hughes got the idea for Home Alone innocently and rather familiarly, while planning a trip. He recounted this once in an interview where he stated:
“I was going away on vacation and making a list of everything I didn’t want to forget. I thought, ‘Well, I’d better not forget my kids.’ Then I thought, ‘What if I left my 10-year-old son at home? What would he do? How would he deal with that situation? You know there’s a fear that children have of being left behind and a fear adults have of leaving their kids behind…I thought that would be a good emotion to build a movie on.”
After taking a small break from packing things for vacation Hughes wrote several pages of notes on the idea. Later he developed and fleshed out those ideas into the screenplay of Home Alone. While Hughes was the writing force and producer of the film, he did not actually direct Home Alone. That duty went to a director named Chris Columbus, who like Hughes was a writer director himself. Having graduated from NYU, Columbus has directed two pictures and wrote several screenplays before embarking on Home Alone. Of those screenplays included Heartbreak Hotel, The Goonies, and Gremlins.
Shooting the film took place in two primary locations. One being the actual house that served as the McCallister’s home and the other being a film studio. The location of the house was used to film all exterior scenes including entrances, exits, stakeouts, and outside gags. The neighborhood the house is in was also used to film various outdoor scenes including the church, drug store, and grocery store. The studio was used to film all of the interior scenes. This approach to filming was something Hughes had a habit of doing and in an interview once he joked about having built nine houses of nearly the exact layout and having tore all of them down.
Columbus, Hughes and company built the entire interior of the house in a sound stage, much like a doll house so they could have more space and control to film the in-house sequences. The house in Home Alone bears some resemblance to other homes of past Hughes films with the open foyer and large wooden staircase leading to the second floor.
Home Alone includes a wonderful cast of characters that builds the family, neighbors, antagonists, and tangential roles. The thing that’s so great about the movie is how everyone feels like they belong in the role they’re in. Nobody feels over or under cast and the characters kind of just fit into place, like they really are the people they’re portraying. While this is in large part a testament to the acting of those playing their roles, it's also a testament to Hughes’ approach to casting. He explained this one in an interview in which he stated:
“We spend a lot of time on casting. I think sometimes people just focus on their stars and then let the other parts take care of themselves. I’ve always believed in casting every part as if it were a lead, so that every player that you have in the film is as strong as they can possibly be…and it just makes for a fuller, richer film. Casting that family, that family is very important and yet is would be very easy to just grab ten kids and put ‘em in there, but giving them all a little distinction makes the picture that much better.”
He’s right as well. Each part of that family, whether big or small roles all make a lasting impact. That impact helps build sympathy for Kevin in the beginning and also helps bring empathy for his missing them later on.
Of course, the film stars McCauley Caulkin as Kevin McAllister. Kevin is a seven year old boy who is the youngest of his family of six children. Kevin is a but misunderstood, but also a bit stubborn and rebellious, which gets him into trouble. He is also picked on by almost each of his siblings, none more than his eldest brother Buzz. McCauley plays Kevin brilliantly and fits the tole like a glove, bringing a variety of complex emotions like fear, anxiety, regret, humor, loneliness, and satisfaction to light in realistic and relatable ways. Another fun fact is that in the tole of Kevin’s cousin Fuller is McCauley’s actual brother, Kieran, which is a nice touch to the casting as well.
One of the co-stars is Kevin’s mother Kate, played by the great and incomparable Catherine O’Hara. Kate is a caring woman who loves all of her children, but is stretched thin at times, especially while planning and coordinating their vacation to Paris during Christmas. O’Hara is perfect in the role of of Kate as she’s great at comedy, but is also believable as a caring, loving mother. She plays that line so wonderfully in this film and is the splendid as Kevin’s mother and the matriarch of the McAllister family.
Then there are the antagonists of the movie, Harry and Marv, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern respectively. Harry and Marv are home burglars who make a habit of robbing empty homes during the holiday season. Harry is the brains of the operation, casing the houses, planning their hits, and making their entrance and exit plans. Marv is the creative and spontaneous energy behind the pair, lending ideas to support Harry’s plans, while at times being the foil to Harry’s carefully laid plans. The pair have great chemistry and play off of each other very well as one is serious and all business while the other is a bit goofy and clumsy. Pesci in particular shines as Harry, who I point out only due to this being his first foray into family-friendly comedy. Thanks to his fantastic acting ability however, you’d never know.
Another iconic thing about Home Alone is the music. While there are several Christmas songs played throughout the movie, the score of the film was composed by the legendary John Williams. Williams has been the mind several iconic and legendary behind film scores including Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Star Wars ti name a few. With Home Alone is influence is felt right away as the enduring theme of Home Alone greets our ears before any visual ever does. The Home Alone theme is one of those instantly recognizable tunes that draws instant flashbacks and smiles, a testament to Williams’ creativity and genius.
There are so many great moments of the film ranging from the gags to the heartfelt moments. It’s also an incredibly quote worthy movie with great dialogue lines that fans toss around in there daily lives. Things like “Keep the change ya filthy animal”, “You’re what the French call, les incompetants”, or one my favorites, “Look what ya did ya little jerk”.
In terms of moments, there are a lot to choose from, but one of my favorite parts is when Marv tries to break in to the McAllister house through the kitchen. Kevin, enjoying a pizza already, begins playing a mobster movie scene at full volume, which leads to a tommy gun scene, scaring off Marv to alert Harry. That scene also has something in the Home Alone lore, which is the gangster movie itself. That was a scene shot specifically for that scene and isn’t from a previous movie at all, which is a great concept. To this day people look up the movie titled ‘Angles with Filthy Souls’ to try and watch it only to learn about its true nature as a prop film. For those curious though, that prop film is based on a Cagney and Bogart picture called Angels with Dirty Faces. Some lines of that prop film are still some of the most quoted of Home Alone to this day.
Another great scene is when Kevin goes to church to seek help and runs into his neighbor. He’s there watching his granddaughter recite holiday songs for Christmas mass and they have a heart to heart conversation about fear, family, and forgiveness. With the backdrop of the beautiful church interiors and music it makes for a wonderful moment in the movie. It’s a great scene that is not always remembered or talked about, but is a pivotal point in the film and helps develop both characters.
There other great moments I love, but I’d be remised if I didn’t talk about the greatest cameo of the franchise, which is of course, John Candy. I love John Candy, he is so funny and so warm hearted in every role he had and this is no exception. He doesn’t have too much screen time here, but the time he does have is memorable. I’ve said it before on our episodes on Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but Candy just seemed like a great human being and he’s definitely missed. I always love seeing him on screen with his great smile and laugh in his various roles.
Home Alone is one of my favorite Christmas movies and I watch it every year. I love almost every aspect of it. It has so many great moments and perfectly blends comedy, drama, and the holiday spirit into one delicious nog. Last year I got to see it screened at my local theater in Philadelphia, which was amazing. It was so much more funny and wholesome on the big screen and definitely worth the experience if the opportunity arises.
When Home Alone debuted it rocketed in popularity and grossed over 476 million dollars worldwide. Parents loved taking their children to see it and kids could see themselves in it. The success of the film also spurred a shift in Hollywood. If the eighties was the decade of the teen movie, the nineties became the decade of the family comedy movie.
After Home Alone debuted in 1990 studios saw the success of the picture as a beacon to which they sailed their ships toward. Soon every Hollywood studio was undertaking family-friendly comedies. The amount of examples from the nineties are in high count, but some great examples include, 1992’s The Mighty Ducks, 1993’s Dennis the Menace, 1994’s Richie Rich, and 1995’s Jumanji. It also helped inspire other family comedy movies like 1994’s The Santa Clause and 1996’s Jingle All the Way.
For Hughes, Home Alone was bittersweet in a way. Sweet in the success it had, bitter in the shift that would come to his career. A shift that saw him primarily be approached to write other family-friendly comedies. Something that led to an involuntary pigeonholing, which must have seemed stifling. One clear sign that he had less than stellar feelings is the rise of his pseudonym, Edmond Dantés, used on pieces the writer didn’t want to be included in his repertoire.
Two years after Home Alone’s success, the McCallister’s were back again with Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It’s a film that is one of those rare sequels in which many people prefer it over the original. A prop film sequel to the prop film in the original also makes an appearance when our familiar gangster friend returns with ‘Angels with even Filthier Souls’. That sentiment is understandable as well as it truly is a great movie, once again written and directed by John Hughes and largely the same cast. Personally though, I still prefer the original, but there really isn’t any wrong answer between the two.
Home Alone is a phenomenal Christmas movie and one I enjoy watching every year. If you haven’t seen it, I highly encourage you to press play on this holiday classic. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
If you’d like to watch Home Alone for yourself you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find it on Disney Plus. Disney Plus is a streaming service from Disney offering TVs, Movies, and Documentaries from under the Disney umbrella. Pricing options include Basic for $9.99 and Premium for $15.99. You can also bundle Disney Plus with Hulu for $10.99 per month.
Apart from Disney Plus you can also find it on Apple TV Plus. Apple TV Plus includes a diverse catalog of Movie and TV show options from under and beyond the Apple Entertainment umbrella for $9.99 per month.
Lastly, you can watch Home Alone on services like Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and Apple TV for $3.99 to rent.
If you like this podcast tell your friends and follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Each week there will be new content including hints about episodes before they air. If you’d like to learn more about the podcast visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you’ll find more info about the show and a place to submit ideas for future episodes. For film fans who are hearing impaired the blog page features each episode in written form as well. As always, thanks for listening and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and new year. That’s a wrap on Season Four and I hope to see you next year with Season Five of Glazed Cinema.
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