It was a different time. You could write a story about a home owner and it would come off as believable
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30 years later and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is still the most realistic and brutally honest depiction of Christmas ever in a movie.
- Thread starter Kalmakov
- Start date
Please go find a different thread to ruin with this nonsense.
As someone who's upper middle class parents declared bankruptcy for this exact shit, I would say it's relatable.
I feel like you're kinda trolling but oh well here goes.
It's a suburban house in the 80s so I doubt it's much more than 2,500 sq ft which is fairly average for new homes these days. Kinda big for the era but it's a little weird to have someone in 2019 think that it's some kind of mansion.
Those pools they used to put in back in the 80s also often had that cheap vinyl lining that I don't think is very popular anymore. Also cost of construction and installation has gone up quite a bit since the 80s and it kinda feels like it has outstripped inflation.
What doesn't feel relatable is getting on board with the idea of installing an in ground pool in Chicago. Doesn't feel like you'd get much use out of it there as opposed to somewhere in the South.
I used to think this to be honest. But now I'm married and our combined income is 110k. Trust me dude, it's not a lot. Certainly not enough to start a family in SoCal. We're still very much pay check to Pay check. The difference is were able to save a little.
It's my favourite Christmas movie and one of my favourite comedies in general. Funny thing about it is that Clark's family aren't necessarily "bad" people, things just keep going wrong for him. It's relatable in how all he's trying to do is make everybody happy for the holidays and every plan blows up in his face.
I also feel like while the pool is a catalyst for the ending, most of the movie isn't really about that.
I also feel like while the pool is a catalyst for the ending, most of the movie isn't really about that.
This is what I was about to say. And also a lot of people can relate to getting screwed out of money that they felt they earned. Christmas Vacation is my all time fav Christmas movie, it's hard to see it getting topped.
As a kid it bothered me that the children were replaced in every movie, it felt insulting to me; like they didn't matter. As an adult I realize it's because they didn't matter.
My favourite line in the movie haha. As many stories as I've heard about Chevy Chase being a massive douche, as a comedic actor he's really good with how he delivers certain lines and of course the physical comedy.
They spent like a month with 4 extra people in the house. That's dumb and Beverly tells Clark it's dumb. Clark is just dumb because he desires some impossible family ideal far too much.
Really, you don't like the movie because the main character isn't dirt poor?
If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now.
100k is more then 5 times what I make. People on era are well off enough that they dont have to worry about food thats for sure.
have you even seen the movie? He puts a down payment on a pool that he can't cover without his bonus. This means he has no savings and he's overspending. It's a portrait of the 90s middle-income American who overspends to boost their status. An obvious extensions of the simple man who insists on having the most elaborate light display on his block to the point it won't work, the largest tree that won't fit in his living room, providing a christmas for his cousin-in-law's family when he can't provide one for his own, hosting far more people for the holidays than he can manage, etc, etc. The Griswalds aren't poor, but they also clearly can't afford the things Clark thinks they deserve. And based on what we know of them, they owe a lot on that house
The film even paints the Griswald family in the middle of the economic spectrum, by comparing them to both Clark's boss at the top, and Eddie at the bottom. All three are extreme exaggerations, as one would expect from a comedy film, but if you'd rather relate to cousin Eddie and family, feel free! We get plenty of insight into Christmas for the full economic spectrum in the film
As for the size of their house, it's pretty typical for a middle-income midwestern house for white boomers in the 90s. Do they even have a guest bedroom? As I recall, the grandparents take the kids' rooms, and the kids end up on a hide-a-bed or something together. So, yeah, you can find the house "unrelatable", but just remember to find the 4 bedroom Simpson's, Bob's Burgers (on a failing restaurants income?), and pretty much every other house in a show with three kids to be even more "unrelatable". I grew up in Chicago suburbs around that time and I knew some very broke families with houses that size (and larger). And some of them had pools...
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"People on Era" is meaningless. You don't know everyone's situation.
Exactly. The scene when Clark is stuck in the attic sets the stage for his mindset. The viewer see Clark watching all these home movies, and they too get nostalgic, but then everything comes (literally) crashing down and you're right back to the jokes. But the point is that Clark is imagining this fairy-tale Christmas like the movies show, but he is losing the context that the movies are just a snapshot of life, that they don't capture all the other shit that took place before and after the reel began to turn. Clark, like any typical American, has his head stuck in the clouds and has lost touch with the reality of the holidays and family.
That dangerous desire for some perfect family event runs through all the vacation movies, it's the main theme. But I'm not sure it's entirely nostalgia. He tells his dad that their Christmases growing up were always disasters. He seems to be self aware of that fact. So it's almost like he's trying to avoid the horrible holidays he experienced growing up. But then you have the attic scene which does show unquestionable nostalgia even when the video shows basically very child unfriendly events. Basically just an adult party where he's being mostly ignored.
Maybe if your single and living in the Midwest. Add a few extra mouths to feed and provide for and LOL no. Doubly so if your living in the west or east coast where cost of living is expensive.
There is this space between dirt poor and rich called the middle class. It's eroding away but it does exist.
So no, 100k is not rich.
I mean, I'm sympathetic to a degree, cause life here in this country is so shit for the vast majority of people, that even decent living standards and the ability to retire at 65 look like luxury these days. But some members here need to realize that this isn't the fault of ordinary people who luck out and manage to have a decent life. It all goes back to the fucking top 1% of earners and the megacorps that they run, which control our economy, our politics, and our entire damn existence.
Love the movie, love the boob window outfit, never realised I had a thing for prime Beverley D'angelo
"If you make 100k you're a rich cunt" is exactly the type of bullshit the people at the top want us to think too, to them both people (the 100k person and the 15-25k person) are exactly the same, dirt poor. Having us fight each other out here while they erode away at our society.
People need to get that garbage mentality out of here, it's like naw man, the only cunt here is you for holding that absurd opinion.
yeah I think it maybe awoke some things for me back in the day, is it European vacation with the shower video?
Oh I thought she was nude in Vacation. You might be right.
He also invents a long life food preservative. Cookies are good for years and years and years!
That's literally one of the arguments the right-wing constantly uses against Bernie. "Dude has a million dollars in assets! Don't listen to him! He's a hypocrite for telling the ultra-rich they need to pay more in taxes!!" Except that he only has a million dollars because of a long, fruitful political career that allowed him to make bank off his book. And he was dirt poor for much of his early life. But nope, guess he's a cunt too according to the standards some people here are laying out, cause he separates himself from the 1% of earners that are so terrified of him and the progressive policies he's pushing in his presidential campaign.