Home Alone

Home Alone
The Home Alone movie poster. (Poster includes the Ontario Film Review Board classification)
Directed by	Chris Columbus
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes
Starring	Macaulay Culkin Joe Pesci Daniel Stern John Heard Catherine O'Hara Roberts Blossom John Candy
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Raja Gosnell
Music by	John Williams
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	November 16, 1990 (US) December 7, 1990 (UK) December 13, 1990 (AUS)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	$18,000,000 US (estimated)
Box office	$477,561,243 (worldwide)

Home Alone is a 1990 Christmas film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film features Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. While initially relishing time by himself, he is later greeted by two house intruders. Kevin eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps. The film also features Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard and Roberts Blossom.

Plot

The extended McCallister family prepares to spend Christmas in France, gathering at Peter and Kate's (John Heard and Catherine O'Hara) home in Chicago the night before their flight. Eight year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), Peter and Kate's son, finds himself the ridicule of the other children, and after getting into a fight with Buzz (Devin Ratray), his older brother, he is sent to the third floor of the house, wishing his family would disappear. When a power failure causes the McCallister's to wake up late, they accidentally leave the sleeping Kevin behind as they hastily depart to the airport. On the trans-Atlantic flight, Kate realizes that they have left Kevin behind, and once in Paris, immediately tries to book a return trip back to Chicago. While the rest of the family is set to return two days later, on Christmas, Kate manages to fly into Dallas and then Scranton, but cannot get a flight back to Chicago. She manages to hitch a ride with Gus Polinski (John Candy) and his polka band who are traveling to Milwaukee.

Meanwhile Kevin, waking up to find the house empty, is elated that his wish came true and enjoys doing activities that he was normally not allowed to do. However, Kevin finds himself scared by the appearance of the police, called by his parents to check on Kevin, his next door neighbor "Old Man" Marley who was rumored to have murdered his family back in 1958, and the appearance of the "Wet Bandits", Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), who are raiding other houses along the block with their occupants away on holiday. On Christmas Eve, Kevin manages to overhear Harry and Marv discuss plans for targeting his house that night. After seeing Santa Claus and watching a local choir perform in hopes to have his family return, Kevin runs into Marley, and comes to realize that the man is quite friendly, and none of the rumors about him are true. Kevin finds Marley is estranged from his son, and suggests he reunite with him for Christmas. So that night, Kevin returns home to prepare a series of booby traps about the house. The bandits are initially fooled by Kevin's illusion that the house is occupied, but realize he is home alone, and attempt to gain entry, running into the various traps. They manage to chase Kevin out of the house, who flees to the vacated, neighboring Murphy home. The Wet Bandits manage to trap Kevin but then Marley is able to subdue the two bandits, who are later arrested by the police. After thanking Marley, Kevin returns home, leaving milk and carrots out for Santa's arrival while still wishing for his parents to return home.

Kevin wakes up the next morning to find his mother has returned after she finally arrived in Chicago. Shortly afterward, the rest of the McCallisters, having traveled directly to Chicago from Paris, arrive and the extended family celebrates Christmas together, Kevin keeping silent on his encounter with the bandits. Peter finds Harry's missing gold tooth where he was hit with a paint can the night before, wondering what it is he found on the floor. Kevin discovers Marley took his advice and watches him and his son reunite. However, Buzz angrily shouts at Kevin for (accidentally) messing his room up earlier on in the film.

Production

As with most of Hughes's films, Home Alone was set—and most of the film was shot—in the greater Chicago area. Any other shots, such as those of Paris, are either stock footage or movie trickery. The scene where Kevin wades through a flooded basement when trying to outsmart the burglars was actually shot in the swimming pool in New Trier High School. A mock-up of the McDonnell Douglas DC10 business class was also put together in the school, on the basketball courts.

The Home Alone House, or more precisely 671 Lincoln Avenue, is a three-story single family detached house used for shooting the majority of the scenes in the movies Home Alone (1990) and parts of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). The kitchen in the film was actually shot in the house, along with the main staircase, basement and most of the first floor landing. However, the house's dining room, and all of the rooms downstairs (excluding the kitchen) were built on a sound stage. It is located in the inner-ring suburbs of Chicago, in the village of Winnetka which is located around 19 miles (30km) north of the city in New Trier Township, Cook County. The private property is worth just over $2.2 million as of February 2009, and was purchased by a single family on December 15th, 1988, who still own the house today. It was built in 1920 and features 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a fully-converted attic, a fireplace, a detached double garage and a greenhouse.. "Kevin's tree house" no longer exists in the backyard, as it was built specifically for the film. It is listed as a Chicago-area tourist destination, as well as being cited as an example of "How to Get Your Home in the Movies".

Cast

• Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister
• Joe Pesci as Harry
• Daniel Stern as Marv
• Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley
• Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister
• John Heard as Peter McCallister
• Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister
• Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister
• Angela Goethals as Linnie McCallister
• Michael C. Maronna as Jeff McCallister
• Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister
• Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister
• Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister
• Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister
• Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister
• Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister
• Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister
• John Candy as Gus Polinski

Music

Home Alone: Official Soundtrack

Released by Sony Music Entertainment in 1990, the soundtrack contained 19 tracks consisting of the original score composed by John Williams and other Christmas songs used in the film.

1. "Home Alone Main Titles" (4:53)
2. "Holiday Flight" (0:59)
3. "The House" (2:27)
4. "Star of Bethlehem (Orchestral Version)" (2:51)
5. "Man of the House" (4:33)
6. "White Christmas" (2:40)
7. "Scammed by a Kindergartner" (3:55)
8. "Please Come Home for Christmas" (Southside Johnny) (2:41)
9. "Follow That Kid!" (2:03)
10. "Making the Plane" (0:52)
11. "O Holy Night" (2:48)
12. "Carol of the Bells" (1:25)
13. "Star of Bethlehem" (2:59)
14. "Setting The Trap" (2:16)
15. "Somewhere In My Memory" (1:04)
16. "The Attack on the House" (6:53)
17. "Mom Returns and Finale" (4:19)
18. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Mel Tormé) (3:05)
19. "We Wish You a Merry Christmas / End Title" (4:15)

Somewhere In My Memory

The film's signature tune, Somewhere In My Memory, was actually written to 'run alongside the film' by Williams and was created to its entirety parallel to the motion picture. It can be heard in numerous sections of the film, either in full length or indiscreetly played, forming the backbone for the movie's soundtrack and setting an innocent, nostalgic mood, mainly depicting Kevin's struggles and his sorrow. The lyrics to the song show this, and can be found here. Somewhere In My Memory today is performed in many Christmas concerts in schools or professional orchestras/choirs alike across the globe, and brings a feeling of nostalgia for those who may have seen the film already, and know all too well this modern carol. Here is an example, recently performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (P.F.O.). ,

Novelization and deleted scenes

A children's novelization of Home Alone was published several months prior to the film's initial November 1990 opening. This adaptation features chapters and pictures that showcase several large scenes that were filmed but deleted from the final film. One of the many notable cut scenes features Marv impersonating a police officer. This particular scene takes place directly after Kevin's family leaves for their vacation in Paris. The novelization also includes the surnames of the burglars: Joe Pesci's character, named Harry Lyme, is a reference to the 1940s film The Third Man.

Video games

The first Home Alone game was released in 1991. Home Alone video games were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Sega Game Gear, the Game Boy, the Sega Master System, the Amiga and personal computers. The Home Alone game on the SNES system used still images and character's voices from the film in its gameplay. It also features the characters from the movie as well as new enemies created for the game including a fat gangster, ghosts, large rats and very large tarantulas.

A video game simply titled Home Alone was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It was not released in the United States.

Reception

In its opening weekend, Home Alone grossed $17 million in 1,202 theaters, averaging $14,211 per site and just 6% of the final total. Home Alone proved so popular that it stayed in theaters well past the Christmas season. It was the #1 film at the box office for 12 straight weeks, from its release weekend of November 16-18, 1990 through the weekend of February 1-3, 1991. It would remain a top 10 draw at the box office until the weekend of April 26 that year, which was well past Easter weekend. It would make two more appearances in the top 10 (the weekend of May 31-June 2 and the weekend of June 14-16) before finally falling out of the top 10. The film ended up making a final gross of $285,761,243, the top grossing film of its year

By the time it had run its course in theaters, Home Alone was the third highest grossing movie of all time, according to the home video box. In the year 1990 the film was the highest grossing film. In total, its cinema run grossed $477,561,243 worldwide.

Though the film was a great success in theaters, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the plot was too implausible and the entire movie too contrived.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film got a "Rotten" score of 47%, although the user section on the site was much more positive with a "Fresh" score of 83%.

Sequels

The film was followed by a commercially successful sequel, the 1992 release Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which brings back the original cast from the first film. Home Alone 3, release in 1997 has completely different actors, and a different storyline. A fourth film followed in 2002, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House. This film features some of the same characters featured in the first two films, but with a new cast and storyline that does not fall into the same continuity. it is Unknown if there will be a Home Alone 5

Urban Legend

Home alone also spawned urban legend.During the airport scene,when Kevin's mother,Kate,is arguing with airport staff about getting home,there is a beared man standing in a background.Many fans claimed that he resembles Elvis Presley.What is more intriguing,that he twitches his head in one moment,just like Elvis in his final concert.It is undetermined,if it was actor,or it was director's easter egg,or if he tried to resemble elvis,or it was elvis himself.Fans always resembling his look to the Elvis's movie role, Charro!.

Angels with Filthy Souls

File:Angels with Filthy Souls.jpg

Johnny informing Snakes that he isn't welcome anymore.

Angels with Filthy Souls, a parody of the 1938 Warner Bros. film Angels with Dirty Faces, is a fictional gangster film that appears within the movie and was made specifically for Home Alone. The scene is so popular and due to it's popularity, it had been reenacted by many on YouTube, including one reenactment by Brandon Hardesty, who (like he always does when reenacting a scene from a movie) plays both characters.

The film acted dramatically within Home Alone as Kevin used it repeatedly to make outside characters think that there were adults in the house by either playing the whole tape or fast forwarding to the useful parts.

In the Home Alone sequel Home Alone 2, Kevin rented and watched a film titled Angels with Even Filthier Souls, the sequel to this film.

Plot

The film involves several Chicago gangsters who apparently have business to be dealt with. Snakes enters Johnny's office and questions him about the money owed for getting the "stuff". Johnny smugly replies that Acey no longer has any authority, and implies that he is not about to give Snakes any money. Snakes shows discomfort when he finds out that Acey is upstairs, taking a bath and almost immediately Johnny takes out his Tommy Gun.

Johnny tells Snakes to get out before he counts to 10, however, Johnny cuts the count short, counting to two, then jumping straight to 10, and fires repeatedly while laughing maniacally.

This occurs twice in the movie. The first time was when the young pizza delivery boy delivered a pizza to the McCallister's house while Kevin was home alone.

The second time was when Marv tried to break in during the day while Kevin was working in the kitchen. He saw Marv and turned on the tape in the kitchen. He then got a pot and some firecrackers and lit it and then when Johnny started firing the firecrackers started going off causing Marv to believe that someone was really shot and killed in the kitchen. At the end of the clip, Johnny says, "Keep the change, ya filthy animal!" For humorous effect, Kevin mouths this line to the audience after Marv runs away. Marv gets back in the van and tells Harry about what he heard inside the house. Marv claims he heard the name "Snakes" before but doesn't remember where. Harry claimed Snakes sounded like a snake. Marv and Harry hang back to discover that they're "being scammed by a kindygardener".

Characters

The main characters include:

• Johnny - (Ralph Foody) new mobster boss that wastes no time in informing Snakes that he isn't welcome anymore.
• Snakes - (Michael Guido) dressed in a coat and hat, he has come to collect his 10% dues from Johnny and Acey.
• Acey. - repeatedly referred to by Snakes as the original man in charge who owes him money. While it is never stated in the movie's dialogue, it is implied that Acey is dead.

External links

• Home Alone at IMDb
• Home Alone at AllMovie
• Home Alone at Rotten Tomatoes