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 December 7, 1990
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000 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 stars 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 his time alone, he is later greeted by two house intruders. He eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps. It also stars Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard and Roberts Blossom

Plot

The film opens with the McCallister family rushing around their huge home preparing for their holiday to France. Eight year-old Kevin McCallister is constantly teased by his older siblings and believes he is mistreated by his family, to which he screams that he wants to live alone. A policeman (Joe Pesci) tries to get the everyone's attention but fails. The family does not know that he is a intruder named Harry who is trying to break into houses by obtaining as much information from them as possible about the security of their homes.

After a squabble with his bullying older brother, Buzz, he is sent up to the third floor of his house for the night with nothing to compensate for his stolen pizza as a punishment, while Buzz is not punished in any way for his cruelty. Disgusted by his family's unfair and neglectful treatment towards him, he wishes that his family would simply disappear.

An electric power-failure causes the family to oversleep and be late for their vacation. Kevin eventually ends up being left home alone when the eldest child, Heather, miscounts, due to a neighbor child being in the way. Kevin is initially pleased with the results. He begins to commit things he would not have been permitted to do otherwise, such as jumping on his parents' bed, going into Buzz's room and going through his personal belongings, eating junk food, riding down the stairs on a sled, shooting action figures down a laundry chute with a pellet gun, and watching an R-rated gangster film called Angels with Filthy Souls. However, a shooting in the film scares him and makes him shout for his mother, perhaps implying that the whole situation was not good after all. Several hours later, while discussing feeling like she forgot something with Peter, Kate McCallister realizes what she forgot was Kevin.

Meanwhile Harry, armed with all the information he received, and his partner Marv (Daniel Stern) begin to scout the neighborhood looking for which houses to hit, focusing strictly on the McCallisters' house and calling it the "silver tuna". The two then begin breaking into the vacant houses in the neighborhood, and then decide to head to the McCallisters'. However, Kevin notices their shadows and scares them off by turning the lights on and then runs and hides under his parents bed. While Kevin leaves, proclaiming he is not afraid anymore, he is then scared back inside by Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom), a man in the neighborhood who, according to a rumor Buzz told Kevin, killed his entire family with a snow shovel. When the Chicago Police Department tries to investigate the house for him upon his parents' request, he refuses to answer the door, because he is still scared from earlier.

The next day, Kevin unintentionally shoplifts a toothbrush after being scared away from the drugstore by Marley while shopping with Buzz's money. On his way home he is nearly hit by Harry and Marv's van and is warned by them to be careful. Harry then wishes Kevin a Merry Christmas and smiles at him, flashing his gold tooth. Kevin recognizes the tooth from when Harry, disguised as a policeman, was in the house and runs away. Harry and Marv trail Kevin for a few blocks until he hides to get away from them.

Kevin tricks Harry and Marv into thinking that the family is home from their vacation. The next morning the two intruders scout the house again, this time finding it quiet and arousing Harry's suspicions. Marv decides to try and break in himself, but Kevin plays the same gangster movie at full volume and adds more noise during the gunshot scene by lighting some firecrackers he found in Buzz's room, which scares Marv away.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Kate is desperately trying to catch a flight back to Chicago as soon as possible, although her husband is only able to book a flight leaving two days later. Eventually, she manages to swap her watch that looks like a Rolex, $500, and some more jewelry for an economy seat back to Dallas. Her next flight puts her in Scranton on Christmas Eve, where her journey home is halted because there are no flights out of Scranton to Chicago. Fortunately for her, Gus Polinski (John Candy) and his stranded group of fellow polka musicians on their way to Milwaukee for a polka festival are willing to help her get home in their van.

Back in Chicago, Harry and Marv are still trying to figure out what is going on and spot Kevin cutting his own Christmas tree. Harry then gets out, goes around to the side of the house, and spots Kevin mantling a tree, deducing that he is in fact home alone and an easy target. Kevin overhears Harry and Marv plotting their next move, which is to come back tonight.

Meanwhile, Kevin decides to try and do whatever it takes to try to get his family back home, first going to the town's Santa Claus and then to the neighborhood church to listen to the rehearsal of a choir. While there, he once again comes across Old Man Marley, and the two strike up a conversation. Kevin learns through the course of the conversation that none of the rumors about Marley are true - and in fact that he is a pleasant person once someone gets to know him. Kevin also learns that Marley's granddaughter is in the choir and that he has come to watch her sing, but he will not be there later because he is lonely as a result of a falling out with his son years ago. Kevin suggests to Marley that perhaps he should try and get in touch with him if he can just to see what would happen, and Marley agrees.

After Kevin leaves the church at 8:00, he runs home to set up a series of traps around the house. He finishes just in time and tries to eat dinner, but the clock chimes 9:00 and he prepares himself.

Every single trap Kevin sets succeeds in holding up the intruders and forces them to abandon their break-in plans and instead focus on catching Kevin. Kevin is able to escape, after calling the police, and heads across the street to the Murphys' house that Harry and Marv had hit earlier in the day. However, he is captured by the the two, and just as they are planning to take revenge, Old Man Marley hits them with his snow shovel. He then returns Kevin home safely. The police arrive and arrest the two.

Kevin wakes up the next morning and runs immediately downstairs, hoping that his wish to get his family back had come true. It has not, but the van pulls up to the house and Kate runs inside and finds him. Moments later the rest of the family arrives at the house, having taken the other flight home, and Kevin tells them of his food shopping process which impresses everyone. He does not tell them what happened the night before with Harry and Marv, but his father finds Harry's gold tooth on the floor.

The final scene shows Kevin looking out his window across the street toward Old Man Marley's house, where his son and family are reunited for the first time in years. While watching the scene and happy that Marley at least took him up on his suggestion, Kevin is called by Buzz into his room and the film ends.

Production

As with most of Hughes' 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 the flooded basement when trying to outsmart the burglars, was actually shot in a swimming pool in the former New Trier West 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 detached house that was used while shooting the movies Home Alone (1990) and parts of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). It exists in Illinois in the inner-ring North Shore 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 under $2.3 million as of August 2008, and was purchased by a single family on December 15th, 1988, who still own the house today. It was built in 1920 and boasts 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a fully-converted attic, a fireplace, a detached double garage and also a greenhouse. 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 Lime
• Daniel Stern as Marv Merchants
• Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister
• John Heard as Peter McCallister
• Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister
• Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister
• Maureen Elisabeth Shay 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

Music

Bruce Broughton composed the original score for Home Alone, but all of his material was rejected due to Columbus' dissatisfaction with Broughton's compositions. John Williams was hired to compose and conduct the score to Home Alone. A small portion of Broughton's score can be heard in the background of early Home Alone trailers and promotional television spots. Broughton is still credited as the film's composer in early trailers, which indicates that Williams had very little time to compose the score people associate the film with.

Novelization & Deleted Scenes

A childrens' 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 Lime, 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 theatres, 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 theatres, 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 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.

Parodies

In a comedy scene entitled Home Alone Again with Michael Jackson on the sketch comedy television series, In Living Color, Tommy Davidson as Michael Jackson performed the blunder scenes of Marv and Harry. Jonathan Taylor Thomas played the role of Macaulay as Kevin McCallister, parodying Jackson's friendships with child stars Culkin and Emmanuel Lewis.

In the spy-parody film Spy Hard, the role of Kevin was parodied by a kid named McCluckey (performed by Mason Gamble). His booby traps backfired on him when he was chased by goons.

In the movie Dogma, a muse named Serendipity tells a woman that she inspired 19 out of the 20 top grossing movies of all time. When asked why it was nineteen out of twenty, she replies "Yeah, the one about the kid, by himself in his house, with the burglars trying to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of shit".

The 1995 Goosebumps episode "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom" had a scene where Michael Webster realizes he becomes six years old, looks in the mirror at his now-young reflection, and turns to the camera and does Kevin's famous scream and pose.

In the animated series "The Critic", Jay Sherman reviews the movie "Home Alone 5". The scene then cuts to Kevin's parents on a jet. Kevin's mother then states, "We left Kevin home alone– and he's only 23!" The next scene shows an adult Kevin, with a 5 o'clock shadow and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, bringing his hands to his face and screaming. He looks at his reflection and recreates the scene when Kevin puts on aftershave in "Home Alone". The scene then cuts back to Jay Sherman where he gives his opinion on the movie, "It stinks."

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.

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.

Plot

The film involves several 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 isn't about to give Snakes any money. Snakes shows discomfort when he finds out that Acey is "upstairs, takin' 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 and fires repeatedly while laughing maniacally. Snakes' body is shown lying dead on the ground, while Johnny continues to fire.

At the end of the clip, Johnny says, "Keep the change, you filthy animal!"

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 man in charge who owes him money. It is implied that he is dead.

External links

• Home Alone at IMDb
• Home Alone at Rotten Tomatoes