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Home Alone

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This article is about the 1990 film. For the series, see Home Alone (franchise). For other uses, see Home Alone (disambiguation).
Home Alone
Theatrical release poster
Directed byChris Columbus
Written byJohn Hughes
Produced byJohn Hughes
StarringMacaulay Culkin
Joe Pesci
Daniel Stern
John Heard
Catherine O'Hara
CinematographyJulio Macat
Edited byRaja Gosnell
Music byJohn Williams
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • November 16, 1990 (1990-11-16)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million[1]
Box office$476,684,675 (worldwide)[1]

Home Alone is a 1990 American family comedy 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 time by himself, he is later greeted by two would-be burglars played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. Kevin eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps. The film also features Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray, Roberts Blossom, and John Candy. As of 2009, Home Alone was the highest grossing comedy of all time.[2]

Plot

The McCallister family prepares to spend Christmas in Paris, gathering at the home of Peter and Kate McCallister (John Heard and Catherine O'Hara) in a suburb of Chicago the night before their flight. Eight-year-old Kevin (Macauley Culkin), their youngest son, finds himself the subject of ridicule from his siblings and cousins. After getting into an argument with his older brother Buzz (Devin Ratray), he is sent to the third floor bedroom of the house, where he wishes his family would disappear. During the night, a power outage resets the alarm clocks and causes the family to oversleep. In the confusion and rush to reach the airport on time, Kevin is left behind and the family does not realize it until they are already airborne. Once in Paris, his mother and father desperately try to book a flight home.

Meanwhile, Kevin wakes up to find the house empty and is overjoyed to find that his wish came true. He practices shooting with Buzz's BB gun, jumps on the bed, watches a gangster film, and eats a large serving of junk food, but in the process accidentally wrecks Buzz's room. However, he finds himself frightened by the appearance of the Chicago Police Department called by his parents to check on him; his next door neighbor "Old Man" Marley (Roberts Blossom), who was rumored to have murdered his family many years earlier; and the appearance of The Wet Bandits, Harry Lyme and Marv Merchants (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), who are breaking into other vacant houses on the block.

On Christmas Eve, Kevin overhears Harry and Marv discussing plans for breaking into his house that night. After conversing with a Santa Claus impersonator (Ken Hudson Campbell) and watching a local choir perform in a church, he comes across Marley. The two of them talk, and he learns that Marley is in fact a very nice man and the rumors about him are not true. He tells Kevin he is watching the choir because his granddaughter is in it, and he never gets to see her because he and his son have not spoken in years after a big argument they had. Kevin advises him to reconcile with his son.

After leaving the church, Kevin heads home and sets up various booby traps inside the house. Harry and Marv break in. After the two spring every trap in the house, Kevin flees to the second floor of the house and dials 9-1-1. They chase him out of the house and he flees to the vacant neighboring home. The Wet Bandits catch him when he runs to the top of the stairs and hang him on a coat hook on the door. Marley sneaks up behind them and knocks them out with a snow shovel and takes Kevin home. Shortly after, Harry and Marv are arrested.

Kevin wakes up the next morning and is disappointed to see that his family is still gone. He then hears Kate enter the house, calling for him. He goes downstairs and the two of them meet and reconcile. Immediately after, the rest of the McCallisters, having traveled directly from Paris to Chicago, arrive. Kevin keeps silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv, although Peter finds Harry's missing gold tooth and wonders what it is. Kevin and Buzz have a moment of reconciliation. He then goes over to the window and sees Marley greeting his son and his family. As he is hugging his granddaughter, he looks up to see Kevin. He waves at him and Kevin waves back, smiling. He watches as Marley heads inside with his family. Buzz interrupts him by calling out, "Kevin, what did you do to my room?", at which point Kevin runs off and the film ends.

Cast

  • Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister: An eight-year-old who comes from a big family and usually gets into trouble with them.
  • Joe Pesci as Harry Lime: The short leader of the Wet Bandits.
  • Daniel Stern as Marv Merchants: The tall member of the Wet Bandits.
  • John Heard as Peter McCallister: Kevin's father.
  • Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister: Kevin's mother.
  • Devin Ratray as Buzz McCallister: Kevin's eldest brother.
  • Hillary Wolf as Megan McCallister: Kevin's eldest sister.
  • Angela Goethals as Linnie McCallister: Kevin's elder sister.
  • Mike Maronna as Jeff McCallister: Kevin's elder brother.
  • Gerry Bamman as Frank McCallister: Kevin's uncle.
  • Terrie Snell as Leslie McCallister: Kevin's aunt.
  • Jedidiah Cohen as Rod McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
  • Senta Moses as Tracy McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
  • Daiana Campeanu as Sondra McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
  • Kieran Culkin as Fuller McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins. Kieran is Macaulay Culkin's younger brother in real life.
  • Anna Slotky as Brooke McCallister: One of Kevin's cousins.
  • Kristin Minter as Heather McCallister: Kevin's cousin and daughter of Rob McCallister.
  • Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley: An elderly man and a neighbor of the McCallisters who is said to have murdered his whole family, causing Kevin to run scared of him every time he sees him.
  • John Candy as Gus Polinski: A member of a band (The Kenosha Kickers) whose flight is canceled due to the weather.
  • Larry Hankin as Larry Balzak, a police sergeant who works in family crisis.
  • Ralph Foody as Johnny the gangster in Angels with Filthy Souls
  • Michael Guido as Snakes the other gangster in Angels with Filthy Souls
  • Ken Hudson Campbell as Santa Claus

Production

Home Alone was initially a Warner Bros. production; when 20th Century Fox took over the project, the budget grew from $14 to $17 million.[3]

Home Alone was set—and mostly shot—in the greater Chicago area. Other shots, such as those of Paris, are either stock footage or film trickery.[citation needed] The Paris-Orly Airport scenes were filmed in one part of O'Hare International Airport. The scene where Kevin wades through a flooded basement when trying to outsmart the burglars was shot in the swimming pool of 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.[4]

Some scenes were shot in a three-story single-family house located at 671 Lincoln Avenue[5] in the village of Winnetka,[6] The kitchen in the film was shot in the house, along with the main staircase, basement and most of the first floor landing. The house's dining room, and all the downstairs rooms (excluding the kitchen) were built on a sound stage.[7] The house was built in 1921 and features five bedrooms, a fully converted attic, a detached double garage and a greenhouse.[8] "Kevin's tree house" in the backyard was built specifically for the film and demolished after principal photography ended.[citation needed]

In May 2011, the house was listed for sale at $2.4 million;[9] it sold in March 2012 for $1.585 million.[5] The house is promoted as a tourist attraction[10] and cited as an example of "How to Get Your Home in the Movies."[11]

Music

Main article: Home Alone (soundtrack)

The film score of Home Alone was composed by John Williams. Christmas songs, such as "O Holy Night" and "Carol of the Bells", are featured prominently in the film, as well as the film's theme song "Somewhere in My Memory". The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical in 1990.[citation needed]

Reaction

Box office

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.[12] It remained a top 10 draw at the box office until the weekend of April 26 that year, which was well past Easter weekend. It made 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.[13] The film ended up making a final gross of $285,761,243, the top grossing film of its year in North America[14] The film is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest grossing live-action comedy ever.[2]

By the time it had run its course in theaters, Home Alone was the third highest grossing film of all time, according to the home video box. In total, its cinema run grossed $477,561,243 worldwide.[15]

Critical response

Home Alone received mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Rotten" score of 54%, based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10.[16] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, it has a rating score of 63, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a 2+1⁄2 out of 4-star rating. He criticized the plot as "so implausible that it makes it hard for [him] to really care about the plight of the kid [Kevin]." He praised Culkin's performance and compared the elaborate booby-traps in the film to Rube Goldberg.[18] Although Caryn James of the New York Times complained that the film's first half is "flat and unsurprising as its cute little premise suggests", she praised the second half for its slapstick humor. She also praised the conversation between Kevin and Marley, as well as the film's final scenes.[19] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "D" grade, criticizing the film for its "sadistic festival of adult-bashing". Gleiberman said that "[John] Hughes is pulling our strings as though he'd never learn to do anything else."[20] Variety praised the film for its cast.[21] Jeanne Cooper of the Washington Post praised the film for its comedic approach.[22] Hal Hinson, also of the Washington Post, praised Chris Columbus's direction and Culkin's acting.[23]

Accolades

The film received an Academy Award for Best Original Score nomination written by John Williams.[citation needed]

American Film Institute Lists

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, released 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 a storyline that does not fall into the same continuity.

In March 2012, ABC Family and Fox Studios announced that Home Alone 5 was in production, featuring Christian Martyn, Malcolm McDowell, Debi Mazar and Edward Asner. The film is scheduled to premiere during ABC's 25 Days of Christmas programming event.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b "Home Alone (1990)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Home Alone - Movie Review, retrieved August 7, 2009
  3. ^ Teather, David (November 30, 2007). "Fade to red". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
  4. ^ "Remembering Home Alone". Retrieved September 26, 2008.
  5. ^ a b Lucido, Gary (March 9, 2012). "Home Alone House Sells For $1.585 Million". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  6. ^ "Home Alone filming locations". Retrieved June 13, 2008.
  7. ^ "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York Filming Locations". movielocationsguide.com. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  8. ^ "Facts about the Home". jamielynnphillips. January 3, 2006. Retrieved June 21, 2008.
  9. ^ "Home Alone house for sale". RTÉ News. May 6, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  10. ^ "Chicago - Things to do". Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  11. ^ "How to Get Your Home in the Movies". realestate.com. June 16, 2007. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
  12. ^ Broeske, Pat H. (January 14, 1991). "Home Alone in 9th Week as No. 1 Film : Movies: 'Godfather Part III' takes dramatic slide from second to sixth place in its third week out. 'Awakenings' is in second". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  13. ^ "Home Alone (1990) - Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
  14. ^ Movies.com: Movie box office results for the top 50 movies of 1990[dead link]
  15. ^ "Movies.com: Movie box office results for the top 50 movies of 1990". Movies.com. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
  16. ^ "Home Alone Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  17. ^ "Home Alone Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  18. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 16, 1990). "Home Alone". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  19. ^ James, Caryn (November 16, 1990). "Movie Review - Home Alone". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  20. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (July 25, 2007). "Home Alone Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  21. ^ "Variety Reviews - Home Alone". Variety. Reed Business Information. November 16, 1990. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  22. ^ Cooper, Jeanne (November 16, 1990). "Home Alone". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  23. ^ Hinson, Hal (November 16, 1990). "Home Alone". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  24. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs Nominees
  25. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains Nominees
  26. ^ "'Home Alone 5' Greenlit For ABC Family". Deadline Hollywood. March 15, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
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