Why Home Alone is a Beloved Movie
Note: this is a December article. Yes, I know it’s January, but it’s a December article. It’s also a Christmas article, as Christmas is twelve days long.
Why is Home Alone a beloved movie? It’s a question I spent most of December (and part of January) pondering.
If you're worried about spoilers, don’t be. Home Alone is one of those movies where knowing the plot in advance doesn't affect your enjoyment of it. But if you still want to avoid all spoilers—go watch the movie, and then come back.
I assume you're familiar with Home Alone’s plot, but if you're not, here’s the synopsis. Eight‐year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) gets left at home by his family during Christmas break. Two burglars, Marv and Harry (Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci) try to rob Kevin's house, so Kevin devises zany scheme after zany scheme to stop them. Cue the finest slapstick comedy since the Three Stooges.
But as funny as the comedy is, there’s a deeper reason people still watch Home Alone almost 35 years after it came out: its wholesome wish fulfillment.
Kevin is introduced as a dependent kid. He bulks at the idea of packing his own suitcase, and his brother Buzz (Devin Ratray) later remarks that Kevin can’t tie his own shoes. But as soon as his family is gone, he becomes independent, as seen by his getting his own groceries. So was Kevin magically given the abilities he later shows? No.
Kevin is dependent at the beginning of the film, not because he can’t do stuff, but because he’s afraid to do stuff. That’s his great flaw: fear. He’s afraid of going into the basement (who can blame him?); he’s afraid of Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom); and he’s afraid of the police knocking on the door. But as the movie goes on, he overcomes those fears. He goes into the basement, talks to Old Man Marley, and calls the police on the bad guys. Kevin does what every guy longs to do—rise above one’s fears to save the day because no one else can.
And that’s why Home Alone is still being watched today.
Do you agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Coming Soon to Substack
The plan for January is to have three articles out: A Home Alone 3 and 4 review, the second installment of the War in the Old Northwest series, and the first part of a Henry Ford series. However, I have a lot of things going on, so one of the articles might be late.
Thank you for reading. If you’d like to support the Old Northwest, you may do so below.
Sources and Further Reading
Wikipedia: Home Alone
It's a miracle of a movie where all things come together. The colors. And i mean that specific color of green--phthalo green-- just does something to you. That they were able to get John Williams for the score. The perfect cast. Everything came together to make this little movie big and beloved.