DisneyWelcome to day ten of The Gateway’s 12 Days of Holiday Movies! For 12 days over the winter break, we’ll be sharing a holiday movie that fills us with holly, jolly, and everything in between. Come along and find the next movie to add to your holiday watchlist!
When you think about Christmas movies, Home Alone is probably the first one that comes to mind.
Home Alone follows Kevin Mcallister, an eight-year-old who is forgotten by his family during the holidays and has to protect his home from the Wet Bandits. It is also a classic with all of the Christmas movie essentials: a moral, funky Christmas-inspired music, and plenty of fun.
Home Alone really highlights the importance of being with your family — biological or chosen — during the holidays. The pandemic has made all of us more isolated than ever, and it sucks that you can’t hug your friends and family anymore.
Considering everything that has happened during 2020, Kevin’s wish at the beginning of the movie to live alone and not see his family for the rest of his life didn’t really vibe with me. It warmed my heart to see Kevin and his family reunite at the end because they clearly still loved each other despite having their differences.
Home Alone also features great orchestration by John Williams, who is known for composing the scores for classics such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Jaws. As a French horn player in junior high and high school, the horns in the movie soundtrack made me very happy. The Home Alone theme “Somewhere In My Memory” also has a special place in my heart because a kazoo version of it recently became famous on TikTok and has been living in my head rent-free ever since.
Besides Kevin’s concussion-inducing hijinks and his Rube-Goldberg-machine-inspired security system of doom, Home Alone has plenty more fun in store. There’s that funny picture of Buzz’s girlfriend. The statues knocked over by the pizza delivery car. The scary furnace in the basement. Kevin’s mom road-tripping with a polka group. The famous “KEVIN!” scream. And of course, the thought of the bandits’ hospital bills once all of their internal bleeding and hairline fractures are looked after. Even the most random things are sure to make you chuckle.
If you want to watch this heartwarming, wacky masterpiece, Home Alone is available to stream on Disney+.
