DVD : The Homecoming: A Christmas Story
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Paramount
EAN: 9780792195405
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 079219540X
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 23, 2003
Running Time: 100 minutes
Sales Rank: 624
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: December 19, 1971
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Amazon.com:
A true television classic, The Homecoming was the second movie (after 1963's Spencer's Mountain) based on Earl Hamner's autobiographical writings about love, pride, faith, and survival in rural America during the Great Depression. The Homecoming introduced the Walton family, a 1930s mountain clan living a hardscrabble existence that forces patriarch John Walton (Andrew Duggan) to seek work, far from home, in the city. When John fails to return home, as promised, on Christmas Eve, his iron-willed wife Olivia (Patricia Neal) keeps a lid on their children's worry. Oldest son John-Boy (Richard Thomas), who privately dreams of becoming a writer but worries about disappointing his parents, is dispatched to find his dad. Graceful yet harder-edged than the subsequent TV series The Waltons (which recast several characters and ran for nine years), The Homecoming reveals, albeit understatedly, much about the pain of poverty even as the family draws strength and closeness through endurance. --Tom Keogh
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
For years my wife and I have promised each other that we would find the "original Walton's movie" for Christmas. This year we finally did locate the DVD on Amazon and curled up with the children on the couch. The Homecoming: A Christmas Story is a memory worth reliving--a beloved TV classic from my childhood.
The Waltons was more than a tv show to most of us who were glued to the tv nightly during the 1970's. The Waltons were part of the fabric of the decade itself. To this day, I'll bet families still call out "goodnight John Boy" occasionally, spoofing the corny close to each Walton's episode.
Before the expansive Walton clan became household names there was The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. December 19, 1971 to be exact. That night Patricia Neal as Olivia Walton was at the helm of a tense, yet tender hour. Taking us to Christmas Eve in 1933, Neal and the Walton Children (most of whom made it to the weekly series cast) spent the afternoon and evening hours waiting and worrying that their Daddy might not come home. John Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) is sent out looking for his father. He takes us to a traditional African-American church service being conducted by Pastor Hawthorne Dooley (Cleavon Little), the home of the Baldwin sisters (the sweet old moonshiners) and over the river and through the woods in a one-horse open sleigh.
The most memorable scenes of the film for me are that of a missionary giving away toys to any child who can ... Read More
Rating: -
This movie reminded me of my childhood. I remember watching this with my brother, sister mom and dad. I loved it as a child and loved watching it as an adult. The children today do not have the family oriented shows that we were raised with. I also bought this movie for my sister who lives in NJ. We watched it at the same time (in different states) then called and reminised about our holidays growing up. All in all a great holiday movie!!!!
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This was a wonderful old movie,just like I remember.It came so fast!I will order again.
Rating: -
I grew up watching the Waltons as a kid, and have been watching this film either on VHS or DVD for many years now. It's become a tradition with our family to pop the DVD in multiple times at Christmas. Even my 6-year old daughter has started memorizing some of the lines. There are so many moments in this film that stand out, with fantastic character actors in every role, including Edgar Bergen (Grandpa Walton), Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) and Cleavon Little (Hawthorne Dooley). Some of the lines are classic...I especially love the one from the (apparently well-off) Charlottesville missionary that brings toys to the children in exchange for a bible verse recitation. According to her reasoning, why go preaching to heathen overseas "when the Blue Ridge Mountains are full of them." I find that particularly amusing considering I have relatives that lived in the Blue Ridge.
The film gives you a wonderful perspective on what it was like to live in a big family in the Shenandoah during the Depression. People today that talk about this country going into a Depression have no idea what a real Depression is like. Mom spending her last dollar buying some sugar to make a Christmas cake, or knitting a scarf for each of your kids and telling your eldest "that's all the Santa Claus there was going to be this year" would certainly open the eyes of our video-game obsessed children of today. The movie re-enforces what is truly important in life...family, friends and high moral ... Read More
Rating:  -
THE HOMECOMING was probably the first Christmas movie, apart from A Charlie Brown Christmas, that I can recall watching as a child. For nostalgia alone, I love this movie, but watching it as an adult, I am always struck by the depth of Patricia Neal's performance as Olivia Walton, and Richard Thomas as John Boy. Also, I always loved Cleavon Little as Rev. Hawthorne Dooley (he died far too young).
The only thing that ever bothered me about the movie is the hairstyles --the younger boys' are a little too 1970's. Aside from that, I think the producers really caught something of the Depression era.
This is a classic Christmas story, and a classic television presentation -- the kind of television that should be made, but just isn't anymore. Just compare THE HOMECOMING with something of recent Christmas vintage, like, Drake & Josh's Christmas movie on Nickelodeon, and you will see how far standards have fallen. If producers would only concentrate on quality productions instead of fads and giving airtime to teenybopper stars, we wouldn't all have to rely on DVDs so much!
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starring: Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Edgar Bergen, Ellen Corby, Cleavon Little
directed by: Fielder Cook
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Paramount
EAN: 9780792195405
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 079219540X
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 23, 2003
Running Time: 100 minutes
Sales Rank: 624
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: December 19, 1971
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