Now for a look at a classic Christmas movie: Home Alone (1990). I would like to focus on what we learn from the Wet Bandits in this movie. Both bad guys and regular people could learn a lot from this movie.
Harry (Joe Pesci), our first bad guy, shows other bad guys, if you want to rob a house around Christmas, just dress-up as a cop and walk into the house. Ask a few questions and check out the merchandise before committing to the job.
When robbing the Murphy’s house, Harry asks Marv (Daniel Stern) “to keep it down a little”. Noise is probably not the best thing when trying to steal people’s valuables.
Next, lights, music, and movement will scare off bad guys. The Wet Bandits won’t try to go in the McCallister’s house because they think the family is back, even though they heard a message that day saying the family was in France.
Apparently firecrackers sound just like gun fire when dropped in a cooking pot. Who knew?!
Probably the most important lesson of this movie: do NOT under estimate the cleverness of a child, especially a kid like Kevin (Macaulay Culkin). “Kids are [not] stupid.”
Also, sticking your head through a doggy door can be dangerous. A kid could have a gun or a soccer kick on the other side of the door.
Next, as every Scooby-Doo episode taught us, splitting up is a bad idea. It is better to go as a team or else both of you will get beat up by different traps at the same time.
Reacting without thinking could lead to slipping on toy cars or paint cans to the face.
Spiders are truly one of the most frightening things ever, especially when placed on someone’s face. Also, someone’s fear of spiders can be bigger than their loyalty. Whether Marv is really friends with Harry or not is irrelevant. A tarantella on Harry’s chest gives Marv tunnel vision.
Dangling from a wire connected to a tree house that belongs to a kid who just injured you in multiple ways is a bad idea. Go back through the house, not “out the window”.
Lastly, leaving a signature, like running water in the basement, alerts the police to “each and every house that you’ve hit”.
So if you are leaving the country for the holidays or plan on robbing a house, take some notes from Home Alone.
I did not know until recently that the movie Kevin watches throughout this movie is actually a fake movie made for Home Alone. Here is an analysis of Angels with Filthy Souls within Home Alone, how the two relate, and what real movie it was probably based on.
Although we find Kevin’s traps funny, I think we all know they would have worse consequences in real life. This article summarizes how dangerous these tricks would be on real life robbers.
Come back next week for another Christmas movie analysis!