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The Homecoming: A Christmas Story | 
| Director: Fielder Cook
Actors: Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Edgar Bergen, Ellen Corby, Cleavon Little
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $8.49
You Save: $6.49 (43%)
New (28) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $8.49
Rating:  107 reviews
Sales Rank: 547
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD843304D
ISBN: 079219540X
UPC: 097368433045
EAN: 9780792195405
ASIN: B0000AQS5E
Theatrical Release Date: December 19, 1971
Release Date: September 23, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: All items are guaranteed to work.
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Product Description
The Waltons' Love and Courage Face a Difficult Test. Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Edgar Bergen and Cleavon Little star in this award-winning drama that inspired the long-running, vastly popular TV series, "The Waltons." Set on a Depression Christmas Eve in 1933, this heart-tugging story centers around the Waltons. They're a rural American family preparing to celebrate Christmas together. Though times are tough, love and sharing are abundant in this family. An inspiring tale of love, hope and spirit, this deeply moving story goes far beyond the boundaries of time and place to reach out and touch everyone, everywhere.
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 102 more reviews...
 The Homecoming: A Christmas Story - A Memory Worth Reliving January 6, 2009
Timothy B. Brown (Portage, MI, USA)
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 recite a passage from the Bible. Mary Ellen feeds lines to the children. Mary Ellen's sister Elizabeth asks for a passage and is given, "Jesus wept." Upon hearing this once again, I realized that the depth of the Christmas season has shallowed since.
Another is the tearful climax, when Olivia Walton (Neal) exclaims, "Flowers! Flowers in the dead of winter!" reflecting the true nature of Christmas.
Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jese's lineage coming,
As men of old have sung.
It came a flow'ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
Patricia Neal won the Best Actress Golden Globe for The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, and was nominated for an Emmy. Edgar Bergen was delightful as Zeb Walton (Grandpa) and in the film is drawn to the radio to hear President Roosevelt and Fibber McGee and Molly (which didn't premier until 1935-two years later than the year in which the film is set!). Ironically, Bergen was a pillar of the radio era with his "Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show" debuting in 1937.
Like a visit to the house I grew up in, or my old elementary school, a hauntingly familiar feel accompanies the watching of this classic TV special. Meanwhile a few new tidbits are noticed and enjoyed, making The Homecoming: A Christmas Story an absolute must-see for those who were lucky enough to grow up along with the family that lived on Walton's Mountain.
Tim Brown
Blast from the past, a great holiday movie! January 6, 2009
Debra L. Swanson
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!!!!
Homecoming January 6, 2009
Lori (Nebraska)
This was a wonderful old movie,just like I remember.It came so fast!I will order again.
Fantastic Family Christmas Movie December 31, 2008
John F. Flynn (Charlotte, NC USA)
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 values...also the theme of living off of cash, not credit -- what a concept in today's world.
John Boy's Christmas Eve adventure searching for his snowstorm-stranded father is some of the most fun 30 minutes in film. From Ike's store where poor ol' Charlie Sneed has finally had his Robin Hood escapades terminated by the Sheriff, to Hawthorne Dooley's church where the kids put on a classic Christmas Eve Nativity performance, to the Baldwin ladies' house where John Boy and Hawthorne participate in a bit of "recipe" sampling in order to finagle some gasoline from the ladies, and eventually end up on a jingle bell ride in a one-horse open sleigh out in the snow...it's classic stuff.
I dare you to not feel some kind of emotion at the end of this film...something you will not get from most modern Christmas productions. It's sad that films like this are not made any more...hopefully the day will return when they are. For now, thank goodness for DVD so we can relive high-quality family shows like this any time we want. Some day the networks and studios (including Disney) will realize that there is still a large untapped market for live-action productions such as this that celebrate families and good story-telling. We need them now more than ever.
 Just adding another voice to the cheers December 31, 2008
SusieQ (New York)
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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