For: language and pervasive vulgar name calling, and strong moral confusionHome Alone is a soulless slapstick comedy with a syncretistic, pagan view of the family, reality, God and salvation. With nothing positive to offer but a moral as widely used (and widely available elsewhere) as family togetherness, Home Alone ultimately defeats its own purpose, mixing shallow, meaningless nods to Christianity with superstition and practical atheism, and burying the last traces of entertainment value in vulgarities and endless comical pain.
Language and Pervasive Vulgar Name Calling
d-mn
d-mn
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
h-ll
a--
horse’s a--
c-jones
sh-t
Jeez
Gee
Gee
Gosh
crap
dope
puke
jerk
jerk
jerk
jerk
jerk
jerk
moron
moron
les incompétents
les incompétents
idiot
stupid
dummy
disease
disease
phlegm wad
trump
egghead
creep
filthy animal
filthy animal
filthy animal
ugly, yellow, no-good
ugly, yellow, no-good
ugly, yellow, no-good
son of a…
suck
shut up
shut up
shut up
shut up
shut up
shut up
Strong Moral Confusion
The main character Kevin’s mother publicly declares that, given the opportunity, she would readily throw away her soul for eternity—"sell my soul to the devil himself”—in order to get home to check on a family member.1
Kevin walks into a church and is told that “this is the place to be, when you’re feeling bad about yourself,” but after admitting to having done wrong, Kevin is merely given the suggestion to patch things up again himself. In a meant-to-be-comedic scene, Kevin crosses himself before asking, from an unnamed source, a blessing on his microwave dinner… after having, in faith, asked Santa Claus to bring his family home. His journey to the living room with the cookies and milk for Santa is treated with more reverence than his table prayer. At one point, Kevin’s mother tells him that if he wants something miraculous, he should ask Santa for it. Almost in the same breath, she tells him that if he really wants something miraculous, he should say it twice, and maybe it would happen.
Kevin’s act-one behavior toward his family, and their behavior toward him, is not by any means portrayed as positive. It is, however, portrayed as normal. Kevin and his siblings call each other vulgar names constantly, and no one is surprised. Kevin mouths off to his parents constantly, calls his mother “dummy” and “jerk” to her face, and challenges her to “make” him obey when he doesn’t want to. The rest of the family, including Kevin’s mom, view this as normal, only disciplining him when his behavior indirectly results in material chaos. When Kevin’s family comes back in the end of the movie, his atrocious behavior is not addressed by them, or apologized for by him, but ignored in light of the impression he made on them with his ability to buy milk and fabric softener by himself.
Kevin shamelessly steals money and damages private property. Kevin also shoplifts, running away from the store in irrational fear. He deliberately evades arrest, and despite his apparent shame at having become a “criminal”, keeps the item instead of returning it. A family member’s demanding that his wife help him steal things is supposed to be funny.
Kevin makes a pizza delivery boy think that he’s being threatened by a mob boss and then fired on with an automatic, just for the fun of it. This is portrayed positively.
A boy’s unbridled lust is supposed to be funny, from his comments about “French babes” and “nude beaches” to his Playboy magazine.
1 See Matthew 10:37.
