Re-watching an old movie gives your eyes the opportunity to spot something new.  During the 7,904th viewing you don’t need to hyper focus on the big plot points.  You got all the important stuff the first 7,903 times.

I’ve written before about revelations I had about “Snatch” and “Mr. Deeds.”  This time I want to dive into a moment in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, is trying to adorn his house with a few Christmas lights.  And by that I mean 25,000 Christmas lights.  For part of this extensive operation, he enlists the help of his son Rusty (Johnny Galecki).  Clark gives Rusty the key task of untangling a string of lights.  Rusty is less than pleased:

Like, really not pleased:

The first many times I saw this movie, I interpreted Rusty’s reaction as that of a kid who is being unfairly forced to do something solely because a parent is making him do it.  Clark has a lot of work to do with the staple gun, so he’s exercising his authority and making the kid do the thankless job.

But no more.  Tonight I saw this exchange in a different way.  Rusty is reaping what he sowed.

Flash back to the year before the movie takes place.  It’s the beginning of February and Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), Clark’s wife/Rusty’s mom is making her daily gripe about being the only house on the street that still has Christmas lights up.  She says it’s embarrassing, and Clark finally decides to follow through on his pledge to take them down.  He goes upstairs to find Rusty playing the Paperboy Nintendo game he got for Christmas and demands the kid help out.

Rusty gives Clark an attitude, scoffing and dragging his feet as he reluctantly pauses the game and follows his dad outside.

“Fiiiiiine,” he says.

Clark remarks about the crisp, cool air and bright sunshine while Rusty can only think about hurling virtual newspapers and how lame it is he has to be out there.  Clark then climbs up the ladder and starts detaching light strings from the house, feeding them down to the ground to be neatly put away for the following year.

Rusty is in such a sour mood he will do whatever he can to just get the job done and get back to his game.  The fastest way is not to nicely coil up each string, but rather to grab the heap of wires and bulbs and stuff them straight in the box.  The result?  A huge mess of tangled lights.  When that same box comes out again a year later, the lights have not magically untangled themselves and Rusty has nobody but himself to blame.

Moral of the story: a little effort now will save you lots of effort later.  And Paperboy is super fun.