A Christmas Carol

The classic Dickens tale has been done so many ways and in so many styles that it has become a Christmas favorite of mine to watch. But is is amazing how few of them actually get it right.

I've actually read the original story thanks to Project Gutenberg and my iPhone's e-book reader app from Apple. Made a nice way to kill time while waiting for things. and comparing it to all the versions done it made me realize that so many of them got it wrong in degrees varying from slightly off to "what the Sam hill were they thinking?"

My personal favorite versions are as follows.

A Christmas Carol - done in 1999 starring Patrick Stewart. This version was I'd have to say one of the closest versions of the story I've seen. They left out a few minor tidbits. This bit most notably.

'Spirit?' said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, 'I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment.'

   'I!' cried the Spirit.

   'You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all,' said Scrooge. 'Wouldn't you?'

   'I!' cried the Spirit.

   'You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day,' said Scrooge. 'And it comes to the same thing.'

   'I seek!' exclaimed the Spirit.

   'Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family,' said Scrooge.

   'There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, 'who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all out kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.'

 And I can excuse that bit since it is a very common misconception that everyone in that era had access to a stove. After all in America in the same time period, most people had at least a small stove of their own and many had access to their own oven or would cook a bird in a stove-top covered pan which acted as an oven. So quite a number of people in our era are unaware that cooking a dinner often involved a local baker who would be more than happy to toss in a bird (already prepared by the owner) for a quick half-penny.

Another favorite is the Muppet's version. Largely accurate if you can get away from the Muppets and their unique brand of chaos (Beaker flipping off Scrooge...seriously! look for it when Scrooge tosses them out of his office). But they leave out Scrooge having dinner at his nephew's house and the reconciliation between them and replace it with a moment with Bob "Kermit" Cratchet and his family.

My last favorite is not so much a version of the classic, but a fun new twist on the story. I of course refer to "Scrooged" with Bill Murry. "The bitch hit me with a toaster" How can you not love that?

What prompted this blog post is the fact that I re-watched the latest version with Jim Carey in it. And I discovered that I flat out do not like it.

First of all, there is all the 3D for the sake of 3D and not for the sake of the story. It seemed to me like the love child of a 50's 3D "B" movie and Christmas Carol. After Scrooge capped the ghost of Christmas past, the cap launched him into low orbit as if Scrooge had wrapped himself around the nose cone of a Saturn V rocket.

Secondly they made him out to be down right evil in his old age. George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, and Michael Caine had it right to the story. Scrooge was never evil. He was disillusioned with life and had pretty much given up on ever experiencing joy from it. He thought he had lost it all with the exception of the business and since that was all he had left, he held onto it with a passion.

Jim Carey's version was a very evil person who was so miserly that he had a hard time paying for the funeral of Marley and in fact took the tuppence from his eyes. Scrooge was a man of business and of honest commerce. He admired Martha Cratchet for her dedication to her work. The Albert Finney version (not a favorite of mine for reasons that I'll discuss later) at least showed Scrooge ranting and railing about all the people skipping out on payments due to him and then praising a store clerk who actually had the ability to pay  what was due that week.

To Scrooge, paying for the funeral was what was proper. Money pair for services rendered. Granted, Scrooge likely paid for the cheapest service but would have had no issue paying what was due. For him to do otherwise would be hypocritical since he expected others to do that as well to him. You pay what you owe.

Also Scrooge (the Jim Carey version) seemed to delight in being mean. The book just showed Scrooge as being a little unfeeling, but not out and out mean. Something that is hit or miss in the various Scrooge actors.

The aforementioned Albert Finney version had some scenes that were a little off to me. For one it was a Musical and I'm limited as to the Musicals that I like. I really detested the Christmas Present sequence where they seemed to not teach Scrooge a lesson, but to get him drunk of his ass on the Milk of Human Kindness or something. To me he didn't learn anything but to get his happiness from a bottle.

I wish Hollywood would pull it's head out of its ass and realize that the story stands on its own. That the lessons contained in it are simple and easy to understand and do not need embellishment. That we don't need to make Scrooge a villain before you reform him. That you don't have to have him showing up at the Cratchet house to make for a happy ending. That you can leave the story alone and it will be a good one.