Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Over the years I have seen multiple film versions of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, more times than I can count. It always makes me aware of how sinful I am and how much I need to reform. It usually makes me cry. I just finished watching the new Guy Pearce version, and between the familiar story and my PBA (psuedo bulbar affect), I was bawling like a baby.
I don’t like the Guy Pearce version half as well as the George C. Scott version or the Sir Michael Caine version. WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW.
The Spirits
The Guy Pearce version is rated MA. It opens with the survivor of one of Scrooge & Marley’s factory disasters urinating on Marley’s grave. The urine drips on to Marley’s corpse in the coffin, waking and annoying him. He complains that his gravestone clearly states ‘Rest in Peace.’
Normally the Spirit of Christmas Past varies more from one version to the others. In the Mr. Magoo version, the Spirit of Christmas Past is a childlike sprite with a candle on his head. In the Albert Finney version, she’s a beautiful, elegantly dressed elderly woman. In the Mickey Mouse version, he’s Jiminy Cricket. In the Daffy Duck version, Granny and Tweety Bird share the role. In the Sir Michael Caine version, she is a ghostly girlchild. When the ghost of Jacob Marley first sees the Spirit of Christmas Past he looks like a withered version of the traditional representation of the Spirit of Christmas Present. When Scrooge first meets the Spirit of Christmas Past, he looks like Scrooge’s father at first, then later looks like Ali Baba, young bookworm Ebby’s only friend as a schoolboy.
Usually, the Spirit of Christmas Present changes the least from version to version: a cross between the Greek god Bacchus and Father Christmas. Most Spirits of Christmas Present are so similar that they can be transplanted from one version to another without anyone noticing the difference. In this version, however, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes the appearance of Scrooge’s sister, called Lottie rather than Fan.
The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come usually looks like the Grim Reaper’s first cousin. In the Guy Pearce version, he looks like a zombie with his mouth sewn shut; he can’t talk because no one can know the future.
Differences
The Guy Pearce version is rated MA. The F-word is used.
Scrooge & Marley aren’t just moneylenders. They buy bankrupt businesses and run them into the ground, gathering as much short term profit as they can. In at least two cases (probably more) there are fatal disasters from their lack of attention to safety measures. The boy who saluted Marley’s tombstone with his trouser-weasel was a survivor of a factory explosion. S& M decided to save money by not digging up the pipes when gas was smelled on the property.
There is no Mr. Fezziwig, which means Belle’s part is smaller than usual. Also she is called Elizabeth, not Belle. Not only did young Ebenezer spend the Christmas holidays at school, but the headmaster had Ebby move out of the otherwise empty dormitory and spend the Christmas holiday with him. This was a custom of many years standing and was the reason the headmaster didn’t charge Scrooge’s father tuition. When his sister comes to fetch Ebby home, she has a pistol to hold off the headmaster when attempts to protest the boy leaving the school. Scrooge never knew about this as a child, he didn’t learn of her actions until he walked among the shadows of things that were.
The Spirit of Christmas Present doesn’t have waifs representing Ignorance and Want tucked under her skirts.
Scrooge’s relationship with Mary Cratchit, who is portrayed by a biracial actress in this version, is quite different. How different, I’ll keep mum on, so I don’t give too many spoilers.
Scrooge doesn’t ask a street urchin about the prize turkey at the poulterer’s and then buy it for the Cratchits. I remember one version of A Christmas Carol (perhaps the 1938 version with Reginald Owen?) where Scrooge keeps rubbing the first coin he ever earned as a lucky piece. The Spirit of Christmas Present warns him he’ll wear a hole through it if he keeps doing that, and then when he sends the boy to fetch the turkey, that’s the coin he uses to tip the lad.
I’m glad I saw the new Guy Pearce version, but I didn’t like it as well as the Albert Finney version or the Mr. Magoo version, nor the Alistair Sims version. I’d love to see one of those again.
God bless us, everyone!
