A Christmas Carol BBC1

[ardcarp]

...thank goodness I'm not alone!

[David-G]

I thought it was bloody awful. If you want a Peaky Blinders Christmas story why not make one ? Incoherent - endlessly mumbled and did such butchery to the novel that they might well have started again.

Yes, I agree. The Scrooge of this film was entirely different from the Scrooge of the novel. The whole sexual abuse thread is a valid idea, especially to the modern viewer, but is utterly alien to the original, and resulted in the whole feel-good factor being lost. What happened to Mr Fezziwig? The whole aspect of Scrooge looking back at his earlier lost happiness was entirely lost. What was the point of bringing in Scrooge's nephew at the beginning, if his Christmas party at the end is excised? The whole thrill of Scrooge ordering the giant goose for the Cratchits was lost. The non-forgiveness of Scrooge by Mrs Cratchit - dictated by the alien sexual-abuse interpretation - is fundamentally in contradiction to the Christmas spirit and left a sour taste in the mouth at the end.

And what is the point of writing a script for a film if half of it can't be heard?

[vinteuil]

The Scrooge of this film was entirely different from the Scrooge of the novel.

... yes indeed.

There have been so many adaptations of the novella, many of them delightful - people have already mentioned the lovely Alastair Sim film, and the Muppets.
Is there any need for yet another 'faithful' adaptation? This creation was something entirely different : to criticize it for 'not being faithful to the original' is beside the point - it is not trying to be. Beethoven was not pertick'ly faithful to the Diabelli original... . - or as ferney put it -

Indeed - a Lisztian Paraphrase on Themes by Dickens.

I thought this was a really interesting work, and I am sad that quite a few here have not enjoyed it.

[Barbirollians]

Yes, I agree. The Scrooge of this film was entirely different from the Scrooge of the novel. The whole sexual abuse thread is a valid idea, especially to the modern viewer, but is utterly alien to the original, and resulted in the whole feel-good factor being lost. What happened to Mr Fezziwig? The whole aspect of Scrooge looking back at his earlier lost happiness was entirely lost. What was the point of bringing in Scrooge's nephew at the beginning, if his Christmas party at the end is excised? The whole thrill of Scrooge ordering the giant goose for the Cratchits was lost. The non-forgiveness of Scrooge by Mrs Cratchit - dictated by the alien sexual-abuse interpretation - is fundamentally in contradiction to the Christmas spirit and left a sour taste in the mouth at the end.

And what is the point of writing a script for a film if half of it can't be heard?

An excellent point - Scrooge’s father brings him home from the hated school to be with his sister and his early career is happy it is greed that then takes over. If you want to write a completely new story inspired by a Christmas Carol then say so but don’t pretend this is an adaptation.

[vinteuil]

.

There is an interesting review by Victoria Segal in The Sunday Times.



.

[Belgrove]

I thought this over-produced and unable to bear the weight of its additions to (and omissions from) the original, we gave up after the second episode.

No mention here of the animated version by Richard Williams, with Alastair Sim as Scrooge, and narrated by Michael Redgrave. Only half-an-hour long, but hugely inventive and faithful to Dickens. Images that both terrify and delight. Do check it out if you have never seen it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzyC9CZuOA

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An interesting factoid concerning this wonderful adaptation that I've just discovered is that Joe Alwyn, who played Bob Cratchitt, is the great-grandson of composer William. Not a lot of people know that.


Dating Taylor Swift, too. (Joe, not William.)

[antongould]

Completely off topic .... but ferney your Message box is full .......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Completely off topic .... but ferney your Message box is full .......

Not any more!