About the movie " A Christmas Carol"

About the movie “A Christmas Carol”

It may be the first time ever I watched a Christmas movie at Christmas Eve, and I was not disappointed. The movie I watched was released in 1984 by 20th Century Fox, starring George Scott.  It is not as cheesy as most other Christmas themed movies, and is actually quite interesting.

This movie is based on Charles Dickens’ book with the same title. It is about an old business man Scrooge.  He was rich but didn’t use his wealth well.  His office was always cold, as cold as his heart, and he didn’t let his clerk use more than one piece of coal at a time. His nephew came to invite him for the Christmas dinner, as always, and Scrooge rejected down right.  He alleged that Christmas was humbug. Two gentlemen asked him for some donations for the poor at Christmas, and Scrooge declined, claiming that if the poor had to die then go die, and that it could reduce the surplus population.

He went back to his dark home. During his dinner, his deceased partner, who was bounded in chains, visited him.  His partner said he forged the chains by himself link by link when he was alive, and he implied that Scrooge would be the same.  After that, 3 spirits, Past, Present and Future visited Scrooge.  Past replayed Scrooge’s past to him, a lonely boy, and then a young man who was abandoned by his father.  His relationship with his girlfriend was broken up since he had no time to spare other than on his business. Present led him to his clerk’s house.  His clerk was so poor that his family could only have a small goose for the Christmas feast, and his little cripple son was dying. Scrooge was also led to miners’ place with so many poor people there. They didn’t have enough food and clothes.  Scrooge was shocked, but Present mocked him using his own words that let them die to reduce the surplus population.  And then there was Future. Through Future, Scrooge saw his future, died in a dark place with nobody around.  Nobody was upset by his death. His clerk’s little cripple son also died.

Scrooge determined to have the future altered, so Future was uncertain what would actually happen and disappeared. Daylight came in. It was still Christmas and Scrooge was a new man.  He bought his clerk the biggest turkey for his feast, went to his nephew’s dinner, and pledged large donation to the gentlemen for the poor.  He had his office warmed with more coal, double his clerk’s salary, and took care of the clerk’s little cripple son like his another father.  He altered the future.  He’s happy, be loved and the clerk’s little son thrived. 

This movie followed the book really well.  George’s performance was also great. The themes were mostly dark, but funny time to time. It was creepy when the dead partner and the spirits showed up, and it’s interesting that after the initial shock, Scrooge got used to them rather quickly.  He started talking to them just like they were his normal business counterparts, and even kept making requests.  He sure had a very strong nerve, which made him successful in his business, and then succeeded in totally changing his life style.

Life is short, and let’s not make chains for ourselves. Let’s make money work for us, but not the other way around.

Merry Christmas!