Merry Christmas

12/25/23: Update to post of 12/16/23:

There was yet another version of "A Christmas Carol", this time starring none other than Sir Patrick Stewart. Of Star Trek fame? Yes, the very one. Somehow, I couldn't get over picturing him on the Holodeck of the Enterprise and giving this performance as none other than Capt Picard. An actor playing an actor playing a fictional character playing a fictional character. Layer upon layer of "humbug", as Scrooge might say.

Not to knock the performance. It was okay, I guess. Actors tend to get type cast into certain types of roles. This wasn't one of those roles. Perhaps it is a tribute to Stewart that it wasn't.

It was a morality play for a deeply immoral world. But that wouldn't be the popular thing to say here.

It is better to be alive than dead, as old Scrooge found out. I was thinking that old Scrooge really wasn't all that bad. If you want really tough customers, just look at the real world. Scrooge was a softie compared to the real people out there. One can go overboard with all the moralizing.

Right now, I'm thinking of the Vietnam War movie called "Full Metal Jacket". There was a scene where a Colonel spots Joker wearing a peace sign that didn't go with what he wrote on his helmet. The Colonel asks Joker whose side he was on and Joker said "our side". Then the Colonel responds with how the world really is, and I don't think Joker "got it". The phrase that stood out for me was "it's a hard boiled world, son". That's what I'm thinking now. Old Scrooge knew it too. He toughened himself against it, and soldiered on. But if there was a theme to the movie, it is perhaps this: you cannot always be a soldier. Scrooge got the message, and changed his tune.

There is a time for war and a time for peace. You have to know what time it is. Merry Christmas, ya'll.

end update:

12/16/23: Update to post of 12/24/16

There are more versions of "A Christmas Carol" than you can shake a stick at. There was one on Amazon Prime that I watched last night. It was something like a musical. It also looks like it was made for TV, as was about an hour long, and allowed for commercials in order to make it an even hour.

The striking thing about this version is that the singing was first rate. Basil Rathbone was in this version, and he played the role of Jacob Marley's ghost.

It thought it was pretty good, and worth watching.











Original post resumes below: Where's my Christmas present?