“There’s more of gravy than of grave about you”
Well I watched the 1984 version today and this was the first time I have ever seen the whole thing—usually I just catch bits and pieces of it on AMC each year. I have decided that this at the very least ties for my favorite with the 1938 version.
These reviews of A Christmas Carol are getting more and easier to write because there is less and less to say on the actual story and more just on the various differences in each film.
The 1984 one seems to be nigh verbatim and it is also a bit longer than the other versions I have reviewed. 1938 clocks in at 79 minutes while 1951 adds seven extra minutes of Marley back-story subplot that did not appear in the book, as well as touching on Belle (Scrooges true love) briefly, making it 86 minutes. However the 1984 version gives us another extra 14 minutes of amazing.
George C. Scott does an outstanding performance as Scrooge. Like with Sim, the reactions are very realistic but there are no examples of over acting the dramatic scenes. Scott is one of the most convincing Scrooges I have ever seen and he really steals the show.
This version focuses a great deal on the character of Scrooge as was with the 1951 version, but it also touches on Cratchit as well.
1984 version is much darker and serious than the previous two versions—it is going for realism and trying to be true to the original story. The cinematography in this version is also wonderful—and I mean all of it: sound, lighting, camera angles, affects, etc. The most impressive part about all of this is that this version was a made for TV version!
There is not actually that many differences between this one and the other two I reviewed. It is as if they took the best things from both those versions and all the verbatim elements from both those versions and put them together to make this one.
In addition, I do love the 1938 one and it makes me feel happy to watch it but the one that really pulls me in and gets me fully emotionally invested in the characters as well as the plot. This one moved me and a few times almost brought me to tears even though I know the story by heart and have seen several versions of it many times over the years including the last two weeks.
I do want to say one thing on some socio-political redeeming value other than the obvious we all know. If you notice, almost every year that a popular version of this tale comes out, it is during an economic crisis in a major first world country of either a corporate nature or government nature, which I think is fantastically ironic and beautiful if it is simply coincidence.
I give A Christmas Carol 1984 5 out of 5 stars across the board just like with the 1938 version except this version is better in my opinion even if only by a little.
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