CSotD: Scrooge shot first
Skip to comments
In today's Sally Forth, Ted shows that he is, in fact, not completely insane by taking a stand against Star Wars revisionism. Lucas's constant tweaks are not only a betrayal of his fans but a distressingly unnecessary example of how history is not only written by winners but revised by them as well.
Nothing against "director's cuts," and I realize that, thanks to the growth of special effects in general and a tendency to steal good ideas in the specific, my grandkids will never get the sense of "whoa!" that we had when that star cruiser first passed overhead.
But, still, they deserve to see what we saw. And George needs to get over himself and realize that, despite some rather thin directing credits, he's got a lot to be proud of.
And that if he doesn't leave those first three Star Wars films alone, he's going to go blind.
Meanwhile, one of those grandkids was clamoring to make sure she didn't miss "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" last night. The Peanuts animations came too late for me and didn't make much of an impression, but I recognize that, for people starting just a tad younger, they are canonical.
Well, "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" was canon in my house. Is the Alastair Sim version better? Sure. Of course. That's not the point.
Quality and excellence are not the topic here. All sorts of fine singers have covered Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin" and some of them have done pretty outstanding versions. But, for someone my age, the Four Seasons cover is canonical and, no, I wouldn't expect my mother to agree.
In these matters, you had to be there, wherever "there" was.
The nice thing about "A Christmas Carol" is that it's very short and filmmakers don't have to leave anything out, which means it's hard to make a really bad version except when whoever plays Scrooge insists on chewing the scenery, which happens.
But that also means it's hard to make a version that stands out as significantly better than the others, and it's virtually impossible to ever make one better than the Sim version, given that Alastair Sim did such an untoppable job of portraying Scrooge as a man as pitiable as he was selfish, and whose parsimony was the result of fear, insecurity and disappointment, not of arrogance. Sim's Scrooge trembled, denied and recanted better than anyone else who has ever played the part, and there is no shortage of people who have played the part.
However, Mr. Magoo's version doesn't have to have been excellent in order to be part of the holidays. It simply has to have inspired the sorts of traditions and in-jokes that lurk below the adult level in a family, in that world of siblings and cousins who have their own traditions to trot out years later whenever they get together.
Thank god George Lucas had nothing to do with it, or he'd be going back to replace all the wooflejelly with razzleberry jam and completely throwing off the delicate culinary balance of the entire fantasy.
Comments 5
Comments are closed.