Absolutely! Before I saw this version, quite honestly, I appreciated the story of a greedy old bastard that was converted to a good guy in his last days by some ghosts showing him the errors of his ways. I really didn't understand why he was like that so much nor did I really think about it.
Through Stewart's characterization, I see a man who made a choice of greed over love so long ago, who as he aged owned that choice to the maximum and outwardly worked to show the world and his business partner that he had made the right choice, but also when he saw his nephew, and when he walked into that huge empty house all alone every night he deep down knew he had made the wrong one. I see a man who harbors ultimate regret at that moment he didn't go after Belle. I see a man holding so much regret over sticking by that decision that I am certain that he thinks about it all the time, showing me the reason for the bitter man we see on the screen.
It makes me wonder, was it just all a dream? Were those ghosts part of his own epiphany that broke him from his prideful self imposed exile from love for greed? Did he convince himself to just drop the damn pride and just love people? Or were the ghosts a gift from Marley's own tortured soul for the consequences of living a life that eschewed love for selfish greed?
Either way, Scrooge became so much more a human to me through this portrayal.
"But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"
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strntz
8 years ago
It makes me wonder, was it just all a dream?
No.
The novella is very clear on this. While the visions of the past or future could have been remembrances (past) or delusions (future), the visions of Christmas present would have exposed this. When he went to Fred's house, he saw his niece (prob for the first time in real life) and all the guests, and the games they played exactly as he saw the night before.
Is very bad to steal Jobu's rum. Is very bad.
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homergreg
8 years ago
You are right. Hadnt thought of that part. Imagination got ahead of the story. Still glad for this humanizing portrayal.
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Big_AL-96
8 years ago
You are quite correct. In fact the book goes to great lengths at the start to clarify this.
There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind.
Let's pray the human race never escapes Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. C.S Lewis
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