From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory released in 1971.
Starring:
Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum
Directed by:
Mel Stuart
Genre:
Family, Fantasy, Musical
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating:
G
Budget:
$3,000,000 (estimated)
Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:
7.8
The Synopsis is:
A sweet young boy, Charlie Bucket gets a golden ticket giving him the opportunity to take a tour of Willy Wonka's amazing chocolate factory and a chance to win a lifetime supply of delicious chocolate.
The film is an adaptation of the children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory written by British author Roald Dahl published in 1964. The book was inspired by his childhood in the 1920’s, during which chocolatiers Cadbury and Rowntree's (now known as Nestle) were in a bitter rivalry and often tried to steal trade secrets from each other. Roald Dahl and his schoolmates were often requested to test out candies for Cadbury and were fascinated by the machines used to create the chocolate. Those memories helped him to write this wonderful story and it became a favorite among children.
In the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays for “You Only Live Twice” released in 1967 and for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang released in 1968, proving he could write stellar screenplays for movies.
American film director and producer Mel Stuart was asked by his ten-year-old daughter to make a film based on the book with television and film producer David L. Wolper. The two agreed and paid her fifty dollars for the tip.
Roald Dahl also began adapting the novel into a screenplay at about the same time that David purchased the rights to the book for $500,000. Dahl failed to meet his deadlines to finish the screenplay so the job was handed off to David Seltzer creating a bit of a rift between Roald Dahl and production.
David Seltzer had no prior experience screenwriting and ended up not getting a screenwriting credit. Don’t feel too bad for him though, he went on to write the screenplays for The Omen (1976), Six Weeks (1982), and Bird on a Wire (1990).
David’s most important contribution to the film was writing Willy Wonka's iconic lines by quoting William Shakespeare, John Masefield, John Keats, William Allingham, Arthur O'Shaughnessy, and Oscar Wilde. He also immersed the character with a worldly air, by making him multilingual speaking English, French, German, and Italian. He also provided the last line of the film given by Willy Wonka that was very heartwarming and finished the film with a delightful bow of charm.
Surprisingly it follows a lot of the same story beats as the book, but it changes a few details that have a subtle change on the message. Because of the medium of film, the changes were actually really good in my opinion at times strengthening the emotional element that binds the tale into something truly special.
The story begins with the owner of a chocolate factory, Willy Wonka (played wonderfully by Gene Wilder) closing his factory after several trade secrets were stolen. Arthur Slugworth from Slugworth Chocolates Incorporated was one of the suspected culprits. 3 years later Willy re-opened the factory pumping out more chocolate than ever. However, the townspeople found it quite strange that with a guestimate of thousands of employees possibly working in his factory, no one enters or leaves the complex.
Suddenly one day, Wonka makes an announcement that he has 5 golden tickets hidden in his chocolate bars and the winners will get a tour of his factory and possibly win a lifetime of chocolate.
Nearly half of the film is concentrated on the search for the five tickets. During this time we really get a sense of how important these golden tickets are to the world and to our protagonist. This really sets the tone for what is to come inside the factory.
Originally the title was going to be the same as the book, but at the time there was an uproar about the name Charlie, as a common slang for male slave owners in America. The name was changed to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but it is in name only because the film maintains the story concentration around Charlie, played brilliantly by child actor Peter Ostrum. Charlie lives in wretched poverty in a quaint non determined town in America in the early 1970’s.
The film strays from the book by giving Charlie a paper route job to help support his family and having his father deceased so there is an extra level of strife for the family. I believe it helped to make Charlie a character we immediately cared about for this medium. These are the intangibles you can write in a great page turner, but not something you can put in a movie. The filmmakers took a classic movie shortcut, but in my opinion it worked.
However, they didn’t rely on it alone. It was accompanied by a series of small deeds that Charlie displays like, his ability to share when he has so little, his upbeat attitude and most of all his humble honesty. The film really rides on your sympathy for Charlie and I found it very easy to fall in love with him. He’s such a little sweetie.
Charlie becomes obsessed with winning the golden ticket, but unlike everyone else who can buy hundreds of Wonka bars, he is extremely poor so he opens only 4 bars before finding a ticket.
Charlie lives with his mother and 4 grandparents that never leave their communal bed. That alone brings several questions to mind like, not even to use the bathroom? Do they wear diapers? Maybe I am taking this too literal, but this is a part of the whacky nature of the original book. It’s hilarious and I love how it is portrayed in film.
We’ve got Charlie's fathers parents, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgina. And we have Charlie’s mother’s parents, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine. Grandpa Joe, adorably played by Jack Albertson who was a 63 year old man playing a 96 year old. Hollywood back in the day would always do stunts like this. However, Jack was perfect to pull off the acting and singing that he had to do in the film.
In particular Grandpa Joe has a very special and loving relationship with Charlie. You can see that Grandpa Joe perks up a little more when Charlie is around and for Charlie, his grandpa is a lifeline to having some kind of hope in the midst of a life that sometimes feels hopeless in the thicket of devastating destitution and loneliness.
It is so awesome to see these two together because they are just the best of friends and spend as much time together as possible. When Charlie finally gets his hands on a golden ticket, he chooses grandpa Joe as his parental plus one.
Now I have heard a lot of people flat out call out Grandpa Joe for being a little sketchy for suddenly being able to walk and dance after being in bed for 20 years, singing “I’ve Got A Golden Ticket” which was actually Charlie’s, tempts Charlie to disobey the rules at Willy Wonka’s factory, and suggests that Charlie give away Willy’s trade secret. Oh Grandpa Joe!
I just wanted to take a moment to talk about Charlie’s relationship with his mother who of course loves him dearly. He’s such a good kid, he tries to go to his mother for some solace as more and more tickets are being found. I thought it was interesting that she didn’t want him to dream too big so that when reality hits, he won’t be disappointed. This part was probably the most realistic part of all of the film, as it is often our loved ones who are afraid when we take risks, that life may bring us disappointments. It brings me to tears every time she sings the song “Cheer up Charlie”.
It’s one of the most disliked scenes in the film so much that many TV broadcasts of this movie have it cut from their airing.
You’ve heard me talk about singing and dancing which is because this film is a musical which is part of it’s charm. Originally Mel Stuart was against the idea of Willy Wonka as a musical, the successes of Mary Poppins (1964) and The Wizard of Oz (1939) was enough to convince him otherwise. In fact, this film is often compared to The Wizard of Oz for its timeless ability to enrapture children’s sense of imagination.
Gene Wilder sings the most memorable song of the film "Pure Imagination". It’s plucky, it's playful, and it is very sentimental.
Mel Stuart jumped to give Gene Wilder the part. Gene said he would take the role of Willy Wonka under the condition that he would introduce the character by slowly limping to the gates of his factory and then suddenly somersault to a cheering crowd. It’s a strange request, but he said that he wanted to make the audience doubt whether they should trust Willy Wonka or not. Two weeks of training with two stuntmen helped Gene to manifest his idea, and thrilling audiences with a memorable moment for the ages. This is a prime example of how Gene was able to use his creativity to add nuances to the character, making him iconic. He even made a few changes to the costume to fit his personality like a glove. Everything he did in the film gave Willy a shroud of mystery, but also gave him a sense of fun that appealed to children.
Gene had great instincts and timing playing the role with a mysterious whimsey. On set Gene was a hit with the children as they all wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. He would often read to them or tell them stories as they sat on his lap.
Peter Sellers wanted the role and begged Roald Dahl for the part, however Dahl originally wanted Spike Milligan to play Willy Wonka but the production wanted to go in a different direction. Fred Asraire, Sidney James, Frankie Howerd, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin and Kenneth Williams showed interest in the role. Joel Grey, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Michael Crawford were considered. The role was offered to Ron Moody and Jon Pertwee who were both doing other projects.
Another memorable song was “Candy Man”, sung by Aubrey Woods as Bill the candy shop owner. Originally the part was courted by Sammy Davis Jr., but the filmmakers wanted an unfamiliar face so as not to break the magical “reality”. Sammy recorded his own version of the song, co-released with the movie and it became a Billboard top 100.
The music is so wonderfully whimsical and has a magical effect on your mood instantly. The use of strings, flutes and horns effortlessly conveys fun, joy, and all of the precious tender memories of goodness that you can muster up. I especially loved the music during the scene where Charlie finds the 5th golden ticket. The music is so magical and uplifting at that very moment capturing the excitement Charlie must have been feeling.
Mel Stuart hit a challenge when making the film because he said “Roald Dahl's screenplay was missing many story elements”, such as a villain. And even after all of the tinkering that went on in the story, it still doesn’t actually have one, which is what I actually enjoy about the film.
What we do have are situations that create drama for the characters in the story.
Every time a child found the ticket, a man claiming to be Arthur Slugworth conveniently appeared offering the children $10,000 in exchange for a new product from Wonka called the everlasting gobstopper.
By the end we discover that this man is not Slugworth and was really working for Wonka the whole time. It’s a shocking revelation, because it implies that Willy Wonka specifically targeted these children to get golden tickets, knowing that they would easily be eliminated leaving Charlie to win the prize. It's a theory that raises a whole bunch of interesting questions leading down a rabbit hole of conspiracies about Wonka's intentions. It is no mistake that each one of the children succumbs to their specific temptations at the factory that coincide with their personality. Mel Stuart said that he wanted to reveal a backstory for Willy Wonka, that he strategically set everything up to give the factory to Charlie. If you ask me, it’s a little elaborate if he already knows who Charlie is and wants to give him the factory. The concept was abandoned but the clues remained in the film, such as having just enough seats or suits to fit just the number of dwindling guests.
However, the challenge of our fake Slugworth is set up to test our five children in their ability to be honest.
Augustus Gloop is the first winner and the first to be eliminated from the test. Gloop represents gluttony, one of the deadly sins. The kids don’t all represent the sins, but represent some unpleasant part of human nature. The tour seems to target each child, because Gloop being a rambunctious eater just couldn't resist Wonka’s wonderful river of chocolate.
To be honest, I was a little jealous that he got to take a swim in it, but according to the actor playing him, Michael Bollner, the river was yukkie. The chocolate river was a mixture of 150,000 gallons of water, chocolate and cream. The cream began to spoil a few days into the shoot which made it putrid. What a shame.
The next child to be eliminated was Violet Beareguarde played by Denise Nickerson. Violet is a braggy attention monger with a habit for chewing gum and has even held awards for it. So it’s no surprise when Willy Wonka tempts her with a unique full course dinner chewing gum, she had to take his bait. The dessert does her in by turning her into a blueberry.
The transformation effect was done by pumping air into an inflatable suit while gradually shining a blue light on Denise’s face. The final transformed look was a suit made out of styrofoam and Denise’s face and hands were painted blue. Denise said that the paint embarrassingly reemerged a few days later while she was at school.
Veruca Salt is the next child to fail Willy Wonka’s test. In the book, she was a “bad nut” and succumbed to the temptation of nut shelling squirrels. I think it’s pretty obvious why the temptation was changed for the lack of being able to actually pull it off with visual effects. It was used in the remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory released in 2005 where more modern technology was put to use to create the scene.
Instead Veruca was labeled as a “bad egg”, with pretty much the same connotation, with geese that lay golden eggs. I thought that was a brilliant adaptation of the “bad nut” idea from the book. Before going down in a blaze of glory, she sings “I Want It Now” displaying her reckless behavior and greed as she tortures her father who will do anything to please her. It’s another memorable scene.
Mike Teevee played by Paris Themmen was the last eliminated child who is obsessed with the television and seduced by the temptation of being transported into one. Line hook and sinker.
They used a lot of visual effects for this including bluescreen, dolls, oversized styrofoam fingers and forced perspective. Paris Themmen being the youngest child at 11 years old was a “handful” according to Gene Wilder and a few others. For instance, there was a contained beehive on set and he let them loose on the cast and crew.
Oompa-Loompas are Willy Wonka’s factory workers that provide a little synopsis or theory about the dysfunction of the children and their parents in song and dance. In fact the movie stays true to the book by blaming the parents for what the children have become. I actually like these plucky songs they sing while delivering witty lyrics.
The look of the Oompa-Loompas was quite unique, with green hair and bright orange skin. Originally, in the book they were to be African pygmies, but because the acquisition of the Oompa-Loompas resembled slavery, they were changed for the book’s second edition. It still brings up a lot of questions about how the Oompa-Loompas are being treated in the factory and although they are not being attacked by the monsters in their homeland, are they free to leave and where are the women and children Oompa-Loompas?
The production had some trouble casting them and many of them were brought in from around the world. They did not all know English, so some of them did not follow the words accurately during the musical numbers.
Charlie is not without his temptations either. His temptation is Grandpa Joe. It’s his Grandpa Joe’s idea to sample Willy Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drinks without permission.
It’s pretty awesome to see that Charlie is ultimately his own man by the end of the film and decides to make the right decisions on his own when it counts. Charlie defeats his temptation by leaving his gifted gobstopper on Wonka’s desk, proving that he can be trusted. I love that triumph for Charlie!
Peter Ostrum plays him so well and I can see why he beat out hundreds of boys to get the part of Charlie. He was cast days before the start of production, leaving his family for five months. He even went through puberty during the film as his voice became much deeper by the end of the film. After this film, Peter was extremely sought after in Hollywood but decided he didn't want to make acting his profession and later in life he became a veterinarian.
Peter said he had a wonderful time on set and toward the end of the shoot once the other children had gone home, he and Gene Wilder often ate lunch together and shared a chocolate bar for dessert as they walked back to the set. That sounds so sweet. When Gene Wilder died, Peter Ostrum changed his social media profile to "Former child actor, veterinarian, inherited a chocolate factory on 29 August 2016".
Visually, the film is a 1970's grade film. The coloring is vintage looking and the sets look like sets, yet it is timelessly thrilling, sparking emotions of hope and wonder.
The production was cost effective filming in Munich Germany and shot over a period of 6 weeks. Mel Stuart said that he thought that filming in Germany added to the fairy tale element of the story and that in my opinion why the film feels so timeless. We don’t have any recognizable monuments to pull us out of the fantasy of the film.
The story by nature of the book has so many awesome gags and funny moments that exemplify the oddity of the factory and Willy’s sense of humor. It was so lovely to see all of this manifested on screen, leaving many to believe that Willy Wonka’s factory must be tucked away and these rooms that we see in the film are just show rooms for some of his more ridiculous concepts.
Many of the chocolate bars on set were made of wood and covered with wrappers and that was a good practical way to convey massive amounts of factory chocolate. The most awe inspiring moment in the film was the Candy Garden with that incredible river of chocolate. Even though Willy Wonka said that the entire room was edible, only about one third of the items in the room were actually edible, which is still incredible. That scene is very reminiscent of when Dorothy opens the door of her house to see Oz for the first time. It taps into a primal sense of fun and resembles the ultimate childhood play room.
Sadly Roald Dahl hated the film because he was essentially shut out of the process and proceeded to make several additions to his story. He refused to ever watch the completed film in its entirety and forbade the use of the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator to be turned into a movie.
To coincide with the film, Quaker Oats company came out with a Wonka Bar, which was the first major collaboration between a manufacturer and film company at the time. Unfortunately, the chocolates weren’t made with a stable formula and melted at room temperature.
In later years the formula was improved and the bar was sold to Sunline Inc. (which later became part of Nestlé via Rowntree).
It was the 53rd-highest-grossing film in the US in 1971, but it underperformed. However most of the interest for this film came from home video, rentals and television views over the years. It is often mentioned whenever you ask people which movie is their favorite. In 2014, this movie was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress and also on the list of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Even today, Willy Wonka leaning on the Everlasting Gobstopper machine has become a popular image for thousands of hilarious memes, typically used in a condescending manner.
It is a true classic with a tender story that aims directly for the heart being a wonderful story of how a boy went to a factory and won the heart of a candy maker.
And don’t forget what happened “to the man who got everything he ever wanted… he lived happily ever after”.
My Rating:
9.2
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. If you did, I’ve got over 100 of these videos, so make sure your are subscribed the channel to see more reviews from me like this. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
If you enjoy my content and want me to continue you can help at
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/retronerdgirl
Follow Retro Nerd Girl on twitter: https://twitter.com/Retro_Nerd_Girl
Like Retro Nerd Girl on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retronerdgirl
No comments:
Post a Comment