The Candy Man

Wonka gives us truth dipped in chocolate -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
When I was very young, I saw two categories of movie -- movies that were on television, and movies that my mother particularly wanted to see. That leaves out a wide swath of movies from the period before I had a driver's license and ticket money. I've recently seen "Wicker Man" and "Butterflies Are Free" from my early teen era, via Netflix. Both were smaller budget movies, very big in their quality and respective messages.

Another movie I finally saw was 1971's "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I have to admit that as a self-conscious 14 year old, I probably would never have sought this movie out. I figured it was a silly musical about a magical chocolate factory and nothing really compelled me towards it. With 40 years' hindsight, "Wonka" was and is a movie well worth seeing. The movie has a very adult sensibility about it -- in places I thought maybe I was watching a Monty Python sketch or a John Waters movie. In fact, children were warned away from a couple of scary sequences which reminded me of "Clockwork Orange" or some other surreality meant mainly for adult eyes.

Wonka has characters (e.g., Oompa Loompas), words and tag phrases that follow us around today, much akin to the witticisms of Oscar Wilde or the characters' remarks from "Alice in Wonderland". My favorite, when the characters were stuck in a narrow hallway Willie says, "Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward".

"Wonka" was based on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" -- written by Roald Dahl in 1964. Dalh also wrote "James and the Giant Peach" as well as many other works written for all different ages. In "Wonka", five children win golden tickets for a personal tour of the chocolate factory. The children (except for Charlie) are variously bratty, fool-hearty, gluttonous or stupid. I wondered if Dahl was pointing up the Seven Sins of Catholicism but who knows. Each of the naughty children meets with unpleasantness. One gets sent to a fudge boiler for drinking from the chocolate river. Another goes to the berry juicing room to be "dejuiced" after ignoring Wonka's warning about a test piece of chewing gum. Yet a third (bratty rich girl) goes down a garbage chute for bad eggs. A fourth lad gets transduced to a tiny ken-doll size after toying with Wonkavision.

Charlie emerges as the only one who isn't obstinate, bratty or greedy. He also resists temptations to sell Wonka's Gobsmacker factory secret to a rival candy maker Slugworth. For this, he wins Wonka's faith and is made heir to the entire chocolate factory. I've left out many details in this condensing of the tale. Each child has an adult guardian on tour with him, exhibiting the same character defects as the child and meeting the same fate as the respective child. Charlie is accompanied by has kindly grandfather where most of the children have a mother or father.

"Wonka" met with criticism from all directions when it came out. People in the children's literature business were horrified that a children's tale would have so much negativity -- primarily children going to metaphorical if not literal deaths. One boat ride through a tunnel has scary images flashed across the screen, though nothing actually too alarming.

Roald Dahl was originally a screen writer for the movie but was diverted to another project. The final edit was done without Dahl and he was unhappy with the end result, right down to the title. He thought there was too much emphasis on Willie Wonka and not on Charlie, the intended hero. He didn't like a scene where Charlie and his grandfather must belch their ways down from a ceiling (after drinking a test soda pop that makes you float in the air). Dahl was livid enough that he ceased working with the production company and wouldn't allow them to do his sequel, "Charlie and the Glass Elevator".

I thought that "Wonka" was excellent (particularly Gene Wilder in the title role), but have one minor plot quibble. I'm assuming the story is some type of allegory as are many children's stories. The four children who are variously shrunk, boiled, dejuiced and trashed are mostly guilty of impatience and gluttony. When Charlie and his grandfather drink the test soda, they've basically committed the same faux pas with about the same type of motivation. The only difference is maybe one of style -- Charlie isn't as snarky or mean as the other kids. OK, if Willie Wonka is a God-metaphor then maybe we can all take comfort -- you get points for not being snarky or mean.

If you get a chance, "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" is well worth viewing. The Netflix version was excellent quality. Extra musical bonus -- you'll soon recognize the theme song from a current AT&T commercial and be grooving to the song "Candy Man" (which was also a 1972 Sammy Davis Jr hit song).

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