Still, it's the week between Christmas and New Year, and so viewing material isn't exactly in short supply. After much deliberation, I decided it was time to open Pandora's box and revisit some classic childhood trauma in the form of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which was so epically scary to me on first viewing that I haven't gone back to it in well over a quarter of a century.
Before I did so, however, I made sure I had a backup movie lined up in case I didn't make it all the way through.
There may be people out there who remain unfamiliar with Roald Dahl's classic tale of a bunch of kids who receive an invite to the titular confectioner's mysterious factory; if so, take a look at the book, or alternatively feel free to hunt down this handy video primer produced by James Wan in 2004. It's basically the plot of every slasher movie ever made - a bunch of bad kids (plus one good one) land up trapped somewhere isolated with something nasty and none of them escape (except the good one).
I fucking love the fucking 70s.
The good
I was entertained by this one, very mildly. The sets were weird and lovely; so was Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. The performances were adequate for the source material, and the songs were pleasant enough, with Pure Imagination being a particular highlight. I can't lie, though; there were no flashes of brilliance, and I wasn't absorbed by the story in the way I remember repeatedly losing myself in the book. It was an interesting reminder of the era I came from, though, and crucially, of how far we've all come since then.The bad
As a kid, I could never understand why films and books never matched up entirely. I was incredibly ticked off, therefore, by things like the squirrels from the book being replaced by golden geese, or Gene Wilder's hair being blond instead of black, because it just wasn't right.Nowadays, I'm prepared to allow a little more leeway in these matters, but not at the expense of narrative coherency. I was baffled, therefore, by certain inclusions that Wikipedia confirms were never in the book. The character of Slugworth, for instance,seems to serve no real purpose other than to emphasize to an impressionable target audience that scars are scary, while an entire sequence where Charlie and his grandfather steal sips of an experimental drink suggests our young protagonist is no better than any other of the bad kids invited to the factory. True, it's briefly implied that this will carry consequences, but he still gets the grand prize rather than the threat of death or mutilation.
Even if you're unfamiliar with the book, meanwhile, certain elements of the film are a bit of a mess. We have American Peter Ostrum as Charlie, therefore, living in a very European city (Munich, apparently) where almost everybody else has an English accent. I know it's a familiar tale with transatlantic production jobs, but it never gets any the less awkward, particularly with such quintessentially English source material.
On the other hand, the filmmakers did see fit to alter Dahl's vision, making the Oompa Loompas, Wonka's very own dwarven slave race, orange and green rather than black, which suggests that authenticity might not be everything it's cracked up to be.
And the much-vaunted cruelty? Yes, it's there, albeit only in the same way as in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. That said, when was the last time you saw one of those on TV, either?
The verdict
I have faced down my youthful fears. Interestingly, they had nothing to do with routine maimings for bad behaviour and everything to do with malfunctioning experimental vehicles covering people in thick white foam.All in all, it's been a thoroughly educational day.
No comments:
Post a Comment