Will Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

365 Films

Entry #29

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Directed by: Mel Stuart

My introduction to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory coincides precisely with my first instance of petty larceny.  Before you hit that silent alarm button under desk and rat me out to the fuzz, let me explain that while I didn’t legally “break” the law, I did act like an incredibly shitty friend.  A very close friend somewhere between the years 1991 and 1993 had loaned Willy Wonka to me.  The current year is 2013 and I still have that tape.  What possible explanation could I have for holding on to a loaned VHS for approximately twenty years?  The movie is really fucking good, that’s why.  This was my first cinematic obsession that didn’t involve Wesley Snipes or Sylvester Stallone.  I should backtrack a little bit.  Roald Dahl was my movies before I knew movies were my movies.  His books provided me with my first taste of the completely magical transporting quality of any and all fiction, printed or otherwise.  His ability to balance clever wordplay, sharply drawn characters, and completely fantastical imagery is still unmatched in its delicacy.  One was drawn to the works of Roald Dahl over and over again for a very specific reason: it was just too damn satisfying to put down.  Therefore, the idea of a real life flesh and blood Willy Wonka filling up my cinematic headspace was (to quote a friend) “like someone had taken me apart, cleaned all my pieces, and transfused my blood with sunshine”, AKA The best possible thing that could possibly happen in the history of everything.  Just one example of the many gifts Willy Wonka has to offer is how deliriously abound with visual pleasures the thing is.  Every frame of film, especially to a ten-year-old is one eye-popping spectacle after the next.  From the opening musical number in the candy shop to the introduction of the chocolate room to the final blast in the great glass elevator, it is damn near impossible to take your eyes off the screen.  It doesn’t hurt that the film whole-heartedly embraces the over-whelming psychedelia not only inherent in Dahl’s text, but also as spill over from the times in which it was made.  Willy Wonka is the kind of children’s film that does not get tamer the older you get.  If anything, the film gets even stranger and darker with each subsequent viewing.  One of the long-standing theories behind the film is that Willy Wonka is in fact, god, and that the chocolate factory is eternal paradise.  Hence, why he is standing guard over the gates of heaven and tossing out all of the undesirable elements (all the children except Charlie).  The interpretation I find more interesting however is that the entire film is actually a battle for Willy Wonka’s soul.  Each child is a potential savior and there is a rigorous screening process to figure out which one it is.  The Willy Wonka that emerges from his office after Charlie leaves behind the everlasting gobstopper is a Willy Wonka devoid of all the unrepentant bitterness that had swallowed up his soul.  And in giving the factory over to Charlie and his family, he has finally freed himself from the terrible burden that caused his livelihood to turn to rot.  I guess that means things aren’t looking too hopeful for Charlie and his family then, huh? Oh well.  I’m sticking with that.