Classic Movie Review: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of those kids movie staples that everyone remembers watching when they were younger, but then when you watch when you get older you realise that it's full of dark and delusional material. In fact there's a whole story surrounding this movie that changes your perception of the movie. The movie was actually made as a marketing device to sell actual chocolate bars, but no one expected it to be a hit.

There are dark undertones in this movie and they become apparent when you watch this as an adult. Some of these are quite obvious like that terrifying boat ride (and that is one is still so scary), but there are other more sinister things that really hit home, like the heartbreaking poverty that Charlie (Peter Ostrum) and his family live in or Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) keeping Charlie in a delusional state of thinking that he is special and unique. I know that sounds cynical, but when you watch it, you can tell Joe is trying really hard to distract him from the poverty that surrounds them. 

Watching the world descend into madness at the beginning of the movie as they try to find the Golden Tickets is quite dismaying to watch. That's because you could see an obsession like that happen in today's society. Not only is the obsession crazy, but the odds of Charlie actually getting one are so inexplicably low. But then again, the supposedly evil Mr Slugworth, Wonka's rival, is present when every one of the tickets is found so then again maybe the winners were picked from the beginning.

For a movie that is remembered as having Gene Wilder's best performance, it's amazing to think that he doesn't appear in the movie for a full forty minutes and when we do finally see him, he appears seemingly fragile, but it is a great piece of improvisation from Wilder. In fact the majority of Wilder's fantastic performance is improvised. He shows so much range in this one role that it's unbelievable. Jack Albertson gives the other amazing performance as Grandpa Joe, a man who recovers from twenty years of bedridden atrophy in about five minutes.

Okay, so aside from all this overanalysis, Willy Wonka is a fun movie with some amazing songs that will stick in your head for years. Granted they're not all memorable, but they are amazingly written. But the real reason to go back and watch this is to watch Gene Wilder's dry, sarcastic, excitable and heart-warming performance.

In Memorium: Gene Wilder 1933-2016

2016 continues to wage its vicious war against beloved stars with the sad news today that Gene Wilder has passed at age 83. He had been suffering from Alzheimers.

Many might only know him as the fun but enigmatic Willy Wonka, or perhaps from his work with Mel Brooks in The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, but the late great comic, actor, writer and director's career spanned over five decades. 

Wilder first appeared as Eugene Grizzard in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, and the very next year picked up a leading role in the classic comedy The Producers, along with his first Academy Award nomination. In 1971 he took Roald Dahl's most famous character to the silver screen with his memorable, unrepeatable performance in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which has spawned a cult following and worthy place in meme culture in the decades since. In 1974 he worked again with Brooks on both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, two extremely different roles that he made his own, and that you couldn't possibly imagine anybody else as. 

Rest in Peace Mr Wilder, there's no earthly way of knowing, which direction you are going - but wherever that is, we salute you.