Review of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) by Harry W — 26 Aug 2014

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a film I loved as a kid for its morals, its colour and its touch of darkness, so looking back in it now is reliving my childhood.

Infinitely superior to the 2005 adaptation of the story, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is an absolute classic. It has some bumps in its path, but it's still a great film.

One thing which I only picked up on after watching the film again and again was that eventually you can spot that the filmmakers have filmed most of the scenes all in the one studio room. It didn't bother me and I understood the film had a limited budget, but I still noticed it.

And the famous scene where the characters take a boat through a tunnel and experience a nightmare depicting Willy Wonka's own insanity, emptiness and paranoia within his crazy mind has some nuts moments. Considering that it is a kids film, the whole sequence is very dark especially considering it features a shot of a chicken being decapitated. That one image in particular is a little much for the scene and is likely to be a shock. The rest of it seemed fine, but that specific imagery isn't the best thing to remember Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for.

But really, I love the film much more than Roald Dahl ever could. One of his key complaints was that the film focused more on Willy Wonka than it did on Charlie Bucket. In actuality, the majority of the first half of the film focuses on Charlie Bucket and how winning a ticket to a chocolate factory is more meaningful to him than to any of the other victors because in his life he and his family have more appreciation for the little things than all the other stuck up children fortunate enough to win the prize. You can see that Charlie Bucket is a friendly and well-meaning young boy, and the atmosphere of the film is really emotional and makes it easy for viewers to sympathise for him, and as he is granted a life changing experience audiences are likely to be overwhelmed with the infectious glee which lasts the rest of the film. The second half of the feature puts more focus on Willy Wonka, and that makes sense because he runs the factory and is the man behind so much magic, and the film tells us so much about him without ever revealing the mysteries of his past. So Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is well balanced in depicting its characters, and I think that honestly Roald Dahl was a bit of a spoiled sport for not acknowledging that.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory tells its story with ease, and under direction from Mel Stuart it is visually very pleasing thanks to its broad colour palette captured by the great costumes and excellent art direction that the story is taken in. The visual experience of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is unforgettable and simply marvellous because the fantasy universe that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory takes place in is full of childish wonder and glee. Everything is designed with exceptional detail and colour thanks to a marvellous production design crew, and they feed the film wonderful elements such as lollypop flowers, teacups of lettuce and the famous chocolate river. The experience is magnificently colourful, magical and scrumdiddlyumptious just as one might hope. The low budget for the film set no limitations for the crew in charge of art direction on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because it is an unforgettable splendour of magical colour and mystery with every scene more mysterious than the next. Further colour is added to the film from the magnificent costumes, and everything is captured with cinematography which keeps the large scale of things constantly in perspective. It captures all of the colour in the film and is then edited with a terrific film style which means the atmosphere of the film drifts off into further mystery, particularly during the musical sequence which are just beautiful. The songs in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory are iconic and unforgettable with such memorable songs such as "Pure Imagination" and "Oompa Loompa", and when they cross paths with the magnificent colour of the film, it comes out as an unforgettably spirited venture. There is a lot of heart in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but it stands nothing against the amazing sense of wonder that the film provides which it maintains even through the more than 20 times I have viewed the film in my life. Perhaps it is not precisely as amazing now, but back upon my first viewing I remember getting sucked into the childish wonder and mystery of the atmosphere thanks to the visuals and the music, so Mel Stuart really does a bang up job as the writer and director, and so the spirit of the film is undeniable and sets everything up to succeed on the surface level while also having some complex looks into its characters.

The performances of the cast, particularly Gene Winder are very powerful.

Gene Wilder's lead performance in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is undoubtably one of his career's best, possibly his best solo lead performance of his whole career. Willy Wonka is potentially the role that he was born to play, because as well as capturing the flawless charismatic charm of Willy Wonka and his magic through an excellent singing voice, he captures the twisted, angry and dark aspects of the character which are mostly shrouded in the mystery of his past. Gene Wilder accepted the role on the basis that he could enter the screen with a tricky intro performance moment, and from then on there is no way to really tell if he is lying or telling the truth. The nature of his character is incredibly complicated and Gene Wilder gets it just right. He is both friendly and yet creepy at the same time, making the character a seriously mysterious figure. And the nature of the mystery is perfect for the character. He has a lot of vaudevillian charm the whole time like Charlie Chaplin in his prime, and he just controls the screen perfectly with an eccentric and tenaciously unforgettable performance. Gene Wilder is incredible and more than perfect for the lead role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and he makes the character iconic.

Peter Ostrum does a great job in the role of Charlie Bucket. The one time actor makes an impact for his performance in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because he makes Charlie Bucket an honest and sympathetic figure with both his juvenile charm and his natural talent. He manages to sing his heart out and conjure his emotions so well that he naturally just embodies the role with ease and makes the story all the more compelling without difficulty. He has the audience really sympathising for him because he is such a naturally likeable actor and he doesn't reduce the role to a cliche childish figure, but rather he conveys the stressing drama of being a poor boy blessed with such a magnificent opportunity which gives him a boost of spirit. Peter Ostrum's charisma, and his chemistry with the entire cast but most specifically Gene Wilder and Jack Albertson is a magnificent thing, and it gives the film the sense of heartfelt spirit that it really needed.

Jack Albertson turns in a magnificent performance is well. The Academy Award winning actor returns to his skill for musical cinema in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and shows it off once again. In the role of Grandpa Joe Bucket, Jack Albertson makes himself a really likeable presence and shares a wonderful familial chemistry with Peter Ostrum which adds a strong grandfather-grandson relationship to the emotional drama of the story, enhancing its compelling elements. Jack Albertson captures all the energetic passion for the musical numbers in the film, particularly notable in the scene where he sings "I've got a golden ticket" and skips around with undeniable energy, so he delivers everything necessary to the part and more with line delivery which has perfect dramatic articulation to match his energetic physical movements.

When it comes to the actors playing the other children in the film, all the actors make a good effort, but the screen is stolen by Julie Dawn Cole in the role of Veruca Salt who captures the egotistical and demanding status of an upper class snob with ease and Denise Nickerson who easily delivers the cocky demeanour of Violet Beauregarde.

Gunter Meisner also makes a good presence as Arthur Slugworth simply because of the dark sense of mystery that he casts over the story in his small role.

So while certain elements of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory are a little too scary for its target demographic, the quality of its energy is undeniable thanks to amazing visual colour and wonderful songs, as well as a magnificent leading performance from Gene Wilder.