movie review - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I showed The Boy this bizarre but lovable movie about a mopey kid who wins a much-sought-after prize to tour a chocolate factory run by a famous recluse. That recluse, played to the hilt by the incomparable Gene Wilder, leads the boy and the other winners on a tour that can possibly be described as having been influenced by Apocalypse Now if that movie hadn't come out eight years later. It's not clear that all the children actually survive the various things that happen, which again I'll liken to that other movie: the message is "never get off the damn boat"; or perhaps "don't give in to your greed and gluttony".
Oh, and I feel I have to mention the psychedelic rowing scene, which does appear in the original by Roald Dahl. In the movie, the accompanying poem is delivered by Wilder with a mania and menace that I don't quite think I've seen in another film, while disturbing images appear for no reason. The text is this:
Round the world and home again
That's the sailor's way
Faster faster, faster faster
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a–blowing
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a–glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing
Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing.
Eh, I'll let the scene speak for itself. God bless the '70s.
Strongly recommended.