Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

USA
directed by: Mel Stuart
written by: David Seltzer, Roald Dahl + Roald Dahl (book)
starring: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Roy Kinnear
seen on 1st July, comment updated on 21st March, 2019

-"What is this, Wonka? Some kind of funhouse?" -"Why? Are you having fun?"

The film certainly looks like the seventies and the musical numbers sure classify the film as the boring traditional American averageness, but it's probably the contrast between "the normal" and "the weird" that makes viewing of this film so extraordinary. The snarky opening search for golden tickets mocks humanity so effortlesly, it's beautiful to behold. I really loved the psychiatrist bit, and the talks with the computer, of course. Roald Dahl was said to complain that the film focuses too much on Wonka and too little on Charlie, and I, on the other hand, would say the film focuses too much on Charlie and too little on Wonka, because Gene Wilder is a god and who cares about the rest of it.

And this seems like a good moment for a swift turn into a comparison of two films, because I saw Burton's version of the Chocolate Factory first and I happen to like it, even though people mostly seem to hate it, at least according to what I read online. But it's a good starting point to notice different approaches on the part of film-makers decisions and what it means for the story. I've seen Burton's film get hate for being too silly and simplistic, but I would say it's undeniable that it showcases the advancement of screenwriting. Burton and his screenwriter August do make up a lot of stuff and chance significant details, but they do it to make a more compact and fully developed story that has a beginning, a middle part and a satisfying conclusion, and the maniacal sarcastic fantasy frames it all. Their film is inspired and supported by the book, but it's also quite different and can stand on its own. It also more inclines toward the child audience in the sense that almost no question is left unanswered and everything is explained.

Stuart and Seltzer would obviously like to make a similar radical leap, but they are too afraid to publicly distance themselves from the source material and they become stuck somewhere in between. Along with Wilder they create a brilliant modern character of Wonka and it just seems such a shame that he's trapped in this old-timey film with boring uninspired songs like the one sung by Charlie's mother in the beginning or that he has to interact with outdated performances like Jack Albertson's complete lack of self-awareness (and dare I say lack of humour at all). Wilder's performance is layered and nuanced, his face is both expressive and made of stone, he's radiating an incongruous aura of dignity, doing somersaults on the red carpet and having boat-based mental breakdowns without any context... Oh yes.

Any lover of the bizarre should be satisfied, but I would still campaign for some sort of a hybrid where we would get a Wilder-Wonka quiping Shakespeare and motivational quotes with some slam poetry sprinkled in without any explanation, but with the old-timey musical replaced by the more eclectic irony of Danny Elfman's music from the Burton version.

-"But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted." -"What happened?" -"He lived happily ever after."