I don’t remember when the I first saw Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
I know I was little. I have a feeling I was at a sleepover. But what I do remember is being in complete awe of the spectacle, and viewing the movie repeatedly and obsessively.
Since June 30 marks 45 years to the day that the film (based on the similarly named Roald Dahl book) arrived in theaters, I decided to rewatch it. And what I found was that the classic I remember being full of childlike fantasy is actually kind of a story about a raging psychopath who solicits children worldwide to murder. And I'm not sure how I feel about it anymore.
The 1971 movie follows Charlie, a boy who wins a tour of the famous Willy Wonka chocolate factory when he finds a golden ticket in a candy bar. Throughout the tour, the four other children who also won tickets are siphoned off one by one: falling in a chocolate river, being blown up like a blueberry, falling down a garbage chute into the furnace, getting shrunk by a Wonkavision TV laser.
On its surface, it’s a goofy lark about children's fascination with candy. At least that’s how I interpreted it when I was 8. But what I found as a 23-year-old is that it's a chocolate bar of a children’s movie with the nougat filling of a horror flick. Which is actually kind of brilliant.
As a kid, Willy Wonka struck me as a mysterious, witty guy with a funny oversize hat. But in this rewatch, Wonka came across as cold rather than mysterious, a jerk instead of amusing, totally lacking in empathy as the children get picked off. Johnny Depp was plenty creepy in the 2005 Tim Burton adaptation, but Wilder's "No touching, no tasting, no telling" mantra is borderline menacing. Some of that might be because I’m in my 20s and don’t have an 8 p.m. bedtime anymore, but there’s definitely a general uneasiness throughout the entire movie that I don’t think children picked up on.
Gene Wilder is great. The wordplay is clever. There are all kinds of lessons for kids, like "Be honest" and "Don't be a brat." If you want to take it to another level, there’s an argument to be made that the movie portrays the seven deadly sins, with Violet Beauregarde as pride, Grandpa Joe as envy, Augustus Gloop as gluttony, Charlie as lust, Mike Teevee as sloth, Veruca Salt as greed and Wonka as wrath.
But despite the initial shock of realizing the movie I revered for years was nothing like I remembered, for a few moments I did relive a little bit of that innocent wonder. I still laughed at Wonka’s jokes and hummed along to Pure Imagination.
Maybe that’s why the movie has held up for so long. It changes as you change. The smarter you get, the smarter the movie gets. And the more you realize the world is rather cruel, the darker the movie becomes.
It's brilliant. And weird. And creepy. Which sounds just like Wonka, doesn't it?
Anniversary screenings will be held in select theaters nationwide June 26 and 29. Get tickets here.
