Chocolate War [VHS]

The Chocolate War (film)

Plot:

At the all-boys Catholic school Trinity High acting headmaster, Brother Leon (John Glover), sees a chance to grab power. He brings in the backing of a secret society of students to help him influence the school population to double their chocolate box sales from the previous year. This society, the Vigils, is deftly manipulated by the intelligent and amoral Archie Costello (Wallace Langham) who routinely sets assignments for students. These range from pranks to outright demonstrations of the group's power over the student body. Archie agrees to a deal with Brother Leon, in order to secure his unofficial backing for the Vigils, but also assigns one student, a freshman called Jerry Renault (Ilan Mitchell-Smith), not to sell any boxes for 10 days. This is to demonstrate to Leon their influence. However, Renault, a troubled boy who has recently lost his mother to cancer, has other ideas. When the 10 days are up he will take on might of Leon and the Vigils...

Review:

Robert Cormier's book and its sequel remain among my favourite books. I read them when I was 13 and 14 years of age and recommend it to any adolescent or adult for that matter. It focuses on key issues and is unforgiving in the way it addresses humanity. In fact, I would go as far as saying that it at least equals William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" by comparison. After waiting 21 years to see the film I was just inviting disappointment wasn't I?

The truth is the film isn't bad. It's better than most movie adaptations, but not among the best. Much of it is fairly faithful to the original novel in terms of content and its message. The book was highly controversial and the DVD sleeve even boasts that it was "The most banned book in America", but the film went virtually unnoticed. It is little surprising there isn't a region 2 DVD copy available; I am amazed it made it off VHS! The whole film feels like it is locked in the `80s. And not the kitschy nostalgic `80s either, but a colder and less accessible side many would sooner forget. In hindsight the era seems to fit perfectly with the story's central theme of power. Unfortunately the music doesn't seem to gel very well with the film. It is almost like Keith Gordon - who made his directorial debut - selected his favourite tracks and had them stuck on the soundtrack with little regard for their dramatic relevance. Even the final track, the always impressive "Running up that Hill (Deal with God" by Kate Bush, just doesn't work as we are drawn into the end credits. Actually I have latterly learnt that there was very little left for the film's music budget and all of the artists allowed their pieces to be used for minimum pay. David Bowie wouldn't come down on his price, however, and Kate Bush's piece was used instead. The original novel was published in 1974 and its sequel, set a year later, was published in 1985, and both seemed fairly timeless. Of course, it would virtually impossible to make a movie set in a school without making the era obvious. However, I feel it could have been played down and songs just weren't a good idea.

Gordon shows a great deal of maturity for a first work and his direction is good even if his decisions with the script disappoint. John Glover is a convincing Brother Leon and Ilan Mitchell-Smith bring Jerry Renault to life. Brent Frazer captures Emile Janza pretty close to the way he is depicted in both novels and Corey Gunnestad's Goober is passable. The 27 year old Doug Hutchison wasn't the best choice to play Obi. The novel presents an altogether more human and sympathetic "normal" kid than the snivelling two dimensional two-faced toady that is on display here. I guess this really isn't all Huchison's fault given the direction and scripting for the character, but he camps it up to a level that makes him the closest thing to caricature. This is both out sink with the original material and, worse still, with the rest of the movie.

This brings us to the real star of the story, Archie Costello. Jerry Renault may be the story's most heroic and sympathetic character and Brother Leon the representative of ambitious evil, but Archie Costello is the story's most memorable and important character. He symbolizes intelligent, cold and unemotional evil, and Cormier wisely never allowed his weaknesses to show or anything that resembled a human side to surface. I like shades of grey and humanization in my characters - good people who do bad things and bad people you cannot help but find to be appealing - but this amoral symbol of darkness made "The Chocolate War" and "Beyond the Chocolate War" powerful teenage fiction. Sadly Wallace Langham is not the Archie Costello of Cormier's vision. The performance lacks any sense of cold menace and this is not helped by the way his character is scripted.

Gordon decided to bring an element of "Beyond the Chocolate War" with the mutiny in the Vigils. Although a bit premature given the limited time of a movie it could have been pulled off. Unfortunately it ends up weakening Archie's presence. Gordon even decides to go a step further and have him intimidated by Carter halfway through the movie. This leads up to a thoroughly disappointing end. It is unfair to say that Gordon completely bottled out, as it's hardly what you would call a fairytale ending and has shades of "Beyond the Chocolate War", but it is a heavy compromise. Cormier's bitter message, represented in Jerry Renault's final stand, is mainly lost.

However, as I said, it is far from being all bad. The age old story of human power struggles is present and intact, as is the inspirational idea of a single voice willing to stand up against the masses.