Author Topic: [Movie] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory  (Read 3634 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline ohgar

  • Wha?
  • Posts: 139
  • Gender: Male
  • Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.
[Movie] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
« on: August 13, 2012, 09:12:05 PM »
"The definite social relation between men themselves... assumes here, for them, the fantastic form of a relation between things." -Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the most pervasive and effective propaganda film in the American capitalist culture, the fantasy of a poor proletarian child transforming his family's social situation via blind consumerism.

Within minutes of the film's opening, it launches into a musical number about the power of chocolate to alleviate all working-class woes ("The Candy Man"). We learn that Charlie comes from a poor, struggling family, managing to deal with his poverty only by buying commodities from the secretive Willie Wonka Corporation. Despite the terrible condition of his house and the untreated sickness of his aging grandparents, all Charlie wants out of life is to win a Golden Ticket and receive a lifetime supply of chocolate.

When Charlie wins his prize, he receives a tour of the factory. The film practically beats the benevolence of the bourgeoisie over the viewer's head when, upon learning of the opportunity to tour the Willie Wonka Headquarters, Charlie's grandfather spontaneously begins walking again after years of invalidity. When they arrive at the factory, we learn that the commodities Charlie has been buying from this corporation are produced by the sweat and tears of unpaid foreign laborers who work overtime instructing the "morality" of their masters to impressionable children. This fact is treated as perfectly acceptable and the workers are not given so much as individual names.

In the climax of the film, Charlie is nearly sent home without the chocolate he desires when CEO Willie Wonka learns that he took a small amount of "Wonka's" commodities for himself. Charlie redeems himself, however, by refusing to help Wonka's struggling competitor obtain his trade secrets. Wonka makes Charlie his heir, furthering the myth of "upward mobility" in the popular culture.

In short, this film is commodity fetish pornography designed to keep the working man down, and therefore dangerous to the Revolution.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2012, 07:38:01 AM by Nick »
Iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli vendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses.

Offline Cedar redaC

  • DTF.org Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2292
  • Gender: Male
  • Streams of Light Unite With Water
Re: [Film] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2012, 07:13:03 PM »
Well when you put it that way...  :'(
Perhaps you should ask bosk to reverse the "e" and "a" in the second half of your user name.
Cedar redaC swoops in for the kill!

Offline AMindBesideItself

  • Posts: 53
Re: [Film] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2012, 10:26:31 PM »
The movie is clearly mocking capitalism rather than trying to enforce it. You gloss over an important part of the movie, which is that Charlie is more "pure" than the gluttonous, greedy kids from the upper class families.

But kids don't pick up on that kind of stuff. To say it's a propaganda film is silly.

Offline Dark Castle

  • DTF.org Member
  • *
  • Posts: 6532
  • Gender: Female
  • SmegmaPrincessX
Re: [Film] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2012, 10:37:30 PM »
The movie is clearly mocking capitalism rather than trying to enforce it. You gloss over an important part of the movie, which is that Charlie is more "pure" than the gluttonous, greedy kids from the upper class families.

But kids don't pick up on that kind of stuff. To say it's a propaganda film is silly.
This, and keep the working man down?  Really?

Offline Super Dude

  • Hero of Prog
  • DTF.com Member
  • **
  • Posts: 16265
  • Gender: Male
Re: [Film] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2012, 09:42:10 PM »
And therefore dangerous to the Revolution. It's all right there in the film.
Quote from: bosk1
As frequently happens, Super Dude nailed it.
:superdude:

Offline theseoafs

  • When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bayyyyy
  • Posts: 5573
  • Gender: Male
  • Hello! My name is Elder Price
Re: [Film] Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2012, 10:33:42 PM »
If you ask me (and I realize you didn't), I wouldn't worry about what this movie's done to The Revolution.  A violent revolution in modern-day America seems, to me, to be slightly less likely than the invention of actual Fizzy Lifting Drinks.  :isaidgoodday: