THE CHOCOLATE WAR
US, 1988, 95 minutes, Colour.
John Glover, Jenny Wright, Bud Cort, Adam Baldwin.
Directed by Keith Gordon.
The Chocolate War is a film about schools and schoolboys. It is based on a novel by Robert Cormier and written for the screen by its director, actor Keith Gordon (Christine).
The film invites some comparisons with such school movies as If..., Catholic Boys (Heaven Help Us), Dead Poets Society. It is also reminiscent of some of the films about military academies like The Lords of Discipline.
The film focuses on a religious order of brothers with John Glover somewhat maniacal as the acting principal absorbed in controlling the boys as well as making a great success of raising funds by selling boxes of chocolates. This becomes the be-all and end-all of his life in the school. There is a group of special students called the Vigils, who have secret meetings, give boys special assignments and aim for control of the school. Brother Leon (Glover) works in coalition with the Vigils. One boy refuses to sell the chocolates and becomes a focus for the conflict within the school.
The film is interesting in its portrayal of education, power control within a school, the exercise of power by schoolboys as well as by religious authorities.
1.Interesting and entertaining films about schools? Education? Power?
2.The background of the city, the school? Audiences becoming familiar with the school and at home in it? Authentic atmosphere for the melodrama being played out? Musical score?
3.The title and its focus on the selling of the chocolates, raising funds, repercussions for each of the characters, the conflict growing into a war? The waging of the war, the winning of the war?
4.The picture of the school (and comparisons with other films about schools): football practice, the peer pressure, the Vigils and their marking off the students, calling meetings, giving assignments? Classes and their eccentricities? The brothers and their authority within the school? The fundraising? The assemblies, the fights amongst the boys themselves? The final confrontation? Audiences identifying with the school experience?
5.Brother Leon and his personality, slightly maniacal, more than slightly obsessive? His position in the school, his treatment of the boys in class, discipline, flicking them in the face, etc? Blackmailing them for their marks? His obsession about the chocolates, checking the finances, checking the lists, the deals with the Vigils and with Archie? His spending the money? The meetings, control, menace? The seeming failure, growing desperate? The deal with Archie? The deal with the other Vigils? The success of the sale, his finally getting control again?
6.The other brothers - merely glimpsed, the eccentric brother and his class about the environment, the boys reacting on the orders of the Vigils, his having been tipped off by Archie for the absurd class?
7.Jerome Renault as the centre of the film? At football, wanting to be in the team, picked on by the Vigils, his assignment about the chocolates and sales? His relationship with the other boys, friendship with Goober? Clashes with the Vigils? The memories of his mothers illness and death and the flashbacks? The encounters with his ineffectual father? The girlfriend and communicating with her? Isolated in the school? Behaviour in class, with Brother Leon? His decision not to sell the chocolates, his making his stand, holding firm, the pressures from the boys, from Brother Leon? The pressure about the homosexuality, the boy being blackmailed by the photo, his taunts, attack, getting the young boys to bash him? Renault and his being at home quietly, the anonymous phone calls, sad? Goober and his support? The build-up to the confrontation, not selling the chocolates? Archie and his manipulation of the boxing match, the irony of Archie being substituted as his opponent, the taunts, his knocking him out - and realising that he had been set up? The final words with Goober and his realisation that he had been defeated? The portrait of an adolescent, wanting an education, new, the peers, peer pressure, authoritarianism, power, self-assertion, being defeated?
8.The boys in the class, their work, reporting to Brother Leon, his blackmailing them about marks, the selling of the chocolates? The rah-rah attitude towards the sales? The Vigils and their manipulation of public opinion - the in thing to sell the chocolates? Goober, being victimised, his decisions, betrayals, friendship with Renault?
9.Archie and his assistant, watching the boys, making lists, the Vigil meetings? Archie and his control? The secretary and his glee, laughing at the jokes? Carter and his strong presence, influence in the group? The pettiness and ugliness of their assignments to the boys? Archie, his manipulation, control? Cleverness? Contacts with Brother Leon? The final meetings, his control, the selling of the chocolates? The move against him, forcing him into the boxing ring, his defeat? The assistant becoming the secretary and dominating, his malicious glee, control of Archie?
10.The sketch of Renault's parents, the memories of his mother, her death? His father? The girlfriend?
11.A portrait of malice, power, manipulation? The school as a microcosm?
