This week I will be participating in the CineTV contest and creating a post on a movie that represents winning. I will be picking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
I'm sure everyone is familiar with this classic film. This film to me really resonates with this weeks theme about winning.
In the first half we see Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) is from a very poor home, with all his grandparents sharing the same bed, he has no mother and sleeps rough in the room upstairs with a caved in floor. The family has no money and follows Charlie buying chocolate bars in the hopes of finding the infamous golden ticket, the last golden ticket, using money he finds in a drain. He ends up being the last lucky child to win and takes the trip to the Chocolate Factory for him and his Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson).
When they first get to the Factory all the children and their parents are introduced to each other, all coming from various backgrounds. Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole) comes from a very wealthy background where her father makes all the factory workers unwrap different Wonka chocolate bars for the golden ticket to allow his daughter to go this once in a lifetime opportunity. Mike Teavee (Paris Themmen) is the fourth child to get the golden ticket and is an avid lover of television. Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson) is a lover of bubble-gum and is always chewing, even leaving it behind her ear for later after finishing it. Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner) is portrayed as a chocoholic who appears with his mother.
As the film progresses, each child gradually diminishes. Veruca Salt lets curiosity get the better of her and he ends up down a chute, never to be seen by viewers again. Mike Teavee lets his obsession with TV get the better of him and he ends up shrinking and taken away by the Oompa Loompas. Augustas Gloop, probably the most infamous scene of the whole film, gets taken away by a tube in the chocolate river after he leans over to try and eat some and falls in. Violet Beauregarde blows up the size of a massive ball and purple in the face, resembling a blueberry. The downfalls of each child would teach an audience that letting curiosity get the better of you often is the wrong answer and teaches a valuable lesson to play by the rules.
Charlie Bucket DOES play by the rules and ends up going through the rest of the chocolate factory and ends up leaving with Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) and his Grandpa Joe in a glass elevator. This also teaches a valuable lesson that good things happen to those who wait and no matter how rich or poor you are- anything can happen.
As a kid this was one of my favourite films and I think it has a lot of meaning to winning!
thank-you for reading my entry to the contest :)
