Willy Wonka

I got the latest issue of Annals Australasia (August 2005) yesterday and found a review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by James Murray on p.41. I had recently seen the movie so I was interested to see Mr. Murray had to say:

Not so much a remake, more a re-melt of Roald Dahl's classic tale. Johnny Depp takes on the Willy Wonka role. If Depp - too many teeth and smiles - does not have the inward weirdness of Gene Wilder in the original, he does have a back story to explain his chocaholicism.

This is one of the fresh elements introduced by director Tim Burton and writer John August. Special effects are deployed as generously as fruit and nuts in a Cadbury's bar. Deep Roy creates some kind of history with his multiple roles as Oompa Loompa (courtesy Digital Domain).

Freddie Highmore, allies ingenuousness to shrewdness as Charlie Bucket, winner of the last of five gold tickets to the Wonka factory. He is shaded by Annasophia Robb as Violet Beauregarde. The veteran, but exuberant, David Kelly is Grandpa Joe who accompanies Charlie on his factory outing. Noah Taylor makes an appearance as Mr Bucket with Helena Bonham Carter as his wife. Not a single bad performance. And never a dull moment

Nothing controversial there. Mr. Murray had also written a review (ibid.) about Kung Fu Hustle, which ends with:

... [Director Stephen Chow] sends up the hyper-violence of the kung fu genre and, despite his movie's ostensible setting in pre-revolutionary China, he gets in digs at the pretensions of China's current regime.

Emphasis Mine

James Murray can see political implications for criticisms of Communism but not of Capitalism nor Racism. In contrast, Jonathan McIntosh wrote about Willy Wonka and the Racism Factory

Moreover, the Oompa-Loompas all look exactly alike, as they are played by one actor using composite visual effects. This is a new invention by the current film's creators. The visual effect is ironic as it displays the problems at the very core of global labor issues: white populations perceive individuals of non-white populations as identical and all looking alike, lacking individual dignity. In this view, factory and sweatshop workers are ascribed no individual worth outside of the product they produce for consumers at low pay and in poor working conditions, unable to organize, form unions and improve conditions.

Many will no doubt respond to this critique disparagingly. They will say that the movie is just that, a movie. They will state that it has no social connection or cultural implications to the present western mindset. However, it is important to consider that Roald Dahl himself eventually made revisions of his story to meet the racial concerns that accompanied the changing social ethics in 1973. The fact that, in 2005, Tim Burton chose to revert back to the original description of the Oompa-Loompas as primitive "pygmies" is troubling at best. Burton has said in interviews that one of the things that attracts him to Dalh's work is the "politically incorrect" subject matter. Audiences all over the country seem to feel the same attraction.

Emphasis Mine

One reviewer sees nothing innocuous while the other sees blatant racism. This is akin to what Tim Wise wrote about White Whine: Reflections on the Brain-Rotting Properties of Privilege when whites cannot see the privileges that racism gives them.

Now for my review. The movie is propaganda for monopoly paternal Capitalism similar to that I wrote about in Robots except that the petite bourgeious are not a major player. The Capitalist is the hero - everyone else is a bit player. The Capitalist is the benevolent leader.

Willy Wonka's story begins with a youth devoted to discovering the perfect chocolate confectionery. He is seen to be following a scientific process of analysing confectioneries to discover their secrets. (Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration, Thomas Alva Edison) He starts as a small businessman who suceeds magnificiently by providing a superior product to his customers. He then builds the world's largest factory. He has obtained a monopoly position through his superior product. This is one of the contradictions in Capitalism: competition produces monopolies. The standard solution to this problem is government intervention: either through regulation or destruction of the monopoly. In this movie, the government does not exist!

In the movie, it was the treacherous workers who pass on the secret recipes to others who become Wonka's competitors and thereby destroy Wonka's monopoly. (In the real world, I understand that the Coke-Cola Company has managed to hold onto its secrets for more than a century!) In revenge, he sacks all of his workers and shuts the factory. The workers are dispensible in true Capitalist fashion. However, it was the workers who restored competition to the confectionery industry with multiple small businesses emerging to service niche markets.

Willy Wonka is a bad capitalist for his primary concern is not the accumulation of capital but the quest for better confectionery. Indeed, the other capitalist in the movie (Mr. Salt - owner of the nut shelling factory) can disrupt the production of his factory for three days without any thought for lost profits. It is as if the mega-rich do not have to worry about business cycles. The attitude of Willy Wonka and Mr. Salt is that business is a dalliance. They do not have to worry about competitors making more money than them. Their capital is secure.

The toothpaste factory owners, on the other hand, are involved in the investment cycle. The increase profits allow for investment in machinery which allows for greater profits by reducing costs (read Mr. Bucket).

There is another difference between the three factories shown in the movie: the happy workers are shown in Mr. Wonka's factory while the mind-numbing drudgery is shown in the nut-shelling and toothpaste factories. Could this be a sublimial message that happy workers make more profits?

The workers cease to exist once pass outside the factory gates. The visibility of the poor is limited to one family (the Buckets). There is no social security. They have enough land to grow cabbages for making soup. Charlie shines shoes. The solution to their poverty is for them to get a better job. Mr. Bucket shows up at the toothpaste factory from where he was fired and gets a job as a robot technician. For a person without having showed any mechanical aptitude nor having undertaken any training to do this seems to be incredible. A more realistic scenario would have been for him to become a computer programmer. (This is me being snarky). They are suddenly seen to be having roast turkey for dinner. The message is that the poor are poor because they are lazy.

However, the workers are unable to look after themselves. They need the capitalist to guide them and provide them with the means of sustenance. This is the crisis that confronts Willy Wonka when he discovers a grey hair reminding him of his mortality. Who will look after his workers when he is gone? He needs a successor to carry on the running of the factory. Willy Wonka is who he is because he struggled to master the art of confectionery making whereas Charlie struggled to survive. This transfer of experience always seems to be difficult. Witness James Packer in PBL. Lachlan Murdoch probably made a better decision to strike out on his own.

All in all, the message of the movie is that the Capitalist is benevolent. Except for the preemptory treatment of the workers and the insulting lack of hospitality of Willy Wonka towards his guests when he publicly humilates them. The mega-rich are obviously beyond caring about others. Could the real message be that the mega-rich are all bastards?