The Chocolate War (1988)

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Based on a novel by the late Robert Cormier, the film paints a fairly dark picture of humanity in general and emphasises the dangers of mob rule through the vehicle of a chocolate sale in a Catholic High School of all things. A pessimistic tone pervades the film and, in the end, no one really wins. Good doesn't triumph over evil. While I haven't read the original novel from 1974, I certainly want to. Apparently, the original ending is even more pessimistic. The star of the film is, technically, Ilan Mitchell-Smith - best known as Wyatt in "Weird Science" a.k.a. the one who wasn't Anthony Michael Hall - as Jerry Renault. I say "technically" because while the thrust of the story pivots around Jerry, other characters have considerably more screen time, particularly in the first half an hour of the movie. To be perfectly honest, Mitchell-Smith isn't a great actor but he's certainly adequate. It's also supported by a great secondary cast including John Glover, Wallace Langham, Adam Baldwin and Doug Hutchinson (who was apparently 27 at the time in spite of the fact that he was playing an 18-year-old boy). Glover and Langham, probably best known for their roles in "Smallville" and "CSI" respectively, deserve particular praise.I've been wanting to see this film for over two years and it was well worth the wait. One of the most powerful films that I've seen in a long time which raises some thought provoking issues. It cost $500,000 but made only about $300,000 at the box office. It's so little known that I don't think that it's even earned cult status! I imagine that its lack of success was based on its somewhat silly sounding title, frankly. However, it's far darker and much more interesting than the title would suggest. The cheesy soundtrack aside, I heartily recommend this film.

" The Chocolate War " is a story which takes place in a private Catholic School and concerns itself with the secret goings-on within the religious hierarchy. Among the staff is Brother Leon (John Glover) an inwardly cruel, self-centered, vindictive poor excuse of a teacher. Yearly he holds the students accountable for raising the student activities' funds. In exchange for this suppliant behavior on their part, he allows them to hold court in a clandestine group call 'The Vigils.' The cell is structured from highest to lowest and overseen by a presiding president (Adam Balwin) and his secretary Archie Costello, (Wallace Langham). Both owe their power to Brother Leon who allows their childish behavior to ride roughshod over their lower classmates by assigning them to petty pranks. Enter Jerry Renault (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) a new student with deeply ingrained personal problems. Pressured by brother Leon, the boys are ordered to sell boxes of chocolates. Realizing it's a repetitive, yearly ritual, the entire student body reluctantly agrees to sell the sweets, all except Renault. His reason for refusal is difficult to explain but what begins as a outright refusal, becomes a test of wills, escalating into an true test of power. The decision made by Renault blossoms into a further problem when everyone realizes his decision to not participate could bring the traditional structure to it's knees. The movie itself is very slow to develop and at times downright boring. However there is salvation towards the end and the cast renders a good solution to an otherwise dull drama. Were it not for the poor directing, gloomy environment and shallow script, this would have made an inspiring movie. ***

Growing up in high school, our year 10 teacher assigned us to read this book as part of our education.We also got to (occassionally) watch the movie adaptation of the novel.I really liked this film as the storyline was good.The Vigils are a secret gang in an all boys school who assign tasks to students as part of their way of saying " we will not conform to the standards others set, so we go our own way." Then Jerry Renault is selected for a task of not to sell chocolates for a set period of time.After the time elapses, Jerry still stops selling chocolates and becomes a sort of hero, as he is overcoming adversity and going beyond his boundaries.If Forrest Gump was around, maybe Jerry could have sold his portion to Forrest and Forrest could have given them away to people as he told stories to strangers on a park bench somewhere.Look out for an appearance of a young Brendan Fraser (before he was in Encino Man, or The Mummy).Its an educational film and should be viewed in all schools as part of the learning curriculum.

I went into this film expecting yet another inspirational story about an individual triumphing over the oppressive system. Instead, this film is a lot deeper than that... and a lot darker. It is at once a film about the horror of conformity and the deadening pointlessness of resistence. Our young protagonist, Renault, still agonizing over the death of his mother, is given a right-of-passage style task by his school's secret society, run by the calculating and elagantly power-hungry Archie : To refuse to sell chocolates to boost school income for 10 days (an activity Brother Leon, the equally power-hungry John Glover, is pushing on the students with unexpected zeal). But when his ten days are up, he still refuses to bend to the will of a system that wants only to use him as a tool. Both Archie and Brother Leon then use every method in their power to keep this rebel without a cause from toppeling them from power.Simple enough, but this, as I said, is not a simple film about fighting the powers that be. The protagonist actually has little to say about his own action: he's so opaque that it seems even HE doesnt know exactly what he's rebelling against, just that he can't give up. He doesnt really know what he's doing, and as his life is made more and more awful by Archie and Brother Leon, it becomes increasingly clear he doesn't enjoy it either. He simply feels compelled to, and stoically refuses to give in, despite the obvious pointlessness of his rebellion and the cruel consequences that ensue. But this makes for a very hard hero to identify with and root for. In fact, most of the film revolves around Archie and his attempt to break Renault's will. Archie is very talkative, and in fact the camera seems oddly attracted to his mercilessness, elegance and charisma, even as we assume we're supposed to revile him. Even creepy John Glover plays his villain very straight, giving only a vague, intangible sense of menace. By creating a hero we can't understand and villians we gravitate towards, the film subtly creates a situation where we can't really take sides, and can only observe the pathetic hopelessness of both situations. After all, this is all about selling CHOCOLATES. This throws the entire proceedings into an almost absurdist light. Light touches of humor (including a brief but spot-on perfect cameo by "Harold and Maude"'s Bud Cort) reinforce this classification and keep the proceedings from ever becoming bogged down in their gloominess.All in all, though, The Chocolate War is a very dark, slightly surreal tale of the emptiness of life, for winners or losers. It suggests that, fight the system or succeed with it, you're still just a tool of larger forces, unflinchingly puppeteering smaller lives for their own banal ends. It offers no solutions and no salvations, not for anyone. Just hubris and humiliation, and perhaps a grim chuckle or two along the way. Its this demenor that makes it a truly overlooked and rather unique cinema gem, well - worth some time and thought.