‘The Chocolate War’ not sweet
By Julie Brown-Micko

Sadists are everywhere. They’re in the kitchen, on the farm and in the bustling centers of commerce. They can be found in remote monasteries or in the highest offices of the land. And without a doubt they can be found at school. Caught between the twin evils of a power-hungry teacher and cruel classmates, one boy makes his stand in The Chocolate War, based on Robert Cormier’s iconic young adult book.

Jerry Renault (Ilan Mitchell-Smith), a freshman at an elite Catholic prep school, struggles for normalcy in the wake of his mother’s untimely death. But nothing is quite normal in adolescence. Ambitious Brother Leon (John Glover) has his eye on the headmaster’s seat and believes the annual school fundraiser could put it within his grasp. With a particularly unctuous brand of psychological manipulation, he pressures the boys to sell chocolates for the school’s, and his own, greater glory. When Jerry opts out of the sale, Brother Leon calls on “the Vigils,” a nasty gang of boys led by the clever Archie (Wally Langham) to put the squeeze on Jerry. Despite the brutalization at the hands of his peers and the persecution from Brother Leon, Jerry holds fast to his refusal. This possibly foolhardy, but also admirable, decision to resist gains a momentum and menace that forces Jerry into a final confrontation with his tormentors that spares no one.

Director Gordon’s screenplay keeps much of the visceral power of Cormier’s novel, but some clumsy directorial moves hobble the story. The cinematography is often overwrought. A shaky camera spinning around Archie and his victim to emphasize the bully’s predatory glee is pure cliché. Some of Jerry’s dream sequences come off as stilted, overly literal music videos. The ’80s soundtrack was timely in 1988 (Yaz, Joan Armatrading, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush), but has not uniformly aged well.

The mop-topped Mitchell-Smith plays Jerry with strength, confusion and a sweet vulnerability. He is well cast as a hero we can root for. John Glover teeters on the edge of parody with Brother Leon’s overweening malice (and rarely have I seen a brother with such an abundance of hair and a stylish cut to boot) but is balanced by Wally Langham’s tightly controlled Archie.

Gordon has “Hollywoodized” the ending to mitigate some of the misery of the book, but it retains quite a bit of power. Jerry’s attempt to fight a power structure of cruelty and conformity exacts a heavy price. In the end, no one can stand alone. And we are left pondering Archie’s wry comment that the system works because “we’re all bastards.” The Chocolate War isn’t sweet, but it’s worth a taste.