Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Chocolate War Blu-ray Movie Review

if...., only.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 30, 2022

Lindsay Anderson's if.... depicted a British boarding school environment that might be seen as the hellish flipside to more rosy characterizations seen in such films as Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Anderson was on record as stating a little remembered 1933 short by Jean Vigo entitled Zero for Conduct (available on Blu-ray as a supplement included as part of The Complete Jean Vigo) was a major inspiration for his effort, and some may feel like "the beat goes on" (so to speak) with The Chocolate War, which seems to owe at least a bit to if...., even if this 1988 opus takes place on this side of the pond. The Chocolate War focuses on a Catholic boarding school in the United States, one where a proto-fascistic power structure is firmly in place which includes not just the "usual suspects" of a patently gonzo headmaster Brother Leon (John Glover), but also with regard to a gang of students at the place, who in a very real sense are the American counterparts to the Whips aggregation that is so memorable in the Lindsay Anderson film. If Anderson suggests (and actually kind of overtly depicts) a "revolution" whereby the students are "mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore" (again, so to speak), The Chocolate War seems to argue that even fighting back makes you a part of the problem, or at least in league with the bullies.

if.... was a blatantly theatrical film, to the point that many people at the time spent untold hours trying to dissect Anderson's alternating use of color and black and white to try to divine "hidden" meanings to the film (it was evidently a budgetary issue, hilariously enough). There's something at least a little similar at play in The Chocolate War, albeit with no monochromatic interstitials, and in fact in some ways I'd argue The Chocolate War comes off as a filmed play at times, with blatantly stage like framings and approaches to things like character soliloquys. In a way, this may not be particularly helpful to a film that tends to present its characters in an almost cartoonish way at times.

The film begins with a somewhat cryptic sequence which introduces two kids, an officious sort named Archie Costello (Wallace Langham, credited as Wally Ward), and his obvious underling, a sniveling creep named Obie Jameson (Doug Hutchinson). Archie is compiling some sort of list involving new students to the facility, which Obie is dutifully writing down in a notebook. Among the kids cited is Jerry Renault (Ilan Mitchell- Smith), whom Archie and Obie have just seen getting his butt kicked in a football tryout. As it turns out, Archie is the head honcho of this film's Whip-like aggregation, a gang known as the Vigils, and one of the way he maintains order is by doling out "assignments" to various kids which they have to complete if they want to survive at the school.

Supposedly presiding over this fraught environment, including the activities of the Vigils, is the school's apparently interim headmaster, Father Leon, who is something of a piece of work himself. Confrontational and frankly outright abusive in a way that simply wouldn't be cottoned in today's world of political correctness, Leon has dug a bit of a financial hole for himself in the film's central and rather odd conceit by purchasing too much chocolate to be sold as a fundraiser, and as such, he is desperate to "move product", not just to erase any deficit, but to impress those who might be able to further his career. When Archie "assigns" Jerry not to sell chocolate for a period of time, things begin to unravel, and power structures are reformulated on some precipitous fault lines.

The story here is almost ludicrous on one level, and the weirdness of having things revolve around selling chocolate may undercut some of the visceral impact that is obviously being aimed for. This is a film about moral turpitude and whether or not "rebellion" that results in acting exactly like the oppressors is in fact a rebellion at all, but writer and director Keith Gordon (adapting a novel by Robert Cormier) is arguably a bit too theatrical in both his presentational aspects as well as how he guided his actors. Glover is completely over the top throughout the film, channeling some kind of hyperbolic performance artist. Arguably a bit more nuanced are both Mitchell-Smith and Langham, though I'm not sure they're always helped by some florid writing. The film evidently departs pretty significantly from the source novel, which may cause umbrage in those familiar with Cormier's piece.

The Chocolate War Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Chocolate War is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Rewind Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As is typical with MVD releases, there's not really any technical information included in the packaging verbiage, but this is an MGM feature and my hunch is this may be an older master that hasn't undergone any significant restoration. The palette is a bit dowdy looking, as can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, often skewed toward brown, and a bit on the dark side. That said, there is still a fair amount of life in the saturation and general densities, and when lighting conditions allow, things pop reasonably well. Detail levels are generally very good, though can be diminished due to both the darkness and a pretty gritty grain field. There's recurrent though minor age related wear and tear on display. My score is 3.25.

The Chocolate War Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Chocolate War defaults to a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but my advice is to toggle over to the LPCM 2.0 Mono track, which, while not providing the spaciousness of the surround track, especially with regard to some really interesting source cues (whose licensing provided Gordon with some budgetary challenges), still has good fidelity and a solid accounting of all facets of the soundtrack. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Chocolate War Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Director Keith Gordon can be accessed under the Setup Menu.


• Interview with Director Keith Gordon (SD; 51:21) offers quite a bit of background on both Gordon and the film. This is kind of weirdly if slightly zoomed in (notice how Gordon's identifying subtitle in the piece is masked and the top of his head is missing from the frame).


• Trailers features The Chocolate War (HD; 1:51) along with trailers for other releases from MVD Visual.

Additionally, the keepcase houses a folded mini poster and packaging features a slipcover.

The Chocolate War Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A few months ago my social media feeds starting getting regularly populated by people talking about Kate Bush and Climbing Up that Hill, which got a significant (re?) boost in popularity due to it being used in the latest season of Stranger Things. Well, guess what? Keith Gordon got "there" decades earlier, since the Bush song is just one of several great additions to the soundtrack (Peter Gabriel is also featured prominently and gets a special thank you in the closing credits). The soundtrack here is a definite asset, though the film's sometimes over the top writing and, at least in some cases, performance styles may not mesh totally organically with what is really rather provocative assessment of fascism and conformity. Technical merits are okay (video) to very good (audio), and the commentary and interview very appealing, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.