shadegoten The movie made the book look terrible because The man who played Archie did not show the evil side and Brother Leon was not as good as he was portrayed in the book. The ending was changed and I do not think that it was as good as the ending in the book. Because the ending in the book is how life is sometimes and it really showed how a Catholic school can turn. I liked the original Ending better than the movie's ending because Archie showed how he really was. By the ending it showed that he thought he was god. He always said "I am Archie" after saying something that related to how he could do anything. And it forgot an important part where Archie implied that he does not believe in god. The Assigning of Obie was just terrible, I thought that Obie would hate to do that.

joelglevi I rarely write reviews here, but I had to put in a good word for The Chocolate War when I saw so few positive comments on the film. Simply put, if you are the right person who had similar experiences growing up, this movie will move you. You will not forget it. It is a low-budget film, and it sometimes shows. Some of the devices used to show the brutality and its emotional effect on the lead character are clumsy. But I have seldom been more affected by a film. Rather than say anything about the plot, I would prefer to discuss the themes that this movie presents so well. It is about the authoritarian impulses that lie deep in the human psyche. It shows how groupthink can destroy individuality and human dignity. It is about cruelty. When the lead character, Jerry, chooses to defy these conditions in his high school he comes face to face with some terrible truths about human behavior. The film's climax, of course, brings him in direct opposition to his classmates, and it might feel contrived, except that this film manages to bring the ugliness of humanity into sharp relief. If you take a chance on this film, you might not like it. Or, it might move you like few other films ever do.

wildchipmunk I respectfully disagree with the reviewer who said that "he (Jerry Renault) doesn't win in the end anyway." This was a moral battle -- Jerry Renault represented conscience moral choice fighting against the Vigils' frantic need to keep the corrupt but popular status quo. Jerry's will won... he did not sell chocolates. Other viewers may miss this important point: this story is not about "winning." This story is about the price we pay in order to do what is right. Cormier's story says living according to our own conscience often has a steep price -- but that it is a price infinitely worth paying.

Aussiesmurf An extremely low budget adaptation of Robert Cormier's coming-of-age novel hits most of the marks with accuracy. For the uninitiated, the plot concerns Jerry Renault, a freshman at a religious private school. He is drifting in an emotional vacuum since the death of his mother particularly due to the resulting emotional gulf between he and his father.At Jerry's school a secret society known as The Vigils plan various pranks and psychological games, known as assignments and given to various nervous freshmen such as Jerry. When a school chocolate sale becomes the focus of the Vigils and the staff, Jerry takes a seemingly futile stand against conformity that sets off many ramifications...The main things to praise about the adaptation are the acting by the various (mostly quite young) participants, and the tight script, which maintains a remarkable fidelity to the structure of Cormier's novel.MAJOR SPOILER!!!There has been much controversy concerning the ending to the movie, which is of the surface quite different from the novel. It is true that in the novel the villians go 'unpunished', while that is not the case in the movie. However, I would argue that the fate of Jerry, the protagonist is roughly the same. The point being that even if Jerry 'wins' the climactic fight, he has still really lost, because he has doomed himself by being a participant in a contest not of his making.Worth a look, but if you're studying the book at school, you'll need to read it as well.