A Clockwork Orange
I watched a fair amount of R rated movies before I turned
17 (one of my favorite films when I was younger was RoboCop), but my mother always refused to let me watch Stanley
Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange,
explaining that it wasn’t a typical blood-and-guts feature, and I should wait
until I was old enough to ‘get it.’
I devoured as much Kubrick as I could growing up, and
each time I discovered one of his masterpieces, such as Paths of Glory and Barry
Lyndon, it made me want to see Orange
even more.
I was 18 or 19 when I finally saw the film and I
immediately understood why it wasn’t a good idea to watch it when I was
younger. A Clockwork Orange is a
tour-de-force of disturbing, unforgettable images and ideas.
Our narrator, Alex (Malcolm McDowell in his career-best
performance) is a young man who enjoys rape, ultra violence, and Beethoven. You
know, the usual. He spends his time with his pals (‘droogs’) drinking drug-laced
milk and beating up the homeless, before venturing home to chill out to
classical music.
Alex is a sociopath and the society he lives in turns a
blind eye to his actions long enough for him to live this way for quite some
time. When he is finally caught by the police and thrown in jail, he is chosen
by a powerful political figure to take part in an experimental procedure that
is supposed to totally reform evil-doers into upstanding citizens.
The procedure is nothing short of extreme torture and the
outcome is not exactly what the powers-that-be had in mind for young Alex.
It’s impossible to take your eyes off the screen as Alex
narrates his story, and what a story it is. Because of the future slang Alex
and his droogs throw about, you had to rely mostly on context to get through Anthony
Burgess’ extraordinary 1962 novel; this however is not the case with the film,
which scales back much of the slang.
This film was banned in England for 27 years, which I
imagine has less to do with its cavalier depiction of rape and violence (a host
of other violent films were released in the 70’s) and more to do with the
overall tone of the picture. The notion that the government can be as cruel and
sadistic as a common street-tough is subversive enough to give some pause, not
to mention the film’s examination of behavior modification, redemption, and free
will.
There are no heroes in this film, no character to root
for, and that’s sort of the point.
The film is set in the future, but an exact date is not
given. These days, seeing images of record stores and music being played off of
cassettes gives the film a retro-future feel, which only heightens the
disorientation for the viewer.
Disorientation is a big factor in the film, and as such
the striking art direction and costumes are as important as the actors and
script. Kubrick’s decision to mostly use classical music for the film proved
very influential, as many disturbing images in various films have been set to
such music since.
The biggest difference I found upon viewing the film a
second time is I picked up on a lot of (very black) comedy that I didn’t catch
the first time I saw it, no doubt because I was blown away with the unrelenting
horror show.
Did I fully ‘get’ the film when I first saw it at the
tail end of my teens? No, of course not. I can say the same having seen it a
second time in my early thirties. I’m sure I’ll say the same the next time I’m
ready to go on this journey again…in another ten years.
Tomorrow’s film: A
Fish Called Wanda
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