A Clockwork Orange

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates
Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Burgess
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Year: 1971

Rating: * * * * 1/2  Stars       +       (Fan Bonus 1/2 )  Total: * * * * *

Sometime in Britain's future, young hoodlums engage in acts of random, ultraviolence. The story focuses on Alex (Malcolm McDowell) who's luck runs out and is sent to prison. There, he volunteers for an experimental treatment that would "cure" him of his violent ways. But not all goes according to plan.

If viewed for the first time, the violence may seem underwhelming by today's standards (which is a sad commentary unto itself) but make no mistake, this movie was extremely controversial for it's time. It inspired copycat violence and was banned in several countries. The films "ultraviolence" included drug induced acts of gang rape, home invasions, theft, assault and gang on gang fighting.  Naked statuettes of a dancing Jesus, graphic nudity adorning walls and hallways, large paintings of women spread-eagle and a wobbly scrotum statue all add to Kubrick's method of inducing a sense of the dehumanizing world that Alex and his droogs live in. If Alex has any redeeming quality, it is his appreciation, almost obsession, for the music of Ludwig Von Beethoven. And when one of the droogs acts out of line while listening to a woman sing Ode to Joy, Alex is quick to discipline him. The other droogs get together and conspire against Alex which leads to his arrest for rape and murder.

While in prison, he learns of an experimental technique that could cure him. The current Ministry is hopeful of this experiment as the burden of prison and prison population is becoming a burden on taxpayers. Over the course of the next two weeks Alex is treated to a sort of aversion therapy. He is forced to watch films depicting rape and violence while being chemically altered through drugs that make him violently ill. Thus the cure. By engaging in these acts he succumbs to great discomfort, which prevents him from acting on his impulses in the first place. Once released however, he comes across previous victims who seek to punish him in their own way, and Alex is unable to fight back.

A Clockwork Orange is told in the traditional Kubrick style, with detailed shots and a slow, building  pace. But it isn't boring. In fact it keeps you riveted to your seat from the opening shot till the end credits. The actors speak there dialogue in that sharp British pentameter where everyone talks loudly with a quick tongue. The film certainly isn't a cautionary tale about violence, in fact it glorifies it. There is almost a perverse guilty pleasure to ride alongside Alex and vicariously experience his adventures. He lives with an enviable freedom that decent people of society will never know. The perversity of this guilty pleasure is when we realize we begin to sympathize with Alex's plight. He is a monster, and should be destroyed. Yet, we sympathize when he is controversially stripped of his free will, and we're lead to feel a sense of a "happy ending" when the government admits their error and will return Alex to "normal."

Stanley Kubrick is undoubtedly a craftsman among directors creating one masterpiece after another, and with 4 academy award nominations,  A Clockwork Orange is no exception. 

SEE THE TRAILER: A Clockwork Orange