Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
A Clockwork Orange (1971), directed by Stanley Kubrick.
First review
I first saw this in the 1970s a few years after it was first released and I hated it. Just hated it. I must have changed because slowly over the years it has become one of my favorite films and is now on my desert island list.
Setting aside the assaults, rape, sadism and murder, it is a really funny film. People want to talk about what it means but miss what a rich dark comedy it is.
Times have changed, too, and people are perhaps inured to ultra-violence in films. Pornography is much more mainstream than in 1971. It was tectonically controversial at the time, but I don't know if new viewers will see it that way now.
On Blu-ray. Malcom McDowell and a film historian contribute a chatty commentary track, full of interesting details and background.
The film and the book have about 90% overlap. Actor Tom Hollander has a very nice audiobook reading. He makes the Nadsat slang intelligible.
Second review
Notes after the last of I don't know how many viewings:
We see a director operating at Peak Confidence.
It's as if he's gone beyond the desire to be outrageous or shocking. He has a vision and here is what the film of that looks like.
Does the absurd humor soften the ultra-violence? It may actually sharpen it: the brawl with Billyboy and gang is theater within a theater where they are raping a (very shapely; of course!) woman with drunken ballet moves. Which makes you think how horrific some fine arts stories are, made genteel and uplifted by the style of the art.
At first it's a clear morality tale: as bad as Alex is, he deserves the right to make moral choices with his own free will. This is the priest's position. Then we can leave the theater and have sober debates about the ethics of punishment and deterrence...
...but Kubrick constantly undercuts our attempts to make it a policy debate. Every stance seems absurd. Alex is irredeemable. What do we do with him now?
Everyone does real nudity here. No cups or protective pads.
Note Dim's berserker bliss when wielding his chain? That's scary.
See the obvious rear projection when they race down the road at night? It's supposed to be obvious. Why?
Alex and the droogies aren't psychotic, just out of control. Natural primates. This puts the film more in the juvenile delinquent genre rather than one about psycho-killers.
Alex finds bliss in the music of LVB. Is that in any sense redemptive? "I was cured" he says in the end, and keeps on going.
It always surprises me and makes me laugh: getting out of prison Alex finds his parents have taken in another one!
There are strong parallels with this plot and an episode of The Prisoner (1967): "A Change of Mind". Number Six fights with Village guards and is declared Unmutual. He undergoes (faked) brain surgery which makes him docile. After enduring abuse from some thugs he breaks conditioning and fights back.
You know the sexually explicit artwork the Catlady has on her walls? Some years later real art appeared that reminded me of that. Not quite so explicit. I can't remember the artist's name.
I've been calling married women "Missus" for years. Got it from Alex when he's trying to be polite.
There were copycat crimes after and Kubrick pulled it from the UK.
McDowell says: "I was born to play this part."
Available on Blu-ray with a commentary track by Nick Redman and Malcom McDowell. A wealth of great stories. Kubrick was open to ideas and McDowell points out the elements he contributed.
Warner has issued this more than once, but I believe it is always the same video encoding.
