A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange
by Stanley Kubrick

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Movie Reviews of A Clockwork Orange

Movie Review: Being the adventures of a young man...
Summary: 5 Stars

A Clockwork Orange Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell, a-movie-to-see.com

Alex and his droogs arrive outside an isolated, hillside home. A woman in a bright red jumper answers the doorbell cautiously.

ALEX Excuse me, Mrs... will you please help, there's been a terrible accident.

She opens the door on the chain and peeps out.

ALEX My friend's lying in the middle of the road bleeding to death. Could I please use your telephone for an ambulance? Her husband, overhearing the desperation in his voice insists that she let him in.

The door swings open and the droogs don their phallic masks. They pulverize the writer, scissor the woman's jumper off, drop their drawers and proceed to gang bang her in full view of her husband, all to Alex's upbeat rendition of Singin' in the Rain.

Stanley Kubrick's striking imagery of Alex and his droogs night of ultra violence is one of the most disturbing sequences ever filmed. Its brilliance, however, is not in the horror of the images we're shown, but in the point-of-view. Through Alex's eyes, these despicable acts are perceived simply a night out with the boys.

Based on Anthony Burgess's novel, A CLOCKWORK ORGANGE imagines a future where gangs have run amok and liberals and conservatives alike leverage the fear of these uncivilized punks to their political advantage.

Malcolm McDowell's enigmatic hooligan remains one of the most unforgiving performances in cinema. He has his head held underwater in an uncut shot running over a minute while his body is bludgeoned with (fake?) billy clubs. A disappointed social worker (Name) spits in his face while informing him that his latest victim has died and he's to be charged with murder. McDowell's uncertain half grin, the cold stare of his mascaraed eye, the gleeful chomping of food as he's being spoon fed by a high government official, all performed with such cocksure bravado make his a standout performance in a must-see film.

I first encountered A Clockwork Orange as a late night show during my college days. Though I still have quibbles about the film's second act, where Alex serendipitously stumbles upon all those he has wronged, I was attracted to subsequent viewings by its prurient appeal.

Beyond the shock value, I've come to appreciate the film's rich and twisted sense of humor, much of which is played out in the film's score. Walter (now Wendy) Carlos of Switched-On Bach fame, creates synthesized Henry Purcell to represent the warped future of jolly old England. Alex masturbates to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Scherzo while fantasizing about gloriously violent images and the Ode to Joy is employed as background music to Alex's violence aversion therapy.

As a satirist, Stanley Kubrick was at the top of his form. Lolita, Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange were all drop-dead funny takes on deadly serious issues.

One of the funniest things about A Clockwork Orange isn't in the film. The British version of Anthony Burgess's novel contained a final chapter that had been truncated (inadvertently?) from the American version. Burgess's denouement shows Alex growing up and leaving his rebellious ways behind. Stanley Kubrick was an American who lived in England but happened to pick up a copy of the British writer's novel while in the United States. But for this unusual circumstance, A Clockwork Orange might have been about coming of age instead of coming of psychosis.