Oh my brothers...what a film!

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 2007)

Twenty-five years on from its release, A Clockwork Orange has lost none of its power to shock and outrage. In this near-future setting the outlets for teenage enthusiasm are few and far between. Disenchanted, youths form ritualistic gangs, fight battles and engage in vandalism. Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) is the leader of just such a group, marked out by their preferences for phallic masks and boiler suits.
His select followers (known as droogs) are Dim (Warren Clark), Georgie (James Marcus) and Pete (Michael Tarn). On a typical evening they'll stop by the Korova for some milk-plus, to sharpen them up, before venturing into the urban jungle. On this particular night they don't have to travel far for a spot of "ultraviolence"; a rival gang are about to force a bit of the "old in-out" on a helpless young devotchka (girl). For the pure love of violence they decimate their rivals.
The element which elevates A Clockwork Orange above similar films is its bizarre juxtaposition of music (often classical) with violence. Images and sound pull in different directions, stimulating conflicting emotions (as Kubrick no doubt intended). On top of this, the profusion of erotic symbols forms a not very subtle subtext, taking in everything from the objet d'art murder weapon to the feverish coupling of medical staff. Kubrick filters all of this through camera trickery (slow-motion, unusual angles, fish-eye lens etc), heightening rather than subduing emotion. It's easy to see why A Clockwork Orange has divided critics - it's extremely graphic and unsettling...but its still a masterpiece film that deserves praise and admiration.